Breakthrough ACTION is an eight-year USAID-funded global project that accelerates the use of social and behavior change (SBC) through evidence-based tools and processes that encourage the adoption of healthy behaviors, while addressing structural barriers and underlying social and gender norms that prevent uptake of services and positive health practices.
Breakthrough ACTION shows how integrating social and behavior change (SBC) into health services improves care quality. SBC enhances client-provider interactions, promotes healthy behaviors, and strengthens community-facility links. It focuses on trust, empathy, and client education, enriching care experiences. This approach engages communities, improves provider behavior, and promotes accountability, enhancing health service quality and accessibility for better outcomes.
Case Example: Improving the Experience of Care for Mothers, Newborns, and Young Children Through Compassion and Empathy in Tanzania
In partnership with the Community Partnership for Respectful Care (CPRC) in Tanzania, Breakthrough ACTION implemented a multifaceted intervention to improve the experience of care for postpartum mothers and their children up to one year of age through compassion and empathy. Evaluated in six CPRC-supported private sector faith-based health facilities, the intervention involved compassionate leadership training, self-care practices for providers, client feedback mechanisms, and a recognition system for compassionate care. The project conducted an evaluation with intervention and control sites with providers and clients to assess the intervention's impact with final results expected soon. By focusing on mutual empathy, the initiative aims to enhance both quality of care for clients and improve provider well-being, contributing to global insights on provider behavior change and compassionate care practices.
Featured Video: Understanding the Factors That Influence Provider Behavior: The Provider Behavior Ecosystem Map
This video is part of a series of tutorial videos introducing key provider behavior change (PBC) tools. This video is the first in the series. It takes you through how you can use the Provider Behavior Ecosystem Map to explore and understand the factors that influence provider behavior, using an illustrative situation as well as a real-life example.
Featured Resources
- Behavioral Barriers and Solutions for Child Feeding During and After Illness
- Blueprint for Applying Behavioral Insights to Malaria Service Delivery
- Contraceptive Discontinuation Toolkit
- Mothers Time Tool for Community Health Workers
- South Sudan Provider Behavior Change Toolkit
- WABA Provider Behavior Change for Improved Family Planning Service Delivery
Lessons Learned
- Adopt a holistic approach that addresses interconnected factors influencing provider behavior and service quality, incorporating social and structural determinants of health.
- Integrating SBC into health system strengthening efforts enhances sustainability, resilience, and ensures equitable access to care, particularly for marginalized populations.
- Co-creating solutions with providers and clients ensures interventions are practical, contextually relevant, and inclusive.
- Fostering compassion and empathy has benefits for both clients and providers, including higher levels of satisfaction, reduced burnout, and improved health outcomes, but for compassion to thrive it must be embedded throughout the health system.
- Provider motivation increases when activities go beyond knowledge and skills building to address the emotional and environmental challenges they face.
- Centering trust as the foundation for service delivery increases accessibility and use of services, improves client-provider interactions, encourages behavioral adoption and maintenance, builds confidence in the health system, and improves health outcomes.
- Incorporating tools and processes that improve service flow and organization or reduce wait times can address systemic barriers that impact care quality.
- Empowering clients through active participation in decision-making, streamlined service navigation, and norms shifting activities improves their experience of care.
- Implementing continuous feedback mechanisms improves provider accountability and service delivery responsiveness to client needs.
Thought Leadership
- Applying a behavioral science lens to maternity care in Liberia: How scarcity, salience, and structural factors impact likelihood of facility delivery
- Elevating Social and Behavior Change as an Essential Component of Family Planning Programs
- Six Recommendations for Provider Behavior Change in Family Planning
- When Knowledge Is Not Enough: Applying a Behavioral Design Approach to Improve Fever Case Management in Nigeria
Online Courses
- Applying Human-Centered Design to Improve Nutrition Programmings [English] [French]
- Building Trust and Empathy Around COVID-19: A Client-Centered Communication Approach [English]
- Interpersonal Communication and Counseling: Improving Dialogue About COVID-19 Vaccination and Other Sensitive Topics [English] [French]
- Social and Behavior Change for Sexual and Reproductive Health Service Delivery [English] [French]
This Adobe Express page is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of Breakthrough ACTION and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
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