Author: Susan Thomas

Envisioning the Future of Extension

Posted on by Susan Thomas

Introduction

The Feed the Future Developing Local Extension Capacity Annual Community of Practice Convening took place in Washington, D.C. on March 4-5, 2020. The event was co-organized by DLEC, a USAID funded project led by Digital Green in partnership with International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS), AgReach (University of Illinois), and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM). There were 65 in-person and online participants from 16 countries. 

Participants discussed “What will extension look like 10-20 years from now? What will change or won’t? What are we already learning that relates to that future?” To this end, the organizers called for inputs and competitively selected speakers, who presented using formal talks, panel discussions, lightning inputs, and a poster session. Abstracts and presentations are available here. In addition, recordings of some panels are available here.

The keynote speaker, Robynne Anderson (President of Emerging Ag) spoke about the future of food systems. She stated we need extension systems fit for the purpose that works territorially with local experts but using a systems perspective. Technology allows us to share timely, multidirectional, relevant information with feedback loops. Extension has gone through ups and downs of political support; thus, proponents must sharpen the dial, develop durable solutions, show outcomes, and intersect what we are doing with global conversations such as the 2021 World Food Systems Summit.

 

Themes

Maura Barry (Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the United States Agency for International Development) spoke about the Agency’s journey to self-reliance and the need to measure success differently and crowd in collective resources using a multisectoral strategy. She also spoke about how engaging with the private sector can help build resilient extension systems. Rob Bertram (Chief Scientist at USAID BFS) stated that knowledge is key to food security and development. We need more convergence between agriculture and nutrition – the human face of agriculture – and USAID now has a Chief Nutritionist.

Panellists discussed the need for ethical professional private sector extension providers and the role of the public sector for convening and providing guidance. We need public-private partnerships and strengthening partnerships involves identifying key players, capacity building, professionalization and certification, elaborating codes of conduct, and creating national platforms. Producer organizations are key as providers and users of extension services. 

We need to build resilient market systems; thus entrepreneurship is important. We need to expand the definition of extension beyond production. Youth are key in this. We need to understand and take advantage of market opportunities and incentives to engage youth as providers and recipients of extension services. Not every young person is an entrepreneur; they need the right mindset and soft skills. Prioritize revenue-generating services over technical skills. If you have a quality product people will pay.

We should also not talk about youth (or women) without talking about the community in which they are situated. Social dynamics should be the focus of programs. Thus trust and commitment are key, according to Paul McNamara from AgReach.

Relatedly, we should strengthen the systems in which extension is situated. Systems strengthening is nuanced and complex. A unique dataset from the Strengthening Agriculture and Nutrition Extension (SANE)/AgReach at University of Illinois and IFPRI provides evidence on extension systems strengthening in Malawi. SANE is a story about scale, engaging 150 local platforms benefitting five million people. When the system works, it brings harmonization, access to services, and resources. Stakeholders see the value in the platforms and there is a change in mindset by farmers, government, and nongovernmental organizations. A key takeaway is the need to focus on the meso level: the middle level of bureaucracy.

In the future, extension will require a strong value proposition. We must learn to tell our story better, as the State of California has with a series of value statements for extension. This means we must envision the future of extension evaluation and use innovative insights at the nexus of futures research and extension evaluation.

In addition, big data can help with this; data “on” and “for” farmers, coupled with viable business models, can enhance extension as a medium of resources and by supporting system linkages; however, it is not a silver bullet. We must digitize data to speak to context-specific needs and be committed to data transparency and continuity. Only then can we ensure that the data generated by research and practice feed into sound policies and strategies that reflect ground reality and are implemented by organizations that are closest to where smallholder farmer needs are.

 

Summary

The discussions showed that at the macro level there remain multiple global and national priorities that will require an effective extension and advisory services if they are to be achieved — food security, poverty reduction, stability, resilience, and natural resources and environmental conservation. Little optimism as to future availability of funding for extension was evidence, underscoring the point above about the need to actively speak up about extension.

At the meso and micro level, extension seems to be effective only when it is responsive to client (farmer) interests and farm-level conditions. In future, all farmers must be seen as clients, and we need more public-private partnerships.

Current future-looking activities were presented – often private sector-based. These: (a) operate as necessary to obtain continued funding from the sale of inputs or purchase of a product or from donor programs; (b) have limited scale of operations; and (c) seem to lack mechanisms to either align services to meet national/global development objectives or to respond to client demands.

Thus, the situation for the future of extension may appear dismal. How can it be improved and scaled to achieve development objectives? One possible solution may be that limited public funding available for extension should be focused on system support: (a) EAS policy and coordination; (b) training; (c) research and technical support services; (d) communications systems; and (e) monitoring and data collection.

