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The Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has experienced rapid and significant economic growth over the past decade. However, poor nutritional outcomes remain a concern. Rates of childhood undernutrition are particularly high in remote, rural, and upland areas. Media have the potential to play an important role in shaping health and nutrition-related behaviors and practices as well as in promoting sociocultural and economic development that might contribute to improved nutritional outcomes. This report presents the results of a media audit (MA) that was conducted to inform the development and production of mass media advocacy and communication strategies and materials with a focus on maternal and child health and nutrition that would reach the most people from the poorest communities in northern Lao PDR. Making more people aware of useful information, essential services and products and influencing them to use these effectively is the ultimate goal of mass media campaigns, and the MA measures the potential effectiveness of media efforts to reach this goal. The effectiveness of communication channels to deliver health and nutrition messages to target beneficiaries to ensure maximum reach and uptake can be viewed in terms of preferences, satisfaction, and trust. Overall, the four most accessed media channels for receiving information among communities in the study areas were village announcements, mobile phones, television, and out-of-home (OOH) media. Of the accessed media channels, the top three most preferred channels were village announcements (40 percent), television (26 percent), and mobile phones (19 percent). In terms of trust, village announcements were the most trusted source of information (64 percent), followed by mobile phones (14 percent) and television (11 percent). Hence of all the media channels, village announcements are the most preferred, have the most satisfied users, and are the most trusted source of information in study communities from four provinces in Lao PDR with some of the highest burden of childhood undernutrition.

Early Child and Children's Health --- Health Project Design and Implementation --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Nutrition --- Reproductive Health --- Stunting

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This report presents an impact evaluation assessing the effect of incentives on improving the uptake of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) in two districts in Malawi. The cluster randomised control trial was led by the National AIDS Commission of Malawi and implemented from December 2015 to April 2016. The primary research question was whether incentives can increase VMMC uptake among in-school and out-of-school males aged 10-34. Collective incentives (e.g. whiteboards, football equipment) to schools and Mothers' Groups, as well as individual incentives in the form of vouchers for VMMC were tested. The evaluation found that incentives in the form of vouchers for VMMC work. The vouchers had a significant positive impact on VMMC demand by increasing the odds of getting circumcised by over seven times. Secondary distribution by voucher recipients showed potential to informally increase distribution networks without increasing costs. There was some evidence of spill-over to relatives: nearly a third of participants in both study districts who had been given vouchers reported that they gave vouchers to relatives. Using the participants' own social networks had the result of expanding the reach of the intervention without additional distribution costs. The evaluation also found that community-involvement, especially in the form of Mothers' Groups, was essential to motivate young men to seek VMMC. The report discusses the policy implications of this positive finding of incentives.

Conditional Cash Transfers --- Health Project Design and Implementation --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Poverty Reduction --- Reproductive Health --- Services and Transfers to Poor --- Social Networks

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In the 1980's Indonesia became an example for other countries concerned with reducing high levels of malnutrition. At the time, Indonesia had started nutrition programming and surveillance at the village level using the integrated weighing and child health posts, or Posyandu. In the ensuing decades there have been successes: small scale and bigger scale interventions that reduced malnutrition. At the same time, there have been set-backs, loss of attention, other priorities, decentralization, weak management and poor governance. In August 2017, the Indonesian government unveiled a new strategy to accelerate reductions in rates of stunting. This book looks at what will be required to turn that strategy - the National Strategy to Accelerate Stunting Prevention (StraNas Stunting) 2017-2021 - from vision into reality. It looks at the country's ambitious reforms and goals to reduce stunting. It examines the government's plans to boost awareness about the economic, social and personal cost of stunting, to ensure a truly national "multi-sectoral" effort to tackle the problem at scale in a coordinated and cohesive fashion in communities across Indonesia. It chronicles past successes and setbacks, drawing lessons from them about the future. We think Indonesia is on a path towards new success: this time at scale. It is a story worthtelling.

Child Health --- Early Child and Children's Health --- Food and Nutrition Policy --- Health Project Design and Implementation --- Health, Nutrition and Population --- Maternal Health --- Nutrition --- Stunting

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Despite the increasing popularity of Results Based Financing, there is little evidence or documentation of different verification strategies and how strategies relate to the verification results. Documentation of implementation processes including those pertaining to verification of outputs/results is lacking in World Bank-financed RBF projects in the health sector. The overall objective of this cross-case analysis is to expand knowledge about verification processes andpractices to address the design and implementation needs of RBF projects. This study adds toavailable knowledge by comparing the characteristics of verification strategies as well as available data on costs (using level of effort as a proxy), savings, and verification results to date in six countries: Afghanistan, Argentina, Burundi, Panama, Rwanda, and the UK. These case studies were purposively selected to explore a number of factors, including: how a variety of results are verified; how the verification strategy is being implemented at different levels in the health system; and the implications of having different types of actors (that is, third-party versus internal verifiers) involved in the verification process. In this cross-case analysis, the discussion of similarities and differences in verification methods across the six cases as well as the analysis of findings is guided by a conceptual framework developed for this study. This study presents seventeen key findings, and nine recommendations.

Health Economics & Finance --- Health Monitoring & Evaluation --- Health Policy and Management --- Health Project Design and Implementation --- Health Systems Development & Reform --- Health, Nutrition and Population

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'Integrating Nutrition Promotion and Rural Development' (INPARD) is a multisectoral approach to delivering nutrition-related interventions in rural development programmes in Sri Lanka. Although multisectoral approaches to health promotion are widely recommended, barriers to collaboration across sectors were identified in the INPARD study described in this document. These include a lack of clarity among stakeholders regarding their respective roles, communication gaps between those working in different sectors, and resistance by some who consider health outside the purview of the sector they work inches Improved collaboration will also require training for all concerned. The INPARD study was undertaken to investigate how effectively a rural development programme could be employed to deliver improved human nutrition outcomes - an objective not typically included in traditional rural development interventions in the past. The intervention considered was a large rural development project known as the Re-awakening Project (RaP), which carried out operations in 112 villages in the districts of Ampara and Moneragala. The villages were selected in part on prevailing poverty levels, and 20 of them were randomly selected for evaluation by the INPARD study as it was carried out alongside the larger RaP. 20 other villages in Ampara and Monergala were selected as the control group representing non-RaP villages. Finally, ten villages were selected from outside the RaP area altogether, in Kurungala district.

Early childhood development --- Education --- Health project design and implementation --- Health, nutrition and population --- Nutrition --- Rural development --- Rural development strategy and policy