UNILEVER PROJECT

Unilever partnered with Society for Family Health and Population Services International in 2014 to pilot a three­month Sunlight Village Intervention in three states of Nigeria (Imo, Ogun and Anambra) with a health objective to drive behaviour change and increase the use of a basket of products containing brands from both Unilever and SFH. Health objectives and corresponding products promoted by this pilot included Diarrhea prevention, Diarrhea treatment and Oral care.
Based on the successes recorded during the 2014 pilot, Unilever decided to scale up the Sunlight Village Intervention to 10 communities in Enugu and Oyo. In addition to the Sunlight Village Intervention, the Shakti + model  piloted in Imo and Oyo states. The nutrition component was incorporated into the intervention during the six month scale up in 2015.
Unilever  introduced selected SFH brands into its supply chain, and their network of distributors created access among rural retailers. SFH  also promoted the health benefits of a subset of these products through activities designed to grow market category. These were carried out through the use of IPC agents in the Sunlight Village and the Shakti+ ladies in the Shakti + sites.
The main focus of the Shakti + was behavioral change communications. This centred on nutrition as the core message. Society for Family Health (SFH)  liaised with Growing Business Foundation (GBF) on this project.
• About 27 facilities were franchised and linked to the ARAYA scheme with the aim of providing primary health care services. Three (3) of these facilities have been activated on the Araya Scheme, with 7 already enrolled but at different stages of activation.
• The project championed the rebranding process of the SFH social franchise network from Happy Mothers’ Network to Healthy Family Network and ensured the new franchise logo was duly registered. AHME project also collaborated with the WHP to brand 103 hospitals in the Social Franchise network as part of its branding activities.
• About 113 facilities in the Healthy Family Network have benefitted from the Safecare entry assessment with all of them now working on their quality Improvement plan (QIP). AHME project also promotes health care financing through the promotion of linkages to medical credit and health insurance schemes. As a result of this 15 loans have so far been d