As part of its avian influenza work in Southeast Asia, AED staff have created and cultivated an unlikely superhero, SuperChicken, a broad-breasted rooster with a familiar red cape and strong opinions about the best ways to stop the spread of bird flu. In both Cambodia and Laos, SuperChicken has appeared in public service announcements, on posters, and in booklets where he demonstrated the “hows” to preventing the avian influenza virus from appearing and spreading.  To view materials featuring SuperChicken, visit http://www.avianflu.aed.org/asia.htm and click on Laos or Cambodia.

In August 2006, AED was awarded a contract with the World Bank to provide strategic communication courses to World Bank Group Project Managers and technical staff.  AED is working in collaboration with its subcontractor, The Communication Center, to redesign and deliver four communication course-media trainings; stakeholder consultation; art and science of strategic communication; and political risk communication.  This is a joint project with the Social Change Group's Center for Social Marketing and Behavior Change. 

The Champion Community Initiative grew from an idea piloted in Madagascar in the mid-1990s into a systematic approach to achieving development goals. It was developed by AED and has been applied in various countries to diverse health, environment, and education challenges. View AED's new publication for a full description of the basic principles of the Champion Community Initiative, different variations of the approach carried out in Madagascar, Ethiopia, and Jordan, and results achieved.

AED's Sports for Life project recently published the innovative youth peer education workbook, Extra Time, that uses the game of soccer and its global stars to convey critical HIV prevention and life skills messages to young people and prompt them to share what they’ve learned with friends and family. Extra Time has been adapted for various sports-based HIV prevention programs and for diverse target audiences in countries across Africa.

On December 5th, 2005, The AED Center for Global Health Communication and Marketing was awarded a second task order under the TASC2 Media IQC to help combat Avian Influenza (AI) in Southeast Asia. Under this task order, the Center will assist the USAID Mission in Indonesia to develop and implement a behavior change communication program over the next three years. Similar to the Center's first AI task order for work in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, the communication program will involve a multi-channel effort to create awareness among small farmers of AI risk behaviors, practical preventive measures, and how to respond to cases in animals or humans.

On September 30, 2005, The AED Center for Global Health Communication and Marketing was awarded a new contract by USAID to help combat the threat of a global flu pandemic. The new project -- Avian Influenza/ Behavior Change Communications (AI/BCC) -- is part of the U.S. Government's emergency response to avian influenza and will support the development and rapid launch of a 12-month communication campaign in three Southeast Asian countries -- Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The campaign will target key audiences in the 3 countries -- including poultry farmers, consumers, and health workers--with messages on risk behaviors for contracting AI, simple measures to prevent it, and how to recognize and manage cases of AI in animals or humans.

Each year 2 billion people face health threats because they are exposed to crisis situations. Relief, recovery and long-term development efforts that address the needs of populations affected by epidemics, genocide, and natural disasters like the December 26 tsunami depend on the effectiveness of communication efforts for their success.

"Health Communication in Fragile States and Humanitarian Emergencies" was the topic of a day-long symposium held July 25, 2005, at AED, in conjunction with the George Washington University Center for Global Health.