Overall, we received positive feedback with participants suggesting that: 1) there was an 81% likelihood that they would share new skills & insights learned through the Convening with others; 2) 93% agreement that the conversation was rich; 3) 90% agreement that the presentations were relevant, and 4) 76% agreement that the ideas presented were novel.

 

Videos Help Fight Misconceptions Around Male Sterilization Procedures

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Malati Sahu, 25, married Sudhir Sahu, 29, resident of Dongargaon Block in Rajnandgaon District in Chhattisgarh, five years ago. “My husband wanted to continue his education, but due to poverty he had to quit schooling when he was in class 9 and started working as a daily wage labourer with his father,” shared Malati who herself was able to complete higher secondary education.

Malati lives with her husband and two children at her in-laws’ home. They do not possess any agricultural land although Sudhir and his father have been working as agricultural labourers. Sudhir’s keen interest in cooking led him into taking it up as a profession after marriage. He is now working as a chef in a restaurant at Rajnandgaon and earning more than INR 10,000 per month. Moreover, Sudhir’s father has leased agricultural land and is earning INR 2,000 to 3, 000 per month from the produce.

Malati’s daughter, Sita is now three-and-a-half-year-old and her son, Shyam is 18 months old. Both of them were born at the government hospital. Malati explained that after the birth of the two children, both she and her husband were happy and didn’t want any more children and were considering adopting some family planning method.

“We were thinking about going for a family planning operation and my husband consulted a doctor for my sterilization. However, in the hamlet meeting, (Digital Green’s) videos shown by the Mitanin Trainer on the family planning changed my perception and I insisted my husband go for male sterilization,” shared Malati.

“Many misconceptions exist around male sterilization among the community. People believe that vasectomy makes males impotent leaves them unable to do any physical work and that it (vasectomy) is painful and that recovery period is long,” she added.

Due to the prevalence of such misconceptions about vasectomy, in India, most men prefer that their wives undergo sterilization rather than use any other contraceptive methods or undergoing a vasectomy themselves. Digital Green’s video-enabled extension approach is helping frontline workers fight such myths and misconceptions in Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Assam through its Project Samvad, supported by USAID.

Malati’s husband was not happy with her suggestion and argued that male sterilization would be painful and would make him weak and unemployable. However, Malati convinced her husband and mother-in-law how male sterilization is safe and medically simpler than female sterilization drawing on the knowledge from the videos about family planning that she had seen.

Sudhir finally consulted with the ANM and the doctor and agreed to go for the ‘No-Scalpel Vasectomy’ (also called keyhole vasectomy or NSV) and after his operation on 27th July 2019, he went to work the same day, four hours after the surgery. Malati shares that her husband is happy and has had no complications since then and has been working with the same efficiency as he had been prior to NSV.

Now, Sudhir is himself a champion of the cause within his village and encouraging other men in his community to go for family planning, improve communication between husbands and wives as well to address the myths and misconceptions related to vasectomy and other contraceptive methods. He is happy that Malati made him aware of this simple, safe and highly effective permanent contraceptive method.

 

Names in this story have been changed to protect the identity of the individuals. The photographs used are also representative.

Fighting FAW With Video-Based Agriculture Extension

Posted on by Susan Thomas

Ato Abraham Megersa is a farmer in Toke Kutaye woreda, West Shoa Zone of Oromia Region, Ethiopia. Born in 1978, he has 4 sisters and 2 brothers. Ato Abraham is a father of 5 children (3 daughters and 2 sons). Except one, all his children are going to school. Ato Abraham had to discontinue his schooling after 9th grade when his father passed away in 1994 and had to start working to support his family.

Farming and animal rearing are the main sources of income for Ato Abraham’s family who are subsistence farmers. The major crops grown on his 1.5 hectares are Teff, wheat, and maize. They have 15 domestic animals, including goats, cows etc. Apart from his own farmland, he rented another 2.5 ha of irrigation land in 2018-19.  Four oxen and his family labor to till the land.

Ato Abraham had had very limited contact with the Development Agents (agricultural extension agents of the government) and had little knowledge about the existing government extension advisory services. Which resulted in a knowledge gap around package-of-practices such as row planting, optimum plant density planting, use of the recommended amount of fertilizer, UREA side-dressing, herbicide application, and spraying of pesticides to control insects like African ball worm and others.

“Ato Abraham attended a few video dissemination sessions in 2010. He planted 1 hectare of land with maize using the full package of practices, such as the use of improved seeds, row planting and the like. However, despite using the improved practices, the production was lower than ever before due to a severe attack by Fall Army Worm (FAW) in the region,” shared Solomon Bayisa, extension expert of Toke Kutaye woreda.

Observing the damaged crop, Solomon Bayisa suggested Ato Abraham attend video disseminations on FAW identification and management to effectively control the damage.

