The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Evidence: Large Scale RCT in Bangladesh Compared Intensive IPC, Plus Mass Media, and Community Mobilization with Standard Nutrition Education and Less Intensive Mother to Mother Groups and Community Mobilization

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Large Scale RCT in Bangladesh Compared Intensive IPC, Plus Mass Media, and Community Mobilization with Standard Nutrition Education and Less Intensive Mother to Mother Groups and Community Mobilization

Name(s) of author(s)?:

Purnima Menon, Phuong Hong Nguyen, Kuntal Kumar Saha, Adiba Khaled, Tina Sanghvi, Jean Baker, Kaosar Afsana, Raisul Haque, Edward A Frongillo, Marie T Ruel, Rahul Rawat

Who published this paper, article, book (chapter) or other publication?:

The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 146, Issue 10, 1 October 2016, Pages 2075–2084

What are the best extracts that highlight the evidence for the impact of a communication for development, social change, behaviour change, public engagement, or informed citizen strategy on a development issue and priority?:

Complementary feeding (CF) contributes to child growth and development, but few CF programs are delivered at scale. To offer compelling evidence that such interventions can be implemented at scale to deliver impact on improving children's diets, this study evaluate the impact of providing intensified interpersonal counseling (IPC), mass media (MM), and community mobilization (CM) compared with standard nutrition counseling + less intensive MM + CM (non-intensive) on CF practices and anthropometric measurements. The intensive program substantially improved CF practices compared with the non-intensive program. Groups were similar at baseline. CF improvements were significantly greater in the intensive than in the non-intensive group [difference-in-difference impact estimate: 16.3, 14.7, 22.0, and 24.6 percentage points (pp) for minimum dietary diversity, minimum meal frequency, minimum acceptable diet, and consumption of iron-rich foods, respectively]. In the intensive group, CF practices were high: 50.4% for minimum acceptable diet, 63.8% for minimum diet diversity, 75.1% for minimum meal frequency, and 78.5% for consumption of iron-rich foods. Timely introduction of foods improved. Significant, nondifferential stunting declines occurred in intensive (6.2 pp) and non-intensive (5.2 pp) groups in children 24–47.9 months. This study establishes proof of concept for large-scale behavior change interventions to improve child feeding.

To which development issue does this evidence and impact data relate?:

Nutrition

To which strategic approach(es) does the evidence and impact data relate?:

IPC, mass media, community mobilization, nutrition education, mother to mother support groups

What research methodology (ies) was/were used to produce this evidence and impact data?:

Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)

What is the URL to access this paper, article, book (chapter) or other publication?:

https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.116.232314

Why was this research evidence found to be useful?:

At-scale, global work in different contexts

Participating organisations in the Global Alliance for Social and Behaviour Change - Building Informed and Engaged Societies were asked to identify, in their opinion, the 5 most compelling research and evaluation studies that demonstrate the direct impact of this field of work on a major development issue. This was one of the nominees. For the full compiled list, please click here. For the compilation of the key impact data across all research evidence identified, please click here.