Brief

Engaging Fathers to Improve Children's Dietary Diversity in Rural and Semi-Urban Communities: Lessons from Kaduna State

11 Jul 23
Topic(s): Complementary feeding
Location: Nigeria
Language(s): English
Audience: Health and service providers, Policy makers and legislators, Program designers and implementers
Programs: Community mobilization, Interpersonal communication, Mass communication, Social and behavior change

From 2019-2020, A&T and the Kaduna State Primary Health Care Board worked with a local civil society organization, I Care Women and Youth Initiative (ICARE), to engage fathers of children 6 to 23 months old through a package of community-based interventions to improve children’s dietary diversity. This pilot aimed to motivate fathers to provide money for or otherwise procure nutritious foods for their children and to support their wives with child feeding. The key interventions were selected based on formative research, which identified enablers and barriers for children’s dietary diversity in Kaduna state (shown in Table 1). This brief presents results from the pilot evaluation, which was conducted by RTI International in 6 of 12 wards in the Igabi local government area (LGA) of Kaduna State. The brief also summarizes the approaches used and offers key learnings for future program designers and implementers seeking to engage fathers through community-based approaches.

 
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