Ato Abraham attended a series of video dissemination sessions on identifying, scouting and managing FAW. He was able to scout and manage his maize crop from seedling to the silking stage. He picked up FAWs with his plastic gloved hands and put them all in plastic bags that gave no room to the FAWs to escape and put them in boiling water, killing the worms effectively and arresting further outbreak. Moreover, he was able to squash eggs beneath lower leaves, which range from 150 – 200 eggs/plant. Timeliness of these practices has helped him control the worm effectively before they could bore into the stem, where they are no longer visible and stay protected.

As a result, Ato Abraham was thankful to the DA for the video dissemination program that helped him protect his maize crop from this devastating new worm in his area. ‘’I have gotten the highest yield that has not been obtained in the area,” shared Ato Abraham during the interview. He added that “Learning gives power and wisdom to overcome problems.”

Ato Abraham planted maize seedlings on 1.5 ha of land as seen in the picture above. His crop stands impressively as compared to other fields in his area. This is a proxy indicator of highly improved productivity and production. Ato Abraham has understood the difference made by video-enabled learning. “I am committed to sharing the best practices with fellow farmers who have no opportunity to attend video screenings,” he added.

The Feed the Future Developing Local Extension Capacity (DLEC) project is led by Digital Green in partnership with organizations such as the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS), DLEC is an action-oriented, evidence-based learning project. In this pilot (refer to engagement Factsheet) we worked in partnership with the Ethiopian government, Agricultural Transformation Agency and FinTrac to test a multipronged, digital data-driven approach to mitigate the effects of Fall Armyworm for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia.

Video-based Mobile Courseware for Agriculture Extension Workers

Posted on by Susan Thomas

Agriculture extension workers engaged by the Government of India to share agricultural best practices among smallholder farmers play a critical role in building the capacity of farmers. To boost their reach and effectiveness, Digital Green trains them on using the community-based, video-enabled extension approach, which involves localized video creation, facilitated screenings and data tracking. To scale this approach in a cost-effective manner as well as with quality and further institutionalize it within the government’s extension structure, we created a mobile courseware, with inbuilt evaluation and accreditation. The video-based curriculum on video production and dissemination as well as agriculture and nutrition topics. The android application has in-built quizzes that test the frontline workers’ knowledge before and after they have completed watching the videos in a course. The scores are recorded and keep track of the individual frontline workers’ proficiency. A certificate issued after completing a course (on gaining a minimum of 70% marks) incentivizes the frontline workers.

With a grant from Oracle, Digital Green is currently expanding access to its mobile courseware on improved agricultural practices. This grant is supporting the development of the mobile curricula to train 800 extension workers who will further train 80,000 farmers on practices that increase agricultural productivity. This work is being carried out in Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. 

Jharkhand

Frontline workers in Jharkhand watching videos on their smartphones and learning how to use the platform.

In Jharkhand, our team had rolled out courses in 22 blocks spread across 12 districts of Jharkhand in 2018 among 330 frontline workers (FLWs) (known as Aajeevika Krishak Mitras-AKMs/Community Resource Persons-CRPs in Jharkhand). These courses were on potato and pigeon pea cultivation. Based on a comparison of FLW knowledge levels before and after the course, and anecdotal feedback from the field, we found this training app to be user-friendly and effective.

Based on the previous years’ experience, in 2019, our team rolled out 14 new courses on potato and pigeon pea cultivation, non-pesticidal management (NPM) and agri-nutrition practices across the same geography. In this cycle, the team has integrated knowledge assessment within the mobile app replacing the pen and paper-based tests used in the previous year. This would enable the team to effectively assess knowledge transfer to FLWs through this intervention. The mobile courseware is built on a Community Training platform developed by Microsoft Research and our team worked with Microsoft Research to improve the application’s architecture so that the courses can be accessed through different Android phones and videos can be streamed even in limited connectivity zones.

Odisha

We reached out to farmers across Keonjhar district in Odisha to understand the demand for self-service videos. Increase in smartphone penetration, fibre connectivity, ease of understanding through a video over conventional means and need for timely advisories were factors in favour of the experiment. 

Lalita Mohanta of Village Bhalughara, Odisha, a farmer, watching short videos shared on the WhatsApp group at her home.

Based on the need and enthusiasm amongst the farmers for such a solution, the team is designing small video clips on paddy cultivation practices such as blast (fungal infestation) management, harvesting and drying. Each video focuses on one micro practice and is available on Digital Green’s YouTube channel. Our team collected the phone numbers of farmers who own a smartphone and added them on WhatsApp groups managed by the block-level officer of the Department of Agriculture. Links to the YouTube video clips are shared on the WhatsApp group at the precise time a farmer would need to adopt a particular practice.

