Center for Communication Programs Pakistan

Center for Communication Programs Pakistan (CCPP) is a nongovernmental and nonprofit organization having a rich heritage of over 30 years of dedicated work in providing technical leadership in strategic social and behavior change communication design, programming, research, and capacity-strengthening. The center in Pakistan was registered in 2011 under the Societies Act XXI of 1860 after the successful completion of a pioneering health-sector project called “Pakistan Initiative for Mothers and Newborns,” by the team of professionals working for Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Communication Programs.

The Center for Communication Programs in Pakistan, under the umbrella of Johns Hopkins University, has been actively pursuing development communication goals through social and behavior change communication since 1991. The decision to register Center in Pakistan is based on a policy of decentralization of units that generate enough capacity to manage mega projects independently. There are 13 such country-based organisations, including Center for Communication Programs Pakistan, affiliated with Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

An independent local organization, Center draws on Johns Hopkins University’s global resources through a Memorandum of Understanding that allows it to work jointly on mutually agreed projects. The Advisory Board of Center has a mix of national and international communication experts. Center, therefore, offers a unique opportunity to donors and partner organizations to work with a local organization having global roots and expertise.

Mission

Center’s mission is to save lives, ensure basic human rights and improve overall wellbeing, especially of disenfranchised, disadvantaged and vulnerable sections of population, through social and behavior change communication, research, advocacy and capacity strengthening.

In order to fulfill its mission, Center is actively pursuing following goals:

• Conceptualize, develop, implement, and evaluate strategic communication interventions for saving lives, ensuring basic human rights and improving wellbeing;

Influence dialogues, collective action and individual behavior for social uplifting through evidence-based communication, advocacy and social mobilization interventions that are culturally appropriate and locally sensitive;

• Enhance access to information and the exchange of knowledge to better meet social and societal challenges;
• Conduct research to guide program designs, evaluate impact, test theories and advance knowledge in development communication;
• Improve and strengthen the subject of development communication through research, publications and knowledge sharing; and
• Create a core mass of development communication experts in public, private and not-for-profit sectors at national, regional and community levels.

Areas of Expertise

• Capacity Development
• Social and Behavior Change Communication
• Research and Evaluation
• Advocacy and Media Relation
• Knowledge Management

Major Projects

1. Health Communication Component of the USAID-Funded Maternal and Child Health Program

Center for Communication Programs Pakistan, along with Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs as lead, Mercy Corps and Rural Support Programmes Network, is implementing the Health Communication Component (HCC) in focus districts of Sindh, Pakistan. HCC is a six-year, $24.5 million Component funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and is part of the Maternal and Child Health Program.

The Component envisions a Pakistan where individuals, families and communities advocate for their own health, practice positive health behaviors and engage with a responsive health care system. HCC will address family planning and maternal and child health, such as timely antenatal care attendance, in the Sindh province in Pakistan. The Component is working to create enabling environments for change, bolster social networks and empower community members with a sense of self-efficacy. Activities include social and behavior change communication (SBCC) interventions, such as designing and developing an aspirational health communication campaign and an effective package of SBCC interventions at the individual and household levels; advocating for more investment in and coordination of behavioral programming; and, strengthening the capacity of local agencies to implement SBCC activities.

2. Empowerment, Voice and Accountability for Better Health and Nutrition

Provincial Health and Nutrition Programme (PHNP), funded by the UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID), aims at achieving improved Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (RMNCH) services and nutrition results in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces over the period of five years (2014 to 2019). The objective of the programme is to increase the demand for better RMNCH services and nutrition and empower citizens to hold the service providers to account. Women, girls and children with the greatest needs and from underserved backgrounds are prioritized. The sub-programme "Empowerment, Voice and Accountability for Better Health and Nutrition" complements the supply-side interventions by increasing demand and strengthening mechanisms for greater and effective citizen participation and monitoring of health services. Center, along with Palladium Pakistan, is implementing the project and responsible for designing and implementation of the media and communications component.

3. Sukh Initiative's Strategic Communication for uptake in Family Planning Services and Practices in Karachi

Sukh Initiative is a multi-donor funded, family planning and reproductive health project, primed by Aman Health Care Services and implemented through a consortium of local and international organizations. The project is implemented in a selected one million underserved peri-urban population of the city of Karachi in Sindh. It is aimed at increasing modern contraceptive prevalence rate by 15 percentage points. The vision of the Sukh Initiative is to empower women to access contraception by increasing knowledge and improving quality of services and expanding the basket of choices, contributing to the goals of Family Planning 2020.

Sukh Initiative is a five years project (November 2013 – August 2018) having a multi- pronged approach with door-to-door services by Lady Health Workers (LHWs) and Community Health Workers (to LHW non-covered population) and provision of quality Family Planning/Reproductive Health services both at public and private health care facilities. The project engages youth (12-16 years) both at community and at secondary schools to mentor them for responsible adulthood with life skilled base initiative. A 24/7 availability of Youth and Family Planning (FP) helpline service provides counselling and referrals in addition to a follow-up mechanism. Center, through a partnership agreement, is leading the strategic communication component of the Sukh Initiative, both in terms of contributing towards the overall program objective and to support external communication activities.

4. Development of Advocacy material on Oral Cholera Vaccine for the World Health Organization

The objective of this project is to develop Advocacy Material on Oral Cholera Vaccine for the World Health Organization's (WHO) Regional Headquarters of the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Cholera is a global public health problem and it mainly affects the poorest and the most vulnerable populations who live without the access to safe water and proper sanitation. Center, as part of this assignment, will design and develop a range of advocacy material to support WHOs prevention efforts against Cholera.

5. Design and development of a Corporate Social Responsibility Portfolio for Jazz

Center is providing support to Mobilink Pakistan in designing and developing a portfolio on corporate social responsibility (CSR) portfolio for Jazz. The portfolio will cover all thematic areas, i.e. education, health, environment, disaster relief, of Jazz holistically within the overall CSR strategy of Jazz. In addition, important financial figures for the jazz foundation and GRI data will also be documented. In addition to a printed publication, Center will also develop a digital projection of the key elements of Jazz CSR activities to be portrayed through animation, photographs, video shoots and voiceover. An HTML layout of the same is also part of the assignment at the later stage of this partnership.

6. Comprehensive Three-Year C4D Strategy on Violent against children for UNICEF Jordon

The overall objective of the assignment is to design a comprehensive communication for development (C4D) strategy for the child protection programme with an aim to influence positive attitudes and behaviours of target/participant groups against the use of violence against children and women at institutional, individual and community levels. The assignment also includes development of action plans by liaising with all involved stakeholders including relevant ministries, NGOs, CBOs and media bodies (press, social media and audio-visual). In addition to developing a C4D strategy addressing the issue of violence against children in Jordan in all situations, Center will also be conducting a situational analysis on violence against children in Jordan and map potential opportunities to implement C4D strategy based on available data. Part of the assignment also includes developing and implementing C4D capacity development training module for UNICEF's partner organisations in Jordan.