Population Council - Kenya (Kangwana, Austrian, Muluve, Mbushi); independent consultant (Soler-Hampejsek); Bocconi University (Maddox); Columbia University (Sapire); African Population and Health Research Center (Wado, Abuya); Population Services International, Kenya (Koech); Middlebury College (Maluccio)
"The study adds to the evidence on whether and how multisectoral interventions that include adolescent-friendly services are able to reduce sex and pregnancy for girls."
The majority of adolescent births occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs); 2014 data from Kenya, for example, indicate that one in every five girls between 15-19 years is either pregnant or already has a child. Some multisectoral interventions that address multiple areas and that are able to target overlapping vulnerabilities have been shown to be effective in reducing early pregnancy. This study examines the longer-term impact of a two-year (2015–17) multisectoral programme, the Adolescent Girls Initiative-Kenya (AGI-K), on early sexual debut and fertility in Kibera, an urban informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. (For more data from AGI-K, see Related Summaries, below.)
<div class="field button"><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0262858" target="_blank">Click here to read the article online or to download it in PDF format (25 pages).</a></div>
PLoS ONE 17(2): e0262858. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262858. Image credit: Population Council
"Communicating ethically centres on one key question - who has power?....Communicators in the end child marriage movement are responsible for ensuring the storytelling process is a source of power for contributors..."
<div class="field button"><a href="https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/learning-resources/resource-centre/guidelines-for-ethical-communications-around-child-marriage-principles-best-practice-and-tools/" target="_blank">Click here in order to download the guidelines and the tools in PDF format.</a></div>
English, French, Spanish (guidelines); English (tools)
70 (English guidelines); 66 (French guidelines); 67 (Spanish guidelines); 26 (tools)
Girls Not Brides website, January 4 2023; and email from Emma Sadd to The Communication Initiative on January 10 2023. Image credit: Illustration by María Ponce
"...we must explain to people why child marriage threatens the lives, wellbeing and futures of girls. That is why it is illegal. The message is clear and simple."
Developed by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), this e-course introduces learners to behavioural drivers and the role they play in influencing behaviour. It uses the example of child marriage to illustrate concepts and principles, but the lessons gained can be applied to other sectors and issues, and the course can benefit anyone with an interest in behavioural drivers and social and behaviour change (SBC).
English; French
Email from Alessia Radice to The Communication Initiative on January 4 2023. Image credit: ©UNICEF
Breakthrough ACTION, ideas42 (Haqqi, Sridharan, Zimmerman); Breakthrough ACTION, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (Acosta, Ogunbi, Idiong, Aiyenigba); U.S. Agency for International Development (Inyang, Oyedokun-Adebagbo, Tchofa, Diallo); U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (Mtiro); Nigeria National Malaria Elimination Programme (Okoronkwo)
"[T]he feedback and perspectives shared by providers...suggested that providing information alone was unlikely to change behavior, as many of those who failed to follow guidelines already understood the requirement to test for malaria before treating clients."
In Nigeria, there is a risk that healthcare providers may overdiagnose and overtreat malaria. This article describes Breakthrough ACTION's initiative to improve fever case management in Nigeria by encouraging providers to conduct malaria parasitological tests for every patient presenting with fever or a history of fever, to provide malaria treatment only to those who test positive for malaria, and to assess nonmalaria clients for other potential causes of fever.
<div class="field button"><a href="https://www.ghspjournal.org/content/10/6/e2200211" target="_blank">Click here to read the article online or to download it in PDF format (6 pages).</a></div>
Global Health: Science and Practice 2022 | Volume 10 | Number 6. https://doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-22-00211. Image credit: Curt Carnemark / World Bank via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Breakthrough ACTION, ideas42 (Haqqi, Sridharan, Zimmerman); Breakthrough ACTION, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (Acosta, Ogunbi, Idiong, Aiyenigba); U.S. Agency for International Development (Inyang, Oyedokun-Adebagbo, Tchofa, Diallo); U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (Mtiro); Nigeria National Malaria Elimination Programme (Okoronkwo)
"[T]he feedback and perspectives shared by providers...suggested that providing information alone was unlikely to change behavior, as many of those who failed to follow guidelines already understood the requirement to test for malaria before treating clients."
In Nigeria, there is a risk that healthcare providers may overdiagnose and overtreat malaria. This article describes Breakthrough ACTION's initiative to improve fever case management in Nigeria by encouraging providers to conduct malaria parasitological tests for every patient presenting with fever or a history of fever, to provide malaria treatment only to those who test positive for malaria, and to assess nonmalaria clients for other potential causes of fever.
<div class="field button"><a href="https://www.ghspjournal.org/content/10/6/e2200211" target="_blank">Click here to read the article online or to download it in PDF format (6 pages).</a></div>
Global Health: Science and Practice 2022 | Volume 10 | Number 6. https://doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-22-00211. Image credit: Curt Carnemark / World Bank via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
PMI Breakthrough ACTION Project, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, or CCP (Babalola, Kumoji, Awantang, Toso, Van Lith, McCartney‑Melstad, Hunter); Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital (Oyenubi); Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (Tsang); National Malaria Control Programme, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (Bleu); National Malaria Control Programme, Yaounde, Cameroon (Achu); U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Yaounde, Cameroon (Hedge); PMI, CDC, Freetown, Sierra Leone (Schnabel); PMI, CDC, Atlanta, United States (Cash); PMI Breakthrough ACTION Project, CCP, Yaounde, Cameroon (Nkomou); PMI Breakthrough ACTION Project, CCP, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (Dosso); National Malaria Control Programme, Freetown, Sierra Leone (Lahai)
"The findings suggest that a social and behaviour change strategy based on the ideation model is relevant for increasing consistent ITN use and can inform specific strategies for each context."
