An event to reflect the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Social and Behaviour Change Communication Project Ujjiban’s efforts in making people conscious of their health took place at Radisson Blue Dhaka Water Garden on Wednesday, according to a press release.
Dr Md Anwar Hossain Howladar, secretary of the Health Services Department of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, was present as the chief guest on the occasion.
Special guests including Miranda Beckman, acting director of the Office of Population, Health and Nutrition (OPHN) and other senior USAID officials were present during the event.
Reflecting on their journey, the USAID Ujjiban project disseminated its learnings from over the past five years of implementation and set the stage for the development of more successful and innovative projects to continue advancing Bangladesh’s health outcomes.
Few of the key recommendations put forward by the project based on lessons learned was to harness coordinated messaging across multiple channels to surround people with uniform information, take into account key influencing factors of health behaviour such as self-efficacy, couple communication, gender equity and social norms to create lasting change, and continue utilizing health workers to reach women and girls with information on modern contraceptive method use and menstrual hygiene management.
Speaking at the event, Dr Md Anwar Hossain Howlader, secretary, Health Services Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), said: “There is no substitute for social and behaviour change communication activities to achieve the objectives of the 4th Health, Population and Nutrition Sector Program. Only through communication for social and behaviour change, we can increase community involvement, remove social stigmas, motivate lifestyle changes to prevent diseases, and encourage people to avail health services. USAID’s Ujjiban Project has played an important role in building the foundation for all this over the past five years.”
Miranda Beckman, USAID’s acting director of the Office of Population Health and Nutrition, reiterated the United States’ commitment to supporting the government and its partners to build a country where women and men, and girls and boys can make healthy choices for themselves and their families.
She also emphasized on collective action by all to foster development.
“Development cannot be ensured only by governments and foreign aid. We must create room for the private sector and other non-traditional donors to join us in our work to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” she added.
At the same time, she emphasized the collective action of all men and women and girls and boys to make healthy life choices for themselves and their families and to accelerate development.
USAID’s Ujjiban Project worked towards increasing the adoption of healthy behaviours and health-seeking behaviours, focusing on four areas – maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health, family planning, nutrition, and tuberculosis.
In collaboration with the MOHFW, strategic partners and the private sector, the project implemented health promotion interventions for its priority audiences in Chittagong and Sylhet divisions.
More than 350 participants — including USAID officials, senior and field level officials of the MOHFW, project staff, development partners’ and media representatives — attended the event.