There are nearly 900 farmers across 10 Gram Panchayats under the block level officer and our team is tracking viewership of the video clips on YouTube to assess the demand for self-service content by farmers owning smartphones. They are also organizing focused group discussions with the farmers to see if knowledge is being shared across the peers and any of these being translated into the uptake of practices.

Uncovering the Link Between Access to Nutrition and Markets Through Research

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According to the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), average fruit and vegetables (F&V) consumption in Bihar equalled 132 g/capita/day in 2011-2012. Therefore, people in Bihar on average consume approximately one-third of the global recommendation of 400 grams/capita/day (FAO and WHO, 2014). In turn, consumers dependent upon nutritionally vulnerable markets (i.e. those that are traditional, small and often rural) are likely to face the greatest challenges to fruit and vegetable access and affordability.

Digital Green’s ‘Loop’ project aims to help farmers save time and reduce the cost of transporting their vegetable produce to market. In Loop, an aggregator collects and markets fruits and vegetables on behalf of farmers – optimising transport based on the volume of produce. The model leverages digital technology to ensure transparency, efficiency and trust between the aggregator and farmer, which in turn enables better negotiation power for bulk selling in most cases. It also saves the farmer market transport costs and allows them to reinvest the time and money into on-farm and recreational activities.

The Market Intervention for Nutritional Improvement (MINI) project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the UK Department for International Development (DfID), aims to explore the nutritional aspects of the market and technical interventions in vegetable and poultry value chains in Bihar and Bangladesh. Led by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI, Vietnam), the project involves researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU, Dhaka) and Lincoln University, New Zealand, as well as Sadman Sadek, Vinay Rana, Dr Nadagouda and Namita Singh from Digital Green (amongst others!).

Digital Green’s Vinay Rana (Patna office) works with farmers to map the locations of Loop villages and markets during the first ‘Group Model Building’ session in Muzaffarpur (January 2019)

The research focuses on the ways in which aggregation schemes (such as Loop) may be made more nutritionally sensitive – which refers to the availability and affordability of F&V in some of the more rural, traditional and retail-based markets. However, achieving this goal is not a case of simply sending greater volumes of F&V towards smaller markets. This is owing to various conditions and feedbacks that make rural markets less attractive to farmers and consumers alike, including less developed transport and market infrastructures, inferior market capacities and the typically weaker purchasing power of rural consumers. As a consequence, we need to think carefully about how the aggregation system such as Loop may be utilised to minimise trade-offs and achieve ‘win-win’ scenarios for both farmers and consumers.

The MINI project takes a multidisciplinary approach to the research problem. To date, rapid value chain analyses in Bihar, India and Jessore district, Bangladesh, have identified the key actors involved in the respective horticultural value chains. From here, survey campaigns interviewed 360 farming households in both Bihar and Bangladesh. In Bhojpur and Muzaffarpur districts, Bihar, we tentatively find that Loop farmers on average produced and sold higher quantities of F&V relative to farmers that had not participated in Loop between 2018-2019 (please note: this result is not final and yet to be tested with robust econometrics). Through common econometric techniques, the research team is currently investigating the extent to which these outcomes can be attributed to Loop participation, as well as the various socioeconomic factors that might determine Loop participation in the first place.

A team member from the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) pilots the household survey with a farmer from Minapur block, Muzaffarpur (February 2019)

System dynamics modelling builds upon the value chain analyses and household surveys. Working alongside the experts at Digital Green and select groups of farmers, traders and commission agents in Bhojpur and Muzaffarpur, the MINI project team have built a system dynamics model to simulate the future evolution of Loop under various scenarios. These scenarios range from internal changes to Loop (e.g. scaling-up farmer numbers and transport subsidies) to making changes within the wider enabling environment – such as the introduction of accessible cold storage facilities in F&V markets. The model is just starting to produce the first future simulations as we speak, so please watch this space over the coming weeks and months!

The start of 2020 sees the MINI project beginning to apply the same techniques to the homestead poultry programme run by JEEViKA in Bihar. Whilst JEEViKA’s poultry programme initially focused on improving household nutrition (e.g. through chicken meat and egg consumption), the MINI project and Digital Green are interested in the potential market linkages and opportunities to expand the poultry programme for nutritional benefits beyond the household scale. This analysis will run in parallel with a similar project based in Ghana, led by Dr Karl Rich (ILRI), to ultimately evaluate whether a pioneering aggregation model such as Loop might bring about nutritional benefits in poultry value chains and markets.

 

About the Author:

Dr Gregory Cooper is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Development, Environment and Policy (CeDEP), SOAS, University of London. Follow the story of the research project here on his blog.

