Food, Frustrations and Family Dynamics: Using Film to Promote Joint Household Decision-Making
Summary:
Improving women's nutritional status is essential to break the intergenerational cycle of undernutrition. A women's household labor load affects her ability to earn income, the time she has available for child care, and the time available to feed and care for herself. Supporting male involvement in household tasks and childcare decreases women's labor burden, allows women increased time for optimal feeding practices, and increases fathers' emotional attachment to their children. In addition, joint decision-making between couples has the potential to increase the consumption of, and allocation of household resources to acquire, nutritious foods. TOMAK developed a low budget film in collaboration with a local organization, Ba Futuru, which focuses on household decision-making, the allocation of household resources for nutritious foods, and the important role of fathers and grandmothers in family nutrition. The film evaluation approach involves a questionnaire that is administered to community group members (mothers, fathers, grandmothers) prior to watching the film. The questionnaire is re-administered three months later following two film screenings and discussions. The purpose is to assess whether viewing the film and participating in group discussions spurs discussions between spouses around the allocation of household resources for nutritious foods, and whether there is a difference across nutrition groups, agriculture groups, and savings associations. Results from this film assessment are helping the project better understand how effective its SBCC products are, while providing a basis for discussions with Ministry of Health and partners on how to improve evaluation strategies for SBCC materials going forward.
Background/Objectives:
Shifting awareness of gender dynamics in households and improving joint decision-making can empower both men and women to contribute to improvements across the household. An existing body of research shows links between mothers' participation in household decision making and associated reductions in child stunting. In a country like Timor-Leste where almost 50% of children under 5 are stunted, nutrition interventions should specifically support joint household decision making to reach Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 5, Zero Hunger and Gender Equality.
Results/Lessons Learned:
The baseline questionnaire revealed that the majority of respondents believe that a lot of money is needed to consume protein foods like eggs and beans, and that a fathers' role in supporting household nutrition is to generate income. Most respondents stated that they communicate with their spouse about allocation of resources for nutritious foods two to three times monthly. The baseline also showed that when funds or household resources are limited, respondents prefer to eat whatever is available (rather than purchase small quantities of protein rich foods for young children and mothers). As this film is the first SBCC tool being used by TOMAK and partners that specifically addresses household decision-making practices for improved nutrition, the assessment will provide valuable insight into the effectiveness of the film within community groups. Data collection will be completed in December 2019 and analysed prior to the SBCC Summit in March 2020.
Discussion/Implications for the Field:
Many projects do not have an extensive budget for the development of a wide range of SBCC products, let alone funding for large scale evaluations. For this reason, there is a need to develop cost-effective evaluation strategies that can be applied to individual products to assess their effectiveness in promoting key behaviors to intended audiences. These approaches should move beyond pre/post methodologies conducted in a single setting (e.g. measured directly before/after watching a film) and should probe deeper than changes in knowledge alone to demonstrate the effectiveness of the SBCC product in stimulating the desired behavior change over time.
Abstract submitted by:
Sarah Meyanathan - TOMAK
Fabiola Araujo - TOMAK
Lewti Hunghanfoo - TOMAK
Kristine Larsen - TOMAK
Improving women's nutritional status is essential to break the intergenerational cycle of undernutrition. A women's household labor load affects her ability to earn income, the time she has available for child care, and the time available to feed and care for herself. Supporting male involvement in household tasks and childcare decreases women's labor burden, allows women increased time for optimal feeding practices, and increases fathers' emotional attachment to their children. In addition, joint decision-making between couples has the potential to increase the consumption of, and allocation of household resources to acquire, nutritious foods. TOMAK developed a low budget film in collaboration with a local organization, Ba Futuru, which focuses on household decision-making, the allocation of household resources for nutritious foods, and the important role of fathers and grandmothers in family nutrition. The film evaluation approach involves a questionnaire that is administered to community group members (mothers, fathers, grandmothers) prior to watching the film. The questionnaire is re-administered three months later following two film screenings and discussions. The purpose is to assess whether viewing the film and participating in group discussions spurs discussions between spouses around the allocation of household resources for nutritious foods, and whether there is a difference across nutrition groups, agriculture groups, and savings associations. Results from this film assessment are helping the project better understand how effective its SBCC products are, while providing a basis for discussions with Ministry of Health and partners on how to improve evaluation strategies for SBCC materials going forward.
Background/Objectives:
Shifting awareness of gender dynamics in households and improving joint decision-making can empower both men and women to contribute to improvements across the household. An existing body of research shows links between mothers' participation in household decision making and associated reductions in child stunting. In a country like Timor-Leste where almost 50% of children under 5 are stunted, nutrition interventions should specifically support joint household decision making to reach Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 5, Zero Hunger and Gender Equality.
Results/Lessons Learned:
The baseline questionnaire revealed that the majority of respondents believe that a lot of money is needed to consume protein foods like eggs and beans, and that a fathers' role in supporting household nutrition is to generate income. Most respondents stated that they communicate with their spouse about allocation of resources for nutritious foods two to three times monthly. The baseline also showed that when funds or household resources are limited, respondents prefer to eat whatever is available (rather than purchase small quantities of protein rich foods for young children and mothers). As this film is the first SBCC tool being used by TOMAK and partners that specifically addresses household decision-making practices for improved nutrition, the assessment will provide valuable insight into the effectiveness of the film within community groups. Data collection will be completed in December 2019 and analysed prior to the SBCC Summit in March 2020.
Discussion/Implications for the Field:
Many projects do not have an extensive budget for the development of a wide range of SBCC products, let alone funding for large scale evaluations. For this reason, there is a need to develop cost-effective evaluation strategies that can be applied to individual products to assess their effectiveness in promoting key behaviors to intended audiences. These approaches should move beyond pre/post methodologies conducted in a single setting (e.g. measured directly before/after watching a film) and should probe deeper than changes in knowledge alone to demonstrate the effectiveness of the SBCC product in stimulating the desired behavior change over time.
Abstract submitted by:
Sarah Meyanathan - TOMAK
Fabiola Araujo - TOMAK
Lewti Hunghanfoo - TOMAK
Kristine Larsen - TOMAK
Source
Approved abstract for the postponed 2020 SBCC Summit in Marrakech, Morocco. Provided by the International Steering Committee for the Summit. Image credit: TOMAK via YouTube