Alex Segbefia (right) with Mr. Robert P. Jackson with the new Good Life Campaign Document
What is your Good Life? Or what does Good Life mean to you?
Is it eating a balanced diet, exercising more often, becoming physically fit, having peace of mind, the absence of diseases, having healthy children or family or living a happy, healthier life?
Whatever the definition of your Good Life may be, it falls right within the intent of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) campaign launched five years ago captioned ‘Good Life’.
The Campaign initially conceived, developed and launched by the GHS in November 2010 promotes good health and positive lifestyle among Ghanaians.
By asking, what is your Good Life, the initiative encouraged self-reflection among individuals and communities while linking personal happiness to the practice of healthy behaviors like hand washing, sleeping under Insecticide Treated Mosquito Nets, and visiting the hospital during antenatal and supervised delivery.
The key intervention areas were maternal, newborn and child health; family planning, malaria prevention and case management, nutrition, water, hygiene and sanitation and when needed, support for risk communications for topics such as Cholera, Meningitis and Ebola.
The Good Life brand adopted a multi media campaign consisting of TV and Radio Spots and TV game show for its behavioral change initiative.
The campaign also used community mobilization targeting community leaders, traditional and religious leaders on the interventions such as washing hands, sleeping under ITN, exclusive breastfeeding, antenatal care and supervised delivery.
“Community mobilization was a strong component of the project, also there were mass media develop TV and radio content and airing them on radio and TV family planning and mosquito nets ‘aha ye d3’ and a game show on Good Life which had awards.
This encourage people to develop interest in the Good Life concept, and it allowed women, communities and women groups to be more engaged in the campaign,” said Edward Adimazoya, Deputy Chief of Party, Communicate for Health, implementers of the rebranded Good Life campaign.
First Goodlife campaign flyer
Impact of Good Life
By the close of the initial Good Life campaign significant improvements were recorded in the country’s health sector.
Dr. Gloria Quansah Asare, Deputy Director General, Ghana Health Service said the Good life message moved beyond merely giving information and instructions to engaging groups and communities on what constituted their ‘Good Life’ and the importance of people’s personal daily life experiences and aspirations and how attaining these were linked to Good Life.
First, Antenatal Care (ANC) attendance after the campaign increased from 97 per cent to 99.9 percent.
Also, the proportion of children under five sleeping under ITNs increased from 27 per cent to 37 per cent.
“Proportion of infants who received something other than breast milk the first three days after birth decreased almost by half from 36 per cent to 17.5 per cent,” she stated.
She said assessment done by the partners after the period showed that the number of people who have incorporated hand washing into their daily lives practicing it after before preparing food increased from 6 per cent to 9 per cent.
The Refreshed Good Life
Based on the evaluation results and recommendations from key stakeholders and with technical assistance from the USAID Communicate for Health project and partners, the Ghana Health Service began a process of refreshing and repositioning the Good Life as a unifying umbrella brand for all health interventions.
Mr. Adimazoya said the group was tasked to refresh and reposition the Good Life brand as an over arching brand for health communication of the Ghana Health service.
“This is because in the previous Good Life, the ownership of the campaign was tagged to the USAID, but this is a GHS initiative so as a result we had tried to ensure the positioning of the new Good Life within the Ghana Health Service as a consistent, recognizable brand that connects with broad sections of the Ghanaian population and with particular focus on life stages,” he said.
He further indicated that during the process of developing the concept, they realized that community members tended to relate good life to things like good health, peace of mind and happiness.
“So they said that if you are healthy and happy and you have peace of mind then you have good life and so these were the other arching themes that informed the rebranding of the new Good Life,” he mentioned.
In July this year the Refreshed Good Life campaign which seeks to build on the success of the previous Good Life campaign was launched with the USAID providing $10m funding for the project.
Mr. Robert P. Jackson, the US Ambassador to Ghana, who announced this during the campaign launch said the fund is expected to be channeled towards advertisement and education of the public on health and hygiene under the refreshed Good Life campaign.
The Minister for Health, Alex Segbefia unveiling the rebranded health campaign said improving healthcare is not enough to build a vibrant health system unless the people are empowered to access health services
“We need to motivate people to take control of their own health and encourage them to adopt healthy behaviours that would keep them and their families healthy and happy,” he said.
Dr. Quansah Asare said the new campaign looks at everyday things one can do at the different life stages from pregnant couples, care givers of children under five years, adolescents, young adults in relationships and the elderly to improve their health.
Mr. Edward Adimazoya, Deputy Chief of Party, Communicate for Health
It’s An Everyday Thing
Mr. Adimazoya noted that when the group went to the communities in the process of pre testing the brand, Good Life as a companion and Good Life as a guide became the dominate theme around the rebranding.
He stated that the community said that Good life is not the preserve of the rich but an everyday thing for ordinary people doing ordinary things that can protect them and enable them realize healthier happier, long lives and “so the hash tag of the refreshed good life is ‘it’s an everyday thing”.
“They are simple action that we can do every day that if communities adhere to them and practice them then society will healthier and people will be happy and they can live longer lives, she said.
“For example hand washing before preparing food, eating and after visiting the toilet are simple actions that can prevent people from getting an infection.
Early initiation of breast milk and exclusive breastfeeding brings a lot of benefits to the mother and child so this is what the refreshed good life is bringing the people,” she said.
“The refreshed Good Life is a trusted friend, faithful companion and a guide for healthier happier living, it will be the over arching brand for all health communication products and services,” she added.
Intended Impact
Mr. Adimazoya, said the response to the campaign has been fantastic with partners recording impressive results.
“There is a new enthusiasm from partners to embrace Good Health and Good Life for Health communication.
The partnership between Government through its health providers are also committed to ensure that the re launched good life makes the necessary impact and targets are achieved,” he said.
He said the funds for the next five years, will be used for multi media education campaign and advertisement as well as building the capacity of the Ghana Health service health promotion department.
“To be able to sustain social and behavioral change promotion in the country 61 per cent of money is to be invested in mass media documentaries, 6 national TV and 19 radio stations across the country airing messaging on TV and radio,” he said.
“Expectations are that we will make tremendous progress in terms of improving supervised delivery, increasing exclusive breastfeeding rate and proportion of pregnant women and children under five who are sleeping under ITNs and women who deliver in health facility.
We hope that at the end of the day the indicators that contribute to improved maternal newborn and child health and also general prevention of behaviors like malaria will improve in the long term,” he said.
Mr. Adimazoya added that the campaign will also be a new opportunity for all communities to actually own Good life and sustain it in the course of the rebranded Good Life project.
“It is time to embrace good life because once you are able to promote good life and practice the things that is offering you will have healthy life and your family will be happier and you can expect that people will live longer,” he concluded.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri