Background

Health provider behavior includes a range of actions such as interactions between clients and providers, facility management, and adhering to clinical protocols. These behaviors are the result of complex factors that can be both internal (such as attitudes, values, and beliefs) and external (such as supervisor support, access to professional development, and a supportive workplace environment) to a particular provider.

Interventions aimed at provider behavior change (PBC) represent evolving efforts to improve health outcomes among the health service providers’ clients. PBC works to recognize providers more holistically as people, with their own needs and interests. It also works to understand the diverse influencing factors that affect facility-based provider behavior, and how providers interact with one another. PBC also helps us to understand the complex reality of service delivery more comprehensively and in various contexts.

To develop better insights into provider behaviors, the USAID-funded Breakthrough ACTION project, in collaboration with global stakeholders, created the Provider Behavior Ecosystem Map and a subsequent Provider Behavior Change (PBC) Toolkit. MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience adapted parts of the toolkit for use in the fragile and conflict-affected settings where the project works. These challenging settings have a different set of constraints, logistics, and operations that sometimes warrant adaptations of tools and approaches used for health service delivery.

This page serves as a focal point for the resources that have been adapted for MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience work. Global implementing partners working in similar fragile contexts can review, adapt, and apply these resources as needed. Linked below are materials, including seven videos, that describe how to adapt and implement the Breakthrough ACTION Provider Behavior Change Toolkit.

MOMENTUM Adaptations

Given the unique challenges and the factors influencing services in two of the project’s partner countries, Sudan and South Sudan, MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience began exploring ways to adapt the Breakthrough ACTION PBC Toolkit to better suit the needs of health service providers working in these countries in voluntary family planning, reproductive health, and maternal, newborn, and child health (FP/RH/MNCH).

For example, during a session with Sudanese counterparts in early 2023 to introduce the materials, it became evident that traditional training methods such as PowerPoint presentations and handouts were insufficient to convey the complexity of the toolkit, the adaptations needed, and its applicability in real-world scenarios. The Sudan team requested a clearer roadmap.

Separately but similarly in South Sudan, staff were orienting stakeholders from the South Sudan Nurses and Midwives Association and the USAID Mission on the toolkit, when it became apparent that visual aids were needed to allow the team to more readily grasp the toolkit’s overarching concepts and understand how they could be applied at ground level.

To help implementing partners prepare for possible needs and to troubleshoot potential issues that might arise, additional videos from the field on lessons learned during training and implementation will be uploaded to this webpage as activities roll out in MOMENTUM Integrated Health Resilience partner countries.

After viewing the videos, feel free to comment as needed. Send any feedback to info@momentumihr.org.