BDN programmes and the effect of medical students' interventions to promote child health in Sudan

Basic development needs (BDN) is an approach to community development that aims at improving quality of life through the full involvement and self-management of communities, supported by intersectoral collaboration. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of BDN implementation in an area of Sudan on aspects of a programme implemented by students from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Gezira. The study revealed that the joint implementation of BDN programmes and students' interventions brought about marked improvement of family and community practices as well as greater reduction in the incidence of all assessed major childhood illnesses (diarrhoea, cough and fever) than when the students' programme was implemented alone. BDN implementation also facilitated the retrieval of good quality community-based data.