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Large-Scale Social and Behavior Change Communication Interventions Have Sustained Impacts on Infant and Young Child Feeding Knowledge and Practices – Results of a 2-Year Follow-Up Study in Bangladesh (The Journal of Nutrition, 148:10, 2018)

Sustained improvements in infant and young child feeding (IYCF) require continued implementation of effective interventions. From 2010–2014, Alive & Thrive (A&T) provided intensive interpersonal counseling (IPC), community mobilization (CM), and mass media (MM) in Bangladesh, demonstrating impact on IYCF practices. Since 2014, implementation has been continued and scaled up by national partners with support from other donors and with modifications such as added focus on maternal nutrition and reduced program intensity.

The authors assessed changes in intervention exposure and IYCF knowledge and practices in the intensive (IPC + CM + MM) compared with nonintensive areas (standard nutrition counseling + less intensive CM and MM) 2 y after termination of initial external donor support.

Conclusions: Continued IPC exposure and sustained impacts on IYCF knowledge and practices in intensive areas indicated lasting benefits from A&T’s interventions as they underwent major scale-up with reduced intensity.
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How has media programming supported polio eradication? (BBC Media Action Research Briefing, 2018)

This briefing synthesises findings from research conducted in the three countries – Afghanistan, Nigeria and Somalia – with a focus on Afghanistan. Research findings suggested that BBC Media Action’s programming provided listeners with accurate, trusted and clear information against misinformation and harmful rumours, increased knowledge on the requirement of multiple doses of vaccines and vaccination schedules, prompted discussion and dialogue in communities, garnered trust and confidence among caregivers through the use of doctors and religious leaders and encouraged parents to vaccinate their children by dispelling misconceptions about vaccinations.

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Modelling the effect of a mass radio campaign on child mortality using facility utilisation data and the Lives Saved Tool (LiST): findings from a cluster randomised trial in Burkina Faso (BMJ Global Health 2018;3)

A cluster randomised trial (CRT) in Burkina Faso was the first to demonstrate that a radio campaign increased health-seeking behaviours, specifically antenatal care attendance, health facility deliveries and primary care consultations for children under 5 years.

Methods: Under-five consultation data by diagnosis was obtained from primary health facilities in trial clusters, from January 2011 to December 2014. Interrupted time-series analyses were conducted to assess the intervention effect by time period on under-five consultations for separate diagnosis categories that were targeted by the media campaign. The Lives Saved Tool was used to estimate the number of under-five lives saved and the per cent reduction in child mortality that might have resulted from increased health service utilisation. Scenarios were generated to estimate the effect of the intervention in the CRT study areas, as well as a national scale-up in Burkina Faso and future scale-up scenarios for national media campaigns in five African countries from 2018 to 2020.

Evidence from a CRT shows that a child health radio campaign increased under-five consultations at primary health centres for malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea (the leading causes of post neonatal child mortality in Burkina Faso) and resulted in an estimated 7.1% average reduction in under-five mortality per year. These findings suggest important reductions in under-five mortality can be achieved by mass media alone, particularly when conducted at national scale.

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An evidence map of social, behavioural and community engagement interventions for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (WHO Policy Brief, 2017)

The Every Woman Every Child (EWEC) Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016–2030) calls for action towards three objectives: Survive (end preventable deaths), Thrive (ensure health and well-being) and Transform (expand enabling environments). The strategy recognizes that “women, children and adolescents are potentially the most powerful agents for improving their own health and achieving prosperous and sustainable societies”.

Social, behavioural and community engagement (SBCE) interventions are key to empowering individuals, families and communities to contribute to better health and well-being of women, children and adolescents. Policy-makers and development practitioners need to know which interventions work best. WHO has provided global guidance on some key SBCE interventions, and we recognize there is more work to be done as this will be an area of increasing importance in the era of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the EWEC Global Strategy.

This document provides an evidence map of existing research into a set of selected SBCE interventions for reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH), the fruit of a collaboration between the WHO, the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) and the International Initiative for Impact Evaluations (3ie), supported by other partners. It represents an important way forward in this area, harnessing technical expertise, and academia to strengthen knowledge about the evidence base.

The evidence map provides a starting point for making available existing research into the effectiveness of RMNCH SBCE interventions, a first step toward providing evidence for decision-making. It will enable better use of existing knowledge and pinpoint where new research investments can have the greatest impact. An online platform that complements the report provides visualization of the findings, displaying research concentrations and gaps.

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Dial ‘N’ for Nutrition? A Landscape Analysis of What We Know About m-Nutrition, m-Agriculture and m-Development (IDS Working Paper 481, 2017)

Child undernutrition is one of the most devastating realities in many parts of the world. Globally in 2015, 159 million children below the age of five years were too short for their age (stunted) and 50 million were too thin for their height (wasted). Inadequate nutrition in early childhood can have lifelong consequences, including poor physical and psychological health, and low educational attainment and employment opportunities.

Behaviour change of child carers is central to the effectiveness of many interventions addressing child undernutrition. For example, early and exclusive breastfeeding and the complementary feeding of infants between six and 23 months requires changes in feeding, caring and playing with children, as well as changes in the types and frequency of foods consumed and their preparation.

Agriculture is probably the sector with the most studies on the effectiveness of nutrition-sensitive interventions. For agriculture to become more nutrition sensitive, choices will need to be made about who controls resources, which crops and animals are farmed, the types of storage and processing patterns adopted, and the metrics used to assess interventions. All of these changes are embedded in long cultural traditions and are not necessarily straightforward to change.

The purpose of this paper is to assist would-be implementers and evaluators to understand the landscape they are operating in, so they can design nutrition and agriculture interventions that stand the greatest chance of working, and evaluation designs that stand the greatest chance of finding answers rigorously.

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