A more detailed interview on the MINI research project can be found here in a series of 3 articles: Unravelling value chains through participatory modelling: Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3

Videos Open Up Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow

Posted on by Susan Thomas

I met Aregash Desta while I was in the field to collect data to compile the successes and lessons learnt from the Agriculture, Livelihood and Conservation (ALC) program implemented by Digital Green in Jimma zone of the Oromia region.
Aregash, one of the target beneficiaries of the ALC program, is a middle-aged woman who lives in Shashemene Kebele of Seke Chekorsa Woreda in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. She lost her husband three years ago. Before her husband passed away, she used to work with him on their farm, which was their main source of livelihood. Now the land has been divided among her children and she owns only a quarter of the 1-hectare land, a cow and a bull.

We met Aregash in a small green compound where she was busy preparing organic compost (vermicompost). She explained to us patiently the process – how she mixes the various things and checks the degree of decomposition of organic matter which she fed to the worms a few days ago.

Aregash shared that she had attended a training on preparation of vermicompost organized by the Zonal Department of Agriculture a year ago but she did not feel confident about doing it by herself until earlier this year. “In April 2019, I attended a video dissemination organized by Digital Green where the video explained step-by-step how the mixture has to be prepared and what to watch out for to make sure it is ready for use in farming,” shared Aregash. “I started making the vermicompost immediately,” she added.

Aregash shares that this batch of the vermi-compost she is busy preparing is for sale. She explains that the compost is mainly sold to coffee farmers and avocado seedling producers, and occasionally to woreda’s Office of Agriculture. “I earned over Birr 4,000 (USD 136) from sales of vermi-compost which helped me buy Teff for consumption and Ewe (female sheep) as livestock,” she shares happily. “Income from sales of vermicompost has become my main source of livelihood and given me hope for a brighter future,” shares Aregash, who is now keen to expand the business.

“These days, there is a high demand for Verme compost. I have planned to expand the production with a more advanced mechanism and scale. Moreover, I am also considering selling the worms to local farmers soon,” said Aregash.

I was impressed to see myself how powerful the digital extension system is in transforming the lives of farmers by equipping them with the necessary and applicable set of skills for livelihood improvement.

Communicating Best Practices in Maternal Child Health, Nutrition & Family Planning Through ICTs

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INTRODUCTION

Digital Green is an international development organization that empowers rural communities by harnessing the collective power of technology and grassroots-level partnerships to promote good practices in agriculture, nutrition and health. We have been working with government agriculture extension systems for over a decade using the community video-based approach that has been a powerful tool in the hands of agriculture extension agents in over 22 countries across Asia and Africa.

Since 2012, through a series of pilot projects across sub-Saharan Africa and India, we drew lessons that helped adapt the community video-based solution to health and nutrition messaging among rural communities who often receive scattered information regarding health and nutrition, and are often unaware of the government welfare programs that are in place or the importance of availing them.

The pilots also helped us adapt and revise the video production and dissemination training modules for effective implementation of health and nutrition projects, which required more nuanced content and treatment than in agriculture. Analysis of the data and anecdotal evidence from those pilots suggested that communities saw value and relevance in the videos. 

Our teams worked on improving the Data Management Information System to capture data and analyse trends related to the health projects. Additionally, with more experience, evidence, and observations from the eld, the health pilots were further streamlined by identifying best practices from the various pilot sites. Lessons such as the inclusion of men – to highlight their role in ensuring better health for the family, creating aspiration among the family to play a more supportive role. We captured successes, lessons, and challenges to define how this approach can be best utilized to trigger positive behavior change in the health domain.

In 2015, through a USAID supported five-year project, Samvad (meaning dialogue/conversation), we started to promote good nutrition practices among primary caregivers. With initial success in Bihar and Jharkhand, we expanded the scope of the project to include maternal and child health and family planning practices in 2017. We started promoting this basket of messages among women in the reproductive age group, specifically in the critical first 1000 days through locally relevant content created by the communities, for the communities.

This project is currently being implemented in 6 states in India, namely Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Assam, where we partnered with state-level counterparts of the National Health Mission, the National Nutrition Mission, Ministry of Women and Child Development, and National Rural Livelihood Mission, leveraging the existing cadre of frontline workers such as Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), Aanganwadi workers (AWWs), Lady supervisors and extension agents.

We are also collaborating with various partners to introduce innovative and locally relevant ICT-enabled platforms including radio and interactive voice response systems (IVRS) to complement the video-based approach and enable a participatory learning environment and magnify the reach and impact.

While we started out with an aim of reaching 300,000 women directly and 1 million indirectly, we have, in fact, been able to reach over 500,000 women directly and 1.9 million indirectly as of July 2019.

