Insight
The Amalima project builds on existing communal initiatives in order to sustainably advance household food and nutrition security by strengthening access to and availability of food, building community resilience to shocks, and improving nutrition and health among mothers and children in western Zimbabwe.
As part of a seven-member consortium, The Manoff Group is responsible for Amalima’s Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) activities. By providing communications support to for all of the project’s components, TMG’s work harmonizes efforts across the project, resulting in an integrated approach reaching families in Amalima’s four intervention districts.
Change
One of Amalima’s objectives is to improve the nutrition practices of local mothers leveraging resources they already have. TMG conducted formative research [LINK TO TIPs] that showed that men’s negative perception of the amount of time women spent breastfeeding infants was one important reason that women did not practice optimal breastfeeding behavior.
To establish impactful and realistic male involvement goals, TMG engaged both men and women in a consultative process that generated a list of realistic, supportive behaviors that could be promoted with men. The resultant Male Involvement Campaign leveraged respected local leaders to engage men to lead tailored outreach programs to discuss men’s roles and responsibilities in infant and young child feeding (IYCF) [LINK TO IYCF section of nutrition page]. A subsequent case-control study found a statistically significant improvement in the key behaviors promoted by the campaign in the pilot area.
Women in the Male Involvement Campaign pilot area reported more supportive behaviors by their partners than women in the control area. Women scored their husbands or male head of household on 12 key behaviors promoted by the campaign. The average score in the pilot communities was 20.2 (out of 30). In the control communities, the average score was 15.4
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