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Stories + Data = Change: The Evidence on Storytelling for Global Health (Washington D.C, USA)

Personal storytelling motivates and inspires us, but it can also be a compelling tool within professional communities, used to strengthen networks and improve collaboration. In the context of global health, stories help us interpret essential data, assigning people and faces to the numbers. But how do we balance stories and data, two powerful tools, and even combine them to strengthen programs and foster collaboration among practitioners?

This half-day event, organised by Knowledge for Health (K4Health) Project and FP2020, will feature storytellers and those who study the impact of storytelling. Attendees will learn about the Family Planning Voices initiative, which has created a vibrant community of family planning professionals who learn from each other by sharing their own stories. Speakers will cover such topics as the effect of stories on our brains, evidence-based methods to measure the impact of storytelling, and storytelling as a tool to improve critical knowledge sharing.

This event is geared for professionals working in all levels and areas of global health and development.

Digital Health for Social and Behavior Change: New technologies, new ways to reach people (HIPs Brief, USAID, 2018)

Using digital technologies—such as mobile phones, computers, or tablets—to convey information and messages as part of an evidence-based multichannel social and behavior change (SBC) strategy may contribute to promoting, adopting, and maintaining healthy sexual and reproductive behavior. This brief summarizes the current state of evidence in this rapidly changing field. (A companion brief reviews digital applications aimed at supporting providers and health systems.)

People in developed and developing countries are spending more time on digital devices. Smartphone ownership and Internet use are increasing rapidly among adults in most emerging and developing economies, where nearly half the adult population reports owning a smartphone or using the Internet at least occasionally. Digital technologies have the potential to provide accurate information to individuals when and where they need it. Making information available through digital applications may also reduce the time and cost related to seeking or receiving information through more traditional sources, such as print or interpersonal communication.

Use of digital technologies to support healthy sexual and reproductive behaviors is one of several promising “high impact practices in family planning” (HIPs) identified by a technical advisory group of international experts. A promising practice has limited evidence, with more information needed to fully document implementation experience and impact. The advisory group recommends that these interventions be promoted widely, provided they are implemented within the context of research and are carefully evaluated in terms of both impact and process.

Click here for full brief.

Mass Media: Reaching audiences far and wide with messages to support healthy reproductive behaviors (High Impact Practices in Family Planning Brief, 2017)

Mass media programming in reproductive health can influence individual behaviors by providing accurate information, building self-efficacy, and promoting attitudes and social norms that support healthy reproductive behaviors. This brief describes the evidence on and experience with mass media programming in family planning. The distinguishing characteristic of mass media programs, relative to other social and behavior change (SBC) interventions, is that they reach a large audience—often national in scope—with consistent, high-quality messages, primarily through TV and radio (e.g., public service announcements or advertisements, talk shows, or serial dramas). Some mass media programs also use ancillary print materials. Approaches that rely on digital technologies, such as mobile devices and social media, are not covered in this brief.

Programs frequently use mass media as part of a package of interventions to influence the individual, family, peer group, and/or community simultaneously. Mass media should be linked with other SBC approaches, such as interpersonal communication or community group engagement, and/or investments in service delivery improvement for greater impact.

Click here for full brief.

Mobile 4 Reproductive Health (m4RH) Toolkit (FHI 360 2016)

The Mobile 4 Reproductive Health (m4RH) toolkit provides information and tips from FHI 360’s work in mobile technology for health over several years and is intended to share lessons learned as well as facilitate replication of this SMS-based family planning and reproductive health information service. The toolkit includes an overview of m4RH, recent demographic and use data gathered through routine system use and from several studies, sample messages, costing data and a description of message development and adaptation process.

Addressing AMA and HP Pregnancies – A Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy (HTSP) Implementation Kit (HC3 2016)

Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy (HTSP) is an under-utilized approach to family planning (FP) and maternal and child health (MCH) education, counseling and services to help families have planned pregnancies at the healthiest times of their lives for the best outcomes for mother and child. Although many FP and MCH programs promote birth spacing, HTSP elevates the role of spacing between pregnancies, rather than births, and stresses the impact on maternal, neonatal and child health.

HTSP activities and research to date have focused on the first two approaches in this list: delaying pregnancies until after age 18 and spacing pregnancies at least 24 months after the preceding birth. However, a recent HC3 desk review  revealed that little to no work has focused on social and behavior change communication (SBCC) around the last two themes: pregnancies in women aged 35 and older (of advanced maternal age, or AMA) and women having five or more (high-parity, or HP) births.

HC3 conducted qualitative research around the drivers and determinants of AMA and HP pregnancies in Togo and Niger, and pretested approaches to address them using SBCC. HC3 then developed this implementation kit (I-Kit) to help program managers emphasize and include AMA and HP pregnancy risk information in their existing FP and MCH programs.

The HTSP I-Kit is designed to help program managers address the risks of pregnancies among women aged 35 and older (of advanced maternal age, or AMA) and women having five or more births (high-parity, or HP) in their family planning or maternal and child health programs.

The I-Kit is divided into two parts:

  • Sections to help review the local data, apply SBCC approaches to design a strategy, integrate AMA and HP into FP and MCH programs, develop an action plan, adapt SBCC communication materials, and prepare a monitoring and evaluation plan.
  • Adaptable SBCC communication materials, including: counseling guides for providers/CHWs; a provider poster; client brochures; guides for working with community-based groups, researchers and journalists; and infographics.

Click here for full details and access to kit.

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