Harnessing Community Platforms for Sustainable Behavioral Change - An Experience from Osun State, Nigeria.

Summary:

Most of the South West Nigerian states recorded a decrease (55-52) from 2011-2017 in Infant mortality. The progress is skewed, which could be attributed to factors like slow uptake of sanitation and hygiene. There is also limited awareness about immunization, exclusive breastfeeding and care of new-born. UNICEF, in collaboration with Ondo state departments introduced Facts for Life (FFL), an innovative radio programme focusing on essential family practices including exclusive breast feeding, immunization, care of new-born and sanitation. FFL developed short story scripts to promote positive behaviours amongst communities, which is a 15-minute magazine radio programme format. The programme have been airing on 16 radio stations covering the states catered by UNICEF Akure office reaching over 20 million people. The WASH facilitators through Water and Sanitation Committees (WASHCOM) facilitated discussions around Community Led Total Sanitation to enhance hygiene behavior in communities. FFL provided the required impetus to sanitation movement and social norms change in the communities. These efforts leveraged 175,000 USD worth air-time. Harping on this initiative and established community platforms, WASHCOM the Open Defecation Free (ODF)initiative was taken further. This led to Ifedayo LGA declared ODF and all rural communities in 2 LGAs certified as ODF (480 communities). Osun state mooted for ODF status by 2025. While awareness creation through radio transmission has a greater reach, leveraging community-based platforms like WASHCOMs has potential of large scale, sustainable behavior and social norm change.

Background/Objectives:

While most of the South West Nigerian states recorded a decrease (55-52) from 2011-2017 in Infant mortality, there is skewed progress, which could be attributed to factors like slow uptake of sanitation/ hygiene. There is also limited awareness about immunization, exclusive breastfeeding and care of new-born. In 2017, UNICEF in collaboration with Ondo state Ministries of Information and Health, media, academia introduced Facts for Life (FFL), an innovative radio programme focusing on essential family practices including exclusive breast feeding, immunization, care of new-born and sanitation. FFL developed short story scripts to promote positive behaviours amongst communities.

Description of Intervention and/or Methods/Design:

Facts for Life (FFL) adopted a 15-minute magazine radio programme format; featuring drama, interviews, Vox pop and monologue. The programme was produced in English initially and translated to Yoruba Language (Amunlo Fun Igbe-aye Alaafia) in 2018 for better understanding of the FFL message across the vast speaking Yoruba communities. Following the advocacy, the English and Yoruba versions of the programme have been airing on 16 radio stations both public and private covering all the states catered to by UNICEF Akure office reaching over 20 million people. The WASH facilitators during their routine engagement with the communities through Water and Sanitation Committees (WASHCOM) facilitated the discussion around Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) to enhance hygiene behavior in communities. FFL provided the required impetus to sanitation movement and social norms change in the communities. While submitting this abstract, Impact assessment of the FFL programme is on-going.

Results/Lessons Learned:

Following the advocacy, the English and Yoruba versions of FFL programme have been airing on 16 radio stations covering all states supported by UNICEF Akure office reaching over 20 million people. These efforts leveraged 175,000 USD worth air time. The reach has also built the critical mass amongst communities needed for behavior and social norms transformation. Harping on this initiative and the established community platforms namely, WASHCOM, Osun state mooted for Open Defecation Free (ODF) status. The efforts led to One LGA (Ifedayo) declared ODF (following external validation) and all rural communities in 2 other LGAs certified as ODF (480 communities certified ODF). Taking cue from the success in Ifedayo LGA and 2 other LGAs, the state developed a roadmap for state to be ODF by 2025. Evidence based sustained advocacy and political will were the enablers which provided the required push to the ODF momentum in the communities.

Discussion/Implications for the Field:

While awareness creation through radio transmission has a greater reach, leveraging community-based platforms like WASHCOMs has potential of large scale, sustainable behavior and social norm change. The efforts need to be backed by persistent advocacy, robust monitoring and ensuring ownership by the communities and the government department. There is a need for impact assessment of such initiatives for its scale up at national level and contextualization at local level. The concerted efforts and convergence between various sectors can have a multiplier effect and yield much bigger results for children in the country.

Abstract submitted by: 

Caroline Akosile - UNICEF
Mohsena Islam - UNICEF
Jonathan Ekhator - UNICEF
Tushar Rane - UNICEF
Rufus Eshuchi - UNICEF