Through project Samvad we have had a unique opportunity to work with a wide array of partners, witness inter-departmental collaboration and the dedication of the frontline workers working tirelessly with minimal resources ensuring they are able to spread awareness among their communities. This photo book documents our experience thus far as well as gratitude for the collaborations that helped achieve the impact.

EMPOWERING FRONTLINE WORKERS

“Digital Green’s video-enabled approach has helped increase the attendance at the Village Health and Nutrition Days (in Patratu block) and helped in empowering the Anganwadi workers.”

– District Social Welfare Officer in Jharkhand

We have consciously worked with the existing health extension systems to ensure greater synergy with the community needs and to ensure the approach is owned and assimilated into the government systems. Even our trainings of the field level workers (FLWs) involve an SBCC approach for scripting, producing videos, facilitation skills, community mobilization as well as group discussion to address deep-rooted social norms and cultural beliefs which is a major barrier to changing health behaviour among women.

Our approach builds the capacity of frontline workers so they can build the capacity of others

VIDEO AS A TOOL FOR BEHAVIOR CHANGE

“I shied away from taking the IFA tablets (iron supplements) fearing the side effects would hamper my abilities to take care of my household chores. At a video dissemination, the Mitanin Trainer (MT) noticed I had swollen feet and enquired if I had been taking the IFA tablets. She showed us a video about the importance of taking these tablets and how to tackle the side effects. This convinced me and I started taking the tablets and also shared my example with other pregnant women in my village.”

– Beneficiary, Chhattisgarh

The Samvad project aims for social behaviour change through its community-based videos. These are short videos in the local language, they dramatize the best practices related to specific behaviours, which are more relatable for the communities. These videos are created bearing in mind local taboos, myths and traditional practices that are contrary to scientifically proven best practices. The community videos are a blend of standardized messaging coupled with examples of positive deviance from the community resulting in social behaviour change.

BREAKING MYTHS & CHALLENGING TABOOS

“The side-effects of the iron supplement (IFA tablets) and the stigma related to having any medicine during pregnancy has been a big barrier to my work.”

– Mitanin Trainer in Chhattisgarh

The Samvad project is particularly concerned about addressing social taboos and alternatively embracing social practices that can guarantee social behavior change through its videos.

The video on the importance of IFA tablets for pregnant women shown by the FLW illustrates in great detail a woman’s hesitation in eating the supplementary iron tablets due to the side effects and how to tackle them in a relatable manner.

Frontline workers report that they carry the pico-projector loaded with Samvad videos even for house visits. They find it useful to have it on-hand if they find the families and neighbours willing to learn more about the best practices.

EMBRACE ENABLING SOCIAL CULTURES

While there are social taboos and myths that hinder the adoption of best practices, we have also discovered social practices that encourage faster comprehension and adoption of best practices.

We found that community members of most of the tribal villages of Thakurmunda block, Mayurbhanj District in Odisha were unaware of the various stages of infant and young child feeding practices and its importance for the child’s growth. The concept of Annaprasana (a ceremony commonly performed when a child attains 6 months of age with much fanfare in most parts of India) was also absent. We observed that as a result of videos that showcased the importance of introducing complementary feeding through a social ceremony such as Annaprasana, the community quickly embraced the ceremony. It is now a regular occurrence celebrated with great joy.

Engaging men, especially on the importance of using contraceptive methods and spacing of pregnancies, has not been easy for frontline workers. The Samvad videos are, though short, very comprehensive and engaging; easing the viewers and the mediator into discussions.

 

EXPLORING AG-NUTRITION LINK

“We used to grow a single crop in our kitchen garden and leave it fallow in the summers. Now we’re growing a variety of crops and watering it with the wastewater as explained in the video and don’t have to buy them from the market or store it in the refrigerator. We’re also not falling ill as much as before as we’re consuming fresh vegetables grown organically.”

– Beneficiary in Jharkhand

Undernutrition in rural communities can be traced to a dearth of information about nutrition, as well as the unaffordability of nutritious food.

Leveraging our experience in agriculture extension, a valuable collaboration with the Livelihood Mission in Jharkhand helped us layer in the agriculture-nutrition link through videos on the concept of ‘Agri-Nutri Garden’. The concept ensures, sustainability by using organic compost, wastewater and low-cost solutions for protecting the crops from livestock.

Once the community understands the importance of dietary diversity for healthy development through the videos, the frontline workers guide them towards options for bridging the gap with the Agri-Nutrition Garden model.

A team of Mitanins and Mitanin Trainers in Chhattisgarh. ‘Mitanin’ in Chhattisgarhi language means a female friend, traditionally a female friend who helps out in times of need or illness. This organic concept was adopted by the government in a state-wide attempt to create a cadre of health extension workers or ‘Swasthya Mitanin’ (a friend for health care needs). Frontline Health Workers play a pivotal role in ensuring impact at scale.