There is increasing recognition of the role of sociodemographic, ideational (psychosocial), and household factors as significant predictors of use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) to prevent malaria. There is evidence that exposure to social and behaviour change (SBC) interventions has led to increased net use in many African countries. This multi-country analysis uses a multilevel analytic approach to describe variations in consistent use of ITN among men and women of reproductive age in Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, and Sierra Leone. The goal is to identify the ideational variables significantly associated with consistent net use in the three countries, with the ultimate purpose of informing malaria SBC programmes.
<div class="field button"><a href="https://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12936-022-04384-3" target="_blank">Click here to read the article online or to download it in PDF format (14 pages).</a></div>
Malaria Journal 21, 374 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-022-04384-3. Image credit: Andre Roussel, USAID, via Pixnio (free to use CC0)
PMI Breakthrough ACTION Project, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, or CCP (Babalola, Kumoji, Awantang, Toso, Van Lith, McCartney‑Melstad, Hunter); Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital (Oyenubi); Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (Tsang); National Malaria Control Programme, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (Bleu); National Malaria Control Programme, Yaounde, Cameroon (Achu); U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Yaounde, Cameroon (Hedge); PMI, CDC, Freetown, Sierra Leone (Schnabel); PMI, CDC, Atlanta, United States (Cash); PMI Breakthrough ACTION Project, CCP, Yaounde, Cameroon (Nkomou); PMI Breakthrough ACTION Project, CCP, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (Dosso); National Malaria Control Programme, Freetown, Sierra Leone (Lahai)
"The findings suggest that a social and behaviour change strategy based on the ideation model is relevant for increasing consistent ITN use and can inform specific strategies for each context."
There is increasing recognition of the role of sociodemographic, ideational (psychosocial), and household factors as significant predictors of use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) to prevent malaria. There is evidence that exposure to social and behaviour change (SBC) interventions has led to increased net use in many African countries. This multi-country analysis uses a multilevel analytic approach to describe variations in consistent use of ITN among men and women of reproductive age in Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, and Sierra Leone. The goal is to identify the ideational variables significantly associated with consistent net use in the three countries, with the ultimate purpose of informing malaria SBC programmes.
<div class="field button"><a href="https://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12936-022-04384-3" target="_blank">Click here to read the article online or to download it in PDF format (14 pages).</a></div>
Malaria Journal 21, 374 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-022-04384-3. Image credit: Andre Roussel, USAID, via Pixnio (free to use CC0)
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
"What if we provided more broad protection against multiple types of misinformation instead of chasing individual pieces of misinformation?"
For UNICEF, social listening to detect vaccine hesitancy goes beyond digital communication or tracking rumours or misinformation that spread on social media. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a lot of offline conversation, whether through the media or WhatsApp groups among religious leaders, friends, and communities. This presentation from the Sharing Learning from Polio SBC: Misinformation, Social Data and Conflict side event at the 2022 International SBCC Summit examines UNICEF's infodemic management strategies, which are designed to support demand for all vaccines.
<div class="field button"><a href="https://www.poliokit.org/sites/default/files/2022-12/6.Sharing%20learning%20from%20polio%20SBC_Surangani_immunization%20demand.pdf" 0="s:6:"a:0:{}";" target="_blank">Click here for the 15-page PowerPoint presentation in PDF format.</a></div>
Poliokit.org, January 6 2023. Image credit: UNICEF
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
"Qualitative research is a fairly quick and effective way of gaining actionable insights into how caregivers perceive our activities."
In this presentation, delivered at the Sharing Learning from Polio SBC: Misinformation, Social Data and Conflict side event at the 2022 International SBCC Summit, Ross McIntosh presents the findings of research the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) did early in 2020. The qualitative research looked at perceptions of polio vaccines in the wake of the COVID-19 emergency in Cameroon and Ethiopia. (See Related Summaries, below, for access to the research.)
<div class="field button"><a href="https://www.poliokit.org/sites/default/files/2022-12/4.SBCC%20Presentation%20Ross.pdf" target="_blank">Click here for the 7-page PowerPoint presentation in PDF format.</a></div>
Poliokit.org, January 5 2023. Image credit: UNICEF
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Mozambique
"...it was the first time that while polio case has been discovered after such a long time....[W]e were concerned whether there would be questions from the communities. So we were prepared to answer these as part of the social mobilization and the pre campaign door to door preparation of the communities, which had to be done."
On May 15 2022, a case of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) was reported in Mozambique - the first in that country since 1993. Mozambique was also affected in 2022 by a concurrent outbreak of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2). These troubling outbreaks are the focus of this presentation, delivered at the Sharing Learning from Polio SBC: Misinformation, Social Data and Conflict side event at the 2022 International SBCC Summit.
<div class="field button"><a href="https://www.poliokit.org/sites/default/files/2022-12/3.Social%20data_MOZ_Keitan.pdf" target="_blank">Click here for the 7-page PowerPoint presentation in PDF format.</a></div>
Poliokit.org and World Health Organization (WHO) website, both accessed on January 5 2023. Image credit: UNICEF Mozambique