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AIDSMark Interpersonal Communication (IPC) Toolkit Now Available

In December 2005, with support from USAID, AIDSMark at PSI launched an Interpersonal Communication (IPC) Toolkit. This interactive CD-Rom provides the information and tools that PSI program planners will need to design an IPC program focused on high-risk groups, including commercial sex workers, mobile populations, injecting drug users, uniformed services personnel, and men who have sex with men.

IPC is a form of communication that takes place between a trained agent and a member or several members of a specific target population. The primary goal of IPC programs is to promote behavior change by engaging target groups in activities that address barriers to adopting healthier behaviors and focus on increasing risk perception, and improving skills and self-efficacy to make healthier behavioral choices. The IPC Toolkit has three primary components:

• A manual that outlines issues to consider and a step-by-step process to follow when designing an IPC program.
• Two case studies of PSI IPC programs in Nigeria and India .
• Sample materials drawn from successful IPC interventions, trainings, or that address specific high risk target groups from all over the globe.

Using the P Process* series of steps in strategic communication, the manual provides specific information about how to apply these steps to IPC program design. There are specific sections of the manual that focus on how to assess IPC organizational capacity, how to select target groups, participatory approaches to program design, how to design IPC materials including guides, manuals, trainings, and outreach media materials, and how to integrate IPC activities into existing programs. The manual also focuses on developing effective monitoring and evaluation strategies to assess the impact of IPC programs.

As IPC programs are likely to be quite different depending on context, target group, and risk behavior, the case studies serve to provide examples of ways in which these steps were enacted into actual programs in Nigeria and India . Nigeria ’s “Make we Talk” program conducts HIV risk reduction IPC activities with sex workers, transport workers, youth, and uniformed service personnel including the military and the police. Working in 12 port communities, India ’s “Operation Lighthouse” program addresses varying HIV/AIDS behavior change issues among sex workers, truck drivers, fishermen, and other migrant laborers. Each case study presents a different example of how IPC programs can be developed.

Finally, the sample materials are meant to serve as examples from which ideas about trainings, program concepts, behavior change messages, and outreach activities can be drawn. Taking advantage of the information and tools on this CD, program planners can learn from the experience of others, design new effective IPC programs, and improve the quality of existing IPC programs. For more information, please contact: Jessica Greene at jgreene@psi.org

* Health Communication Partnership, December 2003. “The new P-process steps in strategic communication.” Baltimore : Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Communication Programs, & Health Communication Partnership.