AI.COMM ended November 30, 2009, and AI-BCC ended December 31, 2009. These projects aimed to provide worldwide avian influenza behavior change communication responses to rapidly-changing circumstances. Activities were implemented quickly, suited to the emergency nature of avian influenza outbreaks and attuned to the specific needs of individual countries and regions. AI.COMM provided long-term technical assistance and training in Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Kenya, Nepal, and Pakistan with shorter-term assistance and training in Ghana, India, Malawi, Togo, and Zambia. AI-BCC's major country programs were carried out in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam. Click here for more details and to download the reports.

AED's Hygiene Improvement Project announces The Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Improvement Training Package for the Prevention of Diarrheal Disease.  The tool is designed to help organizations worldwide add WASH activities to their current programs or to start a diarrhea reduction program. It supports the training of local outreach workers to promote WASH practices. The tool includes: 1) a step-by-step guide for training community outreach workers, 2) a reference guide for outreach workers to use during and after training, and 3) a compendium with examples of visual aids. The training package is available online. Or to request a CD, email: hip@aed.org.

Watch highlights of an Expert Panel on Social Media and Development. Find out how the new media provide opportunities for vulnerable groups to become co-creators of their own social media. Discussion of innovative ideas by AED Executive Vice President William Smith. Highlights of CDC activities and resources shared by Janice Nall, Director of the Division of eHealth Marketing at the National Center for Health Marketing, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Held July 17 at AED.  Download the Smith and Nall PowerPoints.

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.