 

COMPLEMENTARY AND PARTICIPATORY ICT SOLUTIONS

“Salma (mother of an 8-month-old) was not aware of the importance of a balanced diet for her child’s growth, as a result, her child was very weak. I showed her the video on complementary feeding and also shared with her the number of Samvad Mobile Vaani. She became a frequent listener and started following the practices suggested. As a result, her child’s growth has been very good and has gained weight too.”

– Anganwadi Worker in Jharkhand.

Increased mobile penetration in rural India and available ICT solutions provide opportunities to adopt an integrated and comprehensive approach to increase awareness, achieve higher uptake of recommended actions by beneficiaries, create life-stage specific targeted messaging and increase overall reach. With this aim, Digital Green partnered with GramVaani in Jharkhand to employ their IVR-based social platform to complement our video-based outreach. The messages on Samvad Mobile Vaani are a combination of drama, testimonials, infotainment directed to change behaviors and prompt action. A unique element of the solution is that the platform allows two-way communication wherein the audience can hear the pre-recorded thematic messages and also record their own messages in response to what they are listening to and can also listen to messages recorded by others like them. These include their feedback, experiences, queries, additional and alternative best practices. The IVR messages reach men and women irrespective of the type of phone they own at zero cost.

 

CAPTURING DATA, MONITORING & EVALUATION

To monitor progress and impact, periodic lean monitoring and evaluation surveys have been designed to evaluate core coverage, exposure, and outcome indicators. Digital Green is working with the London School of Health and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Centre for Media Studies (CMS) to gather data and assess the project’s reach via different platforms and partnerships and evaluate its impact.

Note: All quotations are drawn from the blogs contributed by staff of Digital Green. Photographs by Aniruddh Kaushal.

Integrated and Collaborative Approach Key for Impact on Health Behaviors

Posted on by Susan Thomas

Digital Green has been working with Jharkhand State Nutrition Mission (JSNM) and the Department of Women and Child Development & Social Security, Government of Jharkhand to implement its USAID-funded project Samvad since 2016. The partnership aims to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to promote good practices in Maternal Child Health (MCH), nutrition and family planning among the rural community in a more accessible and scalable manner.

We worked with the Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) or frontline staff tasked with combating child hunger and malnutrition, building their capacities in video production and dissemination to create a set of locally relevant videos for the communities they work with. This exercise also helped us in mapping the key nutrition behaviours in consultation with JSNM and the implementation team at the block level including the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) and AWWs. Each behaviour was further mapped on to the practices based on which technical content was developed by Digital Green.

Eight AWWs were trained on video production. We worked closely with them to develop storyboards based on their on-ground, first encounter experiences and relevant local contexts and beliefs to influence positive variance in the communities. They produced 15 videos.

This strategy of involving the staff at every level of the planning process helped integrate the project and approach into their systems.

We further planned the dissemination of these videos in a sequential manner among women of 1000 days cohort. 85 Picos were deployed on a sharing basis among 167 AWWs who were trained in dissemination (screening videos and moderating discussions). Each video is disseminated to a group of 20-25 beneficiaries every fortnight.

Over time, it was reported by the AWWs and lady supervisors that sequential video disseminations generated a lot of discussions, the turnout at the video screening started increasing and influencers such as the in-laws started attending the screening. Further, the AWWs reported that videos aided in explaining to the beneficiaries and their families important issues related to the health, nutrition and especially family planning in an easy, engaging and consistent manner.

“At the initial screening of the family planning video the beneficiaries at my centre would smile and look down to avoid answering my questions, but after 2-3 video screenings they started asking questions and taking condoms, and contraceptive tablets from Sahiya Didi,” shared one Anganwadi Worker.

The District Social Welfare Officer (DSWO) shared that, “Digital Green’s video-enabled approach has helped increase the attendance at the VHNDs in Patratu and helped in empowering Anganwadi workers.”

The DSWO witnessed the impact of videos on the direct beneficiaries and the subsequent rise in demand and was keen to support. She planned the distribution of 5,000 pregnancy kits aligned with the screening of the videos on ANC and Family Planning.

IVR-based Messaging Complements Impact of Video-based Health Extension

Posted on by Susan Thomas

“Deepa was pregnant for the first time and unsure about what’s the ideal diet and weight during pregnancy. I gave her the number of Samvad Mobile Vaani and told her to listen to the messages frequently. I also showed her the video on maternal diet on the pico projector,” shared Prabha Devi, Aanganwadi Sevika in Patratu block, Jharkhand, who disseminates community videos on health, nutrition and family planning topics and also advocates the use of Samvad Mobile Vaani.

