Development Media International

Name: Global Innovation Fund
Price range: $

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Location

Burkina Faso

Sector

Public Health, Gender

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Type of Investment

Grant

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Project Stage

Test & Transition

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Length of Investment

2015 - 2022

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Website

developmentmedia.n...

Investment Overview

A $2 million grant to rigorously test the impact of a radio-based behaviour change campaign to encourage women in Burkina Faso to prevent unwanted pregnancies through the use of modern contraceptives.

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The Development Challenge

Burkina Faso has a fertility rate of six children born to each woman, and modern contraceptive use is only at 15%. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the main barriers to contraceptive uptake are lack of information and awareness as well as fear of contraceptives.

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The Innovation

Development Media International tested a radio-based saturation mass media campaign to encourage the use of modern contraceptives in Burkina Faso. The behaviour change campaign focused on overcoming the cognitive barriers and social norms that prevent the uptake of modern contraceptives. During the pilot phase, over 600,000 women of reproductive age were reached. During the subsequent national scale-up, it was estimated that approximately 3.8 million women were reached.

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Our Investment

GIF's grant of $2 million supported a cluster randomised controlled trial in Burkina Faso to test whether the mass media family planning campaign was able to increase uptake of modern contraceptive methods. The RCT was the only one of its kind in the world testing the effectiveness of a family planning mass media campaign.

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Progress to date

The pilot phase RCT was successful, as reported by Glennerster, Murray, and Pouliquen (2021) finding a 5.9 percentage point increase in the modern contraceptive prevalence rate. As hoped, this led to a nationwide scale-up in 2019.

During the pilot phase, over 600,000 women of reproductive age were reached by the mass radio campaign. At national scale-up, it was estimated that approximately 3.8 million women were reached. The research estimated that due to the national scale-up of the mass radio campaign, 225,000 additional women are using modern contraceptives. We estimate that the increase in the use of modern contraception averted over 42,000 unintended pregnancies in 2020. Using information on Burkina Faso’s maternal mortality rate and unofficial abortion rate, we estimate that the mass radio campaign has saved over 220 lives to date and reduced the number of unsafe abortions. The research also found that the impact on contraception translated into an improvement in self reported health and wellbeing among women impacted by the mass radio campaign.

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