Health – C4D Network

Blood, Sweat and Tears: Community Redress Strategies and their Effectiveness in Mitigating the Impacts of Extractives and Related Infrastructure Projects in South Africa: 2008-2018 (Natural Justice, 2019)

February 20, 2019

“Blood, Sweat and Tears” was developed based on research conducted on communities’ responses to mining and the extractive industries in South Africa. The report tracks strategies used by communities (and their civil society partners and others) to challenge components of these developments and operations and mitigate the impacts that the communities experience – impacts that range from water contamination, erosion and dust, to displacements and disrupted livelihoods.

The research finds that although litigation was the preferred strategy in the past, communities are increasingly mobilising around other strategies, including social audits, petitions, compliance monitoring, community trainings, public campaigns etc.

Click here for full report.

Register now: IV Annual Conference: What Works? Social and Behavioral Approaches to Boost Children’s Well-Being (Zurich, Switzerland)

February 18, 2019

Based on their research and development projects across the world, experts from different fields will present new insights into behavioral and social change, focusing on community engagement and empowerment to improve child development.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) outline an ambitious agenda for the global development community over the next decade. Achievement of these goals are critical to improving the lives of millions of communities, families and children across the world, particularly among marginalized population groups.

The Center for Child Well-being and Development (CCWD) and UNICEF are working together to advance in the Sustainable Development Goals by undertaking high quality research and generating rigorous evidence on effective social and behavioral change; and is also working in the implementation of community-based strategies and interventions to support national and local governments. The annual conference 2019 aims to contribute to these efforts.

Click here to register and for full details.

Engaging Community Members to Adopt Effective WASH Practices for Nutrition (SPRING brief, 2017)

February 18, 2019

The first 1,000 days, the period from pregnancy to two years of age, are critical for early childhood development. During this time, children are especially vulnerable to stunting, an irreversible condition that can result in lifelong cognitive and physical deficits. In 2011, stunting, or low height-for-age, affected more than 165 million children worldwide (Black et al. 2013). Mounting evidence indicates that poor water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) practices contribute significantly to stunting. Improving WASH practices reduces diarrheal disease, environmental enteric
dysfunction, and soil-transmitted helminth (parasitic worm) infections. Combined, these reductions contribute to decreases in stunting.

In Ghana, stunting is a particularly serious challenge. According to the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS), 19 percent of Ghanaian children under the age of 5 are stunted. Among the regions with the highest rates of stunting is the Northern Region, where the prevalence is 33 percent (GDHS 2014). WASH practices in many parts of the country contribute to this problem. The majority of households (93 percent) do not treat their drinking water by any method (GDHS 2014), while only 14 percent use an improved toilet facility that is not shared with other
households (GDHS 2014). In the two weeks preceding the 2014 GDHS survey, the overall rate of diarrhea reported among children under five was 12 percent, a figure which tends to vary seasonally.

The SPRING project is a seven-year USAID-funded cooperative agreement to strengthen global and country efforts to scale up high-impact nutrition practices and policies and improve maternal and child nutrition outcomes. SPRING has worked for three years in Ghana, where USAID has tasked it with helping to prevent stunting and reduce anemia in the Feed the Future Zone of Influence in 15 districts in the Upper East and Northern Regions.

SPRING’s “WASH 1,000” strategy promotes focused, evidence-based WASH behaviors to eliminate common fecal-oral contamination pathways in children during the first 1,000 days. The strategy takes an integrated, multi-sectoral approach, simultaneously delivering products, services, and information to households with pregnant and lactating women and those with children under two (i.e., 1,000-day households).

Click here for full brief.

Mobile phone-delivered reminders and incentives to improve childhood immunisation coverage and timeliness in Kenya (M-SIMU): a cluster randomised controlled trial (The Lancet, Volume 5:4, PE428-E438, 2017)

February 18, 2019

Background: As mobile phone access continues to expand globally, opportunities exist to leverage these technologies to support demand for immunisation services and improve vaccine coverage. The authors aimed to assess whether short message service (SMS) reminders and monetary incentives can improve immunisation uptake in Kenya.

Methods: In this cluster-randomised controlled trial, villages were randomly and evenly allocated to four groups: control, SMS only, SMS plus a 75 Kenya Shilling (KES) incentive, and SMS plus 200 KES (85 KES = USD$1). Caregivers were eligible if they had a child younger than 5 weeks who had not yet received a first dose of pentavalent vaccine. Participants in the intervention groups received SMS reminders before scheduled pentavalent and measles immunisation visits. Participants in incentive groups, additionally, received money if their child was timely immunised (immunisation within 2 weeks of the due date). Caregivers and interviewers were not masked. The proportion of fully immunised children (receiving BCG, three doses of polio vaccine, three doses of pentavalent vaccine, and measles vaccine) by 12 months of age constituted the primary outcome and was analysed with log-binomial regression and General Estimating Equations to account for correlation within clusters.

Click here for full study.

Adding a Nutrition Behavior Change Communication Component to an Early Childhood Development Intervention in Malawi (IFPRI Discussion Paper 01804, 2019)

February 18, 2019

In Africa south of the Sahara, including Malawi, an estimated 61 percent of children below the age of five are developmentally challenged as a result of poverty, malnutrition, and lack of early stimulation and learning opportunities. Early-childhood development (ECD) programmes, which aim to improve young children’s survival, health and development are considered one of the most cost-effective human capital investments that can be provided by governments particularly when compared to subsequent schooling interventions. Community-based Childcare Centres (CBCCs) are a key element of ECD programs in Malawi. CBCCs serve 3–5-year-olds by promoting holistic child development through provision of safe and stimulating environments, access to health and nutrition services, and capacity building for parents and caregivers. In Malawi, there are an estimated 11,000 CBCCs across the country, but many are not functional. Lack of food provision at the CBCC leads to high rates of absenteeism and is considered one of the main reasons for the closing of CBCCs. To address this, Save the Children in partnership with Chancellor College-University of Malawi developed an integrated agriculture-nutrition package that was implemented alongside the standard ECD component. This included activities to promote nutritious food production and consumption, promotion of optimal feeding and caring practices, and engagement with parents in pre-school meal planning and preparation.

The Nutrition Embedded Evaluation Program Impact Evaluation (NEEP-IE) cluster randomized control trial aimed to assess the effectiveness of implementing an agriculture and nutritional intervention through CBCCs in Malawi. This newly published paper presents the impact results of this control trial, focusing on child development outcomes of pre-school children during a 12 months intervention period.

Click here for full paper.