Family Health > Success Stories

BASICS: Better nutrition -- healthier children

Malnutrition contributes to more than 50% of deaths among children under 5 in Benin, and throughout sub-Saharan Africa. To tackle this issue and improve child survival in Benin, since late 1997, USAID has supported a highly successful nutrition intervention with the technical support of BASICS. The objective of the activity is to encourage and enforce healthy behaviors. A three-pronged strategy focuses on health systems strengthening, community mobilization activities, and an innovative multi-media education program to improve the quality and increase the demand for health services.

The unifying element of the strategy is the development of a minimum package of activities, or ‘MinPak,’ tools and messages used and applied by individual caretakers, communities and health agents to change or enforce key behaviors related to nutrition. The key behaviors targeted through the intervention include exclusive breastfeeding of infants up to 4 to 6 months, appropriate complementary feeding with continued breastfeeding, improved consumption of Vitamin A and iodized salt, and improved nutrition for ill or malnourished children.

After three years in the Borgou Region of Northern Benin, the USAID/Benin-funded BASICS activity has contributed to improving the quality of care offered by 567 health agents, and has led to more mothers adopting healthy behaviors that increase the odds of their baby’s survival. In BASICS intervention areas, more than 80% of mothers surveyed were able to cite key messages related to early initiation of breast-feeding, giving colostrum to newborns, and the introduction of complementary feeding between 4 and 6 months. In 2000, more than 60% of children were receiving Vitamin A supplements on a regular basis, and more than 50% of infants under 4 months were exclusively breast-fed, up from 19% according to the 1996 DHS, two key factors contributing to improved child survival.

BASICS began by signing an agreement with regional medical officers and political authorities, soliciting their support from the project’s inception. Staff members of the health region and health facilities were involved in project design, elaboration, pre-testing, implementation and follow-up. The work was accomplished by the MOH staff members themselves, leading quickly to their ownership of the concepts and activities. Health agents were trained in key child survival messages and transferred this information to mothers and other family members. Materials, such as flipcharts, brochures and health cards, were designed to meet the needs of a mostly illiterate audience, based on images rather than words. Other behavior change communication techniques included radio spots and interviews, cassettes and traditional forms of communication, such as theater, songs and stories based on traditional proverbs.

The BASICS program will be ending in the Borgou in 2001, but the knowledge and skills adopted and applied by health agents and the regional health staff indicate that activities, and the impact of these activities, will continue. USAID/Benin will continue to support many of those activities through its major bilateral health activity in the Borgou, PROSAF (Promotion Intégrée de Santé Familiale). The MOH has adopted MinPak as a key element of its national nutrition strategy, developing an action plan and leveraging funds from other donors to sponsor workshops to adapt materials for use throughout Benin. USAID/Benin’s nutrition intervention has had a critical impact on the lives of Benin’s mothers and children.

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