Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

Programs

Community-Based Growth Promotion (CBGP)

last updated Feb 20, 2012

Overview

Implementing organization: 
Uganda Program for Human and Holistic Development (UPHOLD)
Legal Status: 
Private (not-for-profit)
Year Launched: 
2002
Stage: 
No longer active
Income Level of Target Population: 
Bottom 20%

Funding

Primary Source of Funding: 
Donor
Funders: 
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Summary: 

The CBGP program supports the village health team (VHT) approach with an aim of bridging the gap between health service delivery and the household and also trains and equips community growth promoters with tools to use in supporting the community to meet the health needs of children.

Program goals/rationale: 

To prevent moderate and severe malnutrition in infants through tailor-made promotion of improved feeding and care practices as only targeting nutrition interventions to severely malnourished cant be effective in preventing most of the mortality associated with under-nutrition.

Key program components: 

Community growth promoters work in teams of two or three within their village gathering information about feeding practices, postnatal care, immunization, use of insecticide-treated nets, danger signs and home care for sick children, child spacing and HIV counseling and testing covering 30–40 children per team. In many parishes they collaborate with their parish peers to conduct the monthly sessions and are supported by two trainers/supervisors from the sub-county who collaborate with district-level trainers.

Promotes weigh and track the growth of children under the age of two on a monthly basis in the community. At monthly village weighing sessions, and through other means such as home visits, community growth promoters identify children with inadequate growth, counsel caretakers on the causes of poor growth, and agree on actions to be taken to restore children to adequate growth and health.

Program history: 

Uganda has high infant and under-five mortality rates and most child deaths can be prevented, as malaria, diarrhea, and pneumonia remain leading causes of morbidity and mortality, and 60 percent of child death is, directly or indirectly, attributed to malnutrition. The relative risk of death increases as the severity of malnutrition worsens; however, mild to moderate malnutrition has been reported to account for more than 80 percent of these deaths (World Bank, 1996). Its against this background that the Community-Based Growth Promotion (CBGP) program was established to empower communities to prevent malnutrition among children under two years of age and to serve as a catalyst for solving problems of illness, poor feeding practices, or other childcare concerns at the community and household level.

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