Samvad (dialogue in Hindi) Mobile Vaani is an Integrated Voice Response (IVR)-based platform that allows communities to listen to relevant health, nutrition and family planning messages broadcast by the Samvad Project by just giving a missed call and receiving a call back from the system.

Digital Green’s USAID funded project Samvad aims to improve Family Planning, Maternal Child Health and Nutrition Outcomes across 6 states namely; Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Assam through the flagship human-mediated video-based approach.

Increased mobile penetration in rural India and available ICT solutions provide opportunities to adopt an integrated and comprehensive approach to increase awareness, achieve higher uptake of recommended actions by beneficiaries, create life-stage specific targeted messaging and increase overall reach. With this aim, Digital Green partnered with GramVaani in Jharkhand to employ their IVR-based social platform to complement our video-based outreach.

The messages on Samvad Mobile Vaani are a combination of drama, testimonials, infotainment directed to behaviour change and action. A unique element of the solution is that the platform allows two-way communication wherein the audience can hear the pre-recorded thematic messages and also record their own messages in response to what they are listening to and can also listen to messages recorded by others like them. These include their feedback, experiences, queries, additional and alternative best practices. The IVR messages reach men and women irrespective of the type of phone they own at zero cost.

In May 2018, we oriented 110 Aanganwadi workers (AWWs) in Patratu block to the use of the Samvad Mobile Vaani. These AWWs, in turn, oriented the community on the benefits and method of accessing this IVR platform and encouraged them to record their messages as well.

Since June 2018, over 10,600 unique callers have accessed Samvad Mobile Vaani about 156,626 times. We also conducted an IVR based survey with about 200 callers to analyze their profile. About 56% of the callers were women and 69% of them were younger than 28 years old. We also found that 69% of the callers were within the 1000-days period. This survey establishes that with Samvad Mobile Vaani we are able to reach audiences in a targeted manner through the help of Anganwadi workers (AWWs) who help deliver the solution to the target beneficiaries.

Callers have recorded over 2,500 messages which include queries, testimonials around various themes such as complementary feeding, IFA supplementation, care during pregnancy etc.

Family planning messages were accessed by over 4,600 callers about 41,000 times and they heard messages on the importance of family planning, spacing methods, spousal communication, and taking a combined decision of Family planning.

We are now evaluating the effectiveness of this solution and based on the results we will scale this across other states we’re working in. Preliminary findings demonstrate that this complementarity of ICT solutions is impactful.

Sharya Bano, Anganwadi Sevika from Jai Nagar, Patratu block narrates the experience of Salma Khatun, mother of an 8-month old child. She says, “Salma was not aware of the importance of a balanced diet for her child’s growth, as a result, her child was very weak. I showed her the video on complementary feeding and also shared with her the number of Samvad Mobile Vaani. She became a frequent listener and started following the practices suggested. As a result, her child’s growth has been very good and has gained weight too.”

Embracing local cultures to promote nutrition messages

Posted on by Susan Thomas

In the Odiya language, Anna means rice and Prasana means to eat, and Annaprasana is a ceremony that is performed when a child attains 6 months of age with much fanfare in most parts of Odisha as well many other parts of India.

It is understood in these communities that as the child grows, the mother’s milk alone cannot meet the energy needs of the child. The diet needs to be supplemented with additional energy-dense food. Thus, the child is introduced to complementary foods like rice porridge, chhatua, pulses and vegetables in small quantities, which is increased gradually as the child grows and weaned away from breastfeeding.

Digital Green’s project Samvad has partnered with a strong grassroots organization, Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD), in Odisha to engage with the community through its range of digital engagement platforms that enable beneficiaries and influencers to interact and learn about best practices related to maternal child health nutrition (MCHN) and family planning.

We found that community members of most of the tribal villages of Thakurmunda block, Mayurbhanj District in Odisha were unaware of the various stages of infant and young child feeding practices and its importance for the child’s growth. The concept of Annaprasana was also absent.

Several videos were made and disseminated in these villages in self-help groups (SHGs) and on Village Health and Nutrition Days (VHNDs) to generate awareness and ensure the community embrace the healthy behaviors under MCHN and family planning themes.

The Samvad project is particularly concerned about addressing social taboos and embracing social practices that can enable and maximize social behavior change through its videos. We observed that as a result of videos that showcased the importance of introducing complementary feeding through a social ceremony such as Annaprasana, the community quickly embraced the ceremony.

The community now understands the importance of initiating complementary feeding at 6 months and in over 27 villages of Thakurmunda block, Annaprasana ceremonies are now a regular occurrence celebrated with great joy. When the child is given the semi-solid food for the first time, mantras are recited and prayers are offered to various deities to mark it as an auspicious occasion to be celebrated. The practice has become so popular that the community members are even celebrating it on the VHND day as a festival.