Impact Evaluation of a Multi-Sectoral Community-Based Approach to Improving Infant and Young Child Feeding in Amhara, Ethiopia

Summary

Alive \& Thrive is an initiative that aims to scale up nutrition to save lives, prevent illness, and ensure healthy growth and development through improved infant young child feeding (IYCF) practices. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the Alive \& Thrive intervention package, consisting of interpersonal communication, community mobilization activities, and radio campaign, can increase complementary feeding practices (minimum dietary diversity and minimum meal frequency) while sustaining exclusive breastfeeding rate among children less than two years of age. The impact evaluation uses a cluster-randomized design where 20 geographic clusters (woredas/districts) were randomized to two study arms - 10 intervention areas and 10 comparison areas. Repeated cross-sectional baseline and endline surveys will be used to assess program impact.

Conditions

• Exclusive Breastfeeding
• Complementary Feeding

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

A&T community-based interventions

1. Interpersonal communication delivered by health workers and community volunteers at the health post and during home visits to: \- Increase mothers' knowledge about adequate child feeding practices 2. Interpersonal communication delivered by agricultural extension workers to: \- Increase fathers' knowledge about nutrition-sensitive agriculture and child feeding 3. Community mobilization activities to: * Raise awareness of child feeding practices among community members, and increase support to mothers (enhanced community conversations) * Increase mothers' knowledge about preparation of complementary foods (cooking demonstrations) * Raise awareness of adequate child feeding during fasting among family and community members (church sermons) 4. Enhanced training of government health and agricultural extension workers in infant and young child feeding to: * Improve their ability to provide timely and appropriate information and support to mothers and families

BEHAVIORAL

Mass media

Radio campaign - radio drama series, spots, and jingles

Sponsors & Collaborators

• FHI 360

  collaborator OTHER

• Save the Children

  collaborator OTHER

• International Food Policy Research Institute

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Purnima Menon, PhD · International Food Policy Research Institute

• Sunny S. Kim, PhD · International Food Policy Research Institute

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

15 Years

Max Age

49 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-03-31

Primary Completion

2017-04-30

Completion

2017-04-30

Countries

• Ethiopia

Study Locations