A Follow-up Study on the Sustained Impact of Alive & Thrive Interventions on Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices

Alive & Thrive (A&T) is a multi-year initiative to improve infant and young child feeding
(IYCF) practices. During Phase 1 (A&T-1, 2009-2014), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, A&T aimed to reduce undernutrition and death caused by suboptimal IYCF practices
in three countries - Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Viet Nam.

A&T-1 strategies in Bangladesh were designed to support improvements in IYCF in three key
ways: 1) improving policy and regulatory environments (advocacy); 2) shaping IYCF demand and
practice (community-based interventions); and 3) increasing supply, demand, and use of high
quality complementary foods (private sector engagement). In addition, a communications
component was integrated into each of these focus areas to support their activities.

In 2014, IFPRI in collaboration with DATA conducted the endline survey. The overall findings
of the evaluation indicate that A&T's work in Bangladesh is a remarkable success story of
scaling up what has been challenging to date in the field of nutrition: complex, high
intensity and at-scale behavior change communications interventions. This is demonstrated by
a series of findings on reach of the interpersonal counseling interventions and the mass
