mNutrition Ghana Endline Study

mNutrition was a five-year global initiative supported by the Department for International Development (DFID) between 2013 and 2018, organized by GSMA, implemented by in-country mobile network operators and evaluated by researchers from GAMOS, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), with the objective of building effective mobile phone-based advisory services for improving nutrition outcomes. In Ghana, mNutrition was implemented through the Vodafone Farmers Club (VFC) SMS program, and the service offered both agricultural and nutrition information through mobile voice and SMS services in addition to free calls between VFC members to improve the nutritional status of smallholder farmers’ households and to increase their agricultural productivity. To determine the causal effect of the program on dietary diversity and agricultural production, a cluster randomized encouragement design was employed to randomly expose treatment communities to promotional activities to sign up to VFC. Household interviews were conducted before and after the intervention. Quantitative data-collection took place in the Central Region and Upper West Region of Ghana. At baseline, 3933 households from 207 communities (104 treatment and 103 control) were interviewed. Of these 3933 households, 3802 households were interviewed at the endline. Interviews were conducted with both primary male and female members of the household.

mNutrition是一项为期五年的全球倡议，于2013至2018年间由国际发展部（Department for International Development, DFID）资助，GSMA牵头组织，各国本土移动网络运营商负责落地执行，由GAMOS、发展研究所（Institute of Development Studies, IDS）与国际粮食政策研究所（International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI）的研究人员开展评估工作，其目标是构建高效的移动电话端咨询服务以改善营养健康结局。在加纳，mNutrition项目通过沃达丰农户俱乐部（Vodafone Farmers Club, VFC）短信计划落地实施，该服务除支持沃达丰农户俱乐部成员间的免费通话外，还通过移动语音与短信渠道提供农业及营养相关信息，旨在改善小农家庭的营养状况并提升其农业生产效率。为明确该项目对膳食多样性与农业生产的因果效应，研究采用整群随机鼓励设计，将处理组社区随机暴露于沃达丰农户俱乐部的推广招募活动中。干预前后均开展了家庭访谈，定量数据采集工作在加纳的中部地区与上西部地区进行。基线调查阶段，共访谈了来自207个社区的3933户家庭（其中104个为处理组社区，103个为对照组社区），在上述3933户家庭中，最终随访阶段完成了3802户的访谈，访谈对象为家庭中的男性与女性主要成员。