ABOUT JORDAN
Jordan is on the verge of a quantum leap in its development process. Under the forward looking leadership of HRH King Abdullah and HRH Queen Rania, Jordan is decentralizing its national government and expanding democratic participation, creating a vibrant and active private sector and becoming a regional leader in public access to and use of information technologies for social development. The Kingdom is developing a long-term national health strategy with priorities shifted toward greater attention to family health and preventive health behaviors.
ABOUT JHCP
The Jordan Health Communication Partnership (JHCP), a USAID funded project, led by Johns Hopkins University has been active in the Kingdom since July 2004. The use of Behavior Change Communication (BCC) plays a key role in the tools and techniques that are developed. In turn, accurate and reliable resources are made available and reachable to be used and create enabling environments for positive behavior change.
All campaigns are unified under one national brand, "Our Health, Our Responsibility" ("Seh-et-na Mas-oo-lee-yet-na") and target all members of the community. Campaign methodologies are evidence based and the information and messages are disseminated through the use of both conventional and non-conventional methods. JHCP launched the first Arabic Health Web Portal ever, that provides reliable and accurate health information for all members of the family.
Communication campaigns include messages that focus on:
- Family Planning as a part of Life Planning, "My Life is More Beautiful" ("Ha-ya-tee Ah-la")
- Passive Smoking, "Your Smoking, or Their Lives?" ("Tad-khee-nek em Ha-ya-ta-hum")
- Regular Physical Activity, "Move More" ("Ta-har-rak Ak-thar")
Partnerships with Jordanian Ministries and organizations of the public and private sector play a major role in the effectiveness and sustainability of the project’s short-term and long term goals and presence accordingly.
Overall, efforts aim to create a health-conscious Jordan, where citizens plan for their future through making decisions based on accurate health information through the aid of reliable informative resources.
VISION & MISSION
We envision a health competent Jordan in which communication empowers individuals, families, communities and institutions with the knowledge, skills and resources needed to work together to improve and sustain health. The more health competent a society and its members are, the more positive health outcomes will be. Individual, social and structural change come together to produce health-competent societies; thus improving health behavior requires change at all levels of society.
We work together to achieve a health competent Jordan in which communication is used to:
Create...
...Universal access to accurate and consistent health information
...Demand for quality services that are integrated, client-centered and oriented toward continuity of care
...A role for everyone to play in achieving good health.
Empower...
...Households to understand and work to produce good health at every stage of life
Help...
...Build and sustain community partnerships which advocate for and create local environments that support healthy behavior
...Private and public sector organization work together to support healthy lifestyles
...Coordinate health-related programs so that they are mutually reinforcing
...Advocate for policies that remove barriers to and motivate coordinated efforts toward health improvement
...Institutionalization and sustain dynamic mechanisms and systems of health communication
COMPONENTS
Seven components work together to reach as many Jordanians as possible through a variety of communication channels.
Advocacy
The contribution of this component to the program is through creating an enabling, supportive environment for a normative ideological change to support the messages we need to disseminate and motivate change. Advocacy is a cross-cutting theme that flows through every other component as it streamlines from the lowest levels, such as informal community leaders, to the media and to the highest levels reaching parliamentarians. Through advocacy, leaders are able to create, shape and support the ideas of our campaigns and become norm-setters.
Community Mobilization
The “National Network for Family Health” has been established through this particular component to build the capacities of key community workers and trainers to become focal points for action in their communities with regards to health. All main campaign messages are filtered down to the grassroots of the community through different mobilization activities. A Healthy Lifestyle Resource Kit was produced as a resource to support the network’s programs, activities and plans. Communities are encouraged to take responsibility and action towards better health services and opportunities on the local level, especially in poverty pocket areas.
Education
The efforts placed in this component are based on the principle that interventions in one generation will bring benefits to successive generations. The activities here act as cross-sectional multi-sectored levels in the field of health education through additions in the school curriculum and textbooks, extracurricular activities and supporting materials such as posters and brochures. Passport to My Future is considered a successful example of a non-conventional approach to spreading all campaign messages in one attractive entertaining yet educating package. It is the project’s belief that children have the ability to practice healthy behaviors from a young age and can therefore work as double agents spreading their knowledge and practices to their peers and family and community.
ICT
The project uses ICT for health education and promotion. ICT is a key medium to target its general public audience to communicate and spread health messages through the internet and any new and available technologies. The first Arabic Health Web Portal was created and then launched in April 2006. The web portal addresses different topics for all life stages and includes interactive health tools. It has received local and regional recognition and awarded the Gold Pan Arab Web Awards 2006 and Jordan Web Awards 2006 for Health Services. In addition, technical assistance is continuously provided to www.healthcomm.gov.jo , a Jordanian Ministry of Health web portal with an online archive system used as a library for media materials .
Media & Marketing
Media and marketing work hand-in-hand, in a synergetic way, to spread the campaign messages and understandings to the general public. The majority of interactions with the general public are through ATL promotion, BTL promotion and print media. Other interventions such as sitcoms, press conferences and other publicity events also contribute to the activities lead within this component. Strong partnerships with the private-public-NGO sectors act as stepping stones towards implementing the overall strategy which focuses on providing cross-cutting, strategic, integrated BCC activities. Media and Marketing ensure that the path paved by the other components is followed by the audience.
Research
The research component can be considered the foundation and support structure of the project. Activities, materials and the development of different tools are all based on research findings as well as field-testing and are accordingly monitored and evaluated with the aid of further thorough follow-up research and analysis. Research can be considered our ruler, where we adjust our efforts according to the findings of the measurements. In addition, the pretesting of all IEC materials is considered an essential step in the development of all of our print materials.
Youth & Young Adults
This component has taken special interest in university students and has created Hayatee Ahla teams to spread health knowledge about life planning and family planning to their peers through different atypical activities. These teams act as pivotal points in their communities acting as sources of influence to others during their crucial decision-making time in their lives
CONTACT US
Tel: +962-6- 5689950
Fax: +962-6- 5689950 ext 220
Email: info@jhcp.com.jo
PO Box 942143, Amman 11194 Jordan
Contact JHCP Staff Directly
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