Uganda 2012: Evaluating the Behavior Change Communication Campaign for Affordable Medicines Facility malaria in Uganda

The Affordable Medicines Facility malaria (AMFm) is a two year pilot project being implemented in Uganda since 2011. The project aims to improve the availability, affordability, market share and use of artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) for treatment of malaria in Uganda by providing subsidized ACTs in the public and private sector. ACTs were adopted as the first line treatment for malaria in 2006, however due to their low availability and high cost uptake remained low. The Uganda Malaria Indicator Cluster survey (MICS 2009) shows that only 14% of children under five with fever were treated with ACTs. In July 2012 the Ministry of Health contracted the Uganda Malaria Partnership team led by PACE working with Uganda Health Marketing Group (UHMG), Malaria Consortium (MC) and Communication for Development Foundation (CDFU) to implement the behavior change campaign (BCC) for this project. This study aims to evaluate the BCC campaign. The evaluation will be done through structured interviews with caretakers of children under five in areas where BCC activities were done. In-depth interviews with the target communities and implementors will also be done.

抗疟普惠药品基金（Affordable Medicines Facility malaria，AMFm）是2011年起在乌干达实施的为期两年的试点项目。本项目旨在通过在公共与私营部门提供补贴后的青蒿素联合疗法（artemisinin combination therapies，ACTs），提升乌干达境内抗疟用青蒿素联合疗法的可及性、可负担性、市场占有率及临床使用率。2006年，青蒿素联合疗法被确立为疟疾一线治疗方案，但由于其可及性不足且价格高昂，临床应用普及率始终偏低。乌干达2009年疟疾指标群抽样调查（Malaria Indicator Cluster Survey，MICS 2009）数据显示，在发热的五岁以下儿童中，仅有14%接受了青蒿素联合疗法治疗。2012年7月，乌干达卫生部委托由PACE牵头的乌干达疟疾合作团队，联合乌干达健康营销集团（Uganda Health Marketing Group，UHMG）、疟疾联盟（Malaria Consortium，MC）与发展传播基金会（Communication for Development Foundation，CDFU），为本项目实施行为改变宣传活动（behavior change campaign，BCC）。本研究旨在对此次行为改变宣传活动进行效果评估，评估方式包括在活动开展区域对五岁以下儿童的看护者开展结构化访谈，同时也将对目标社区及项目执行方进行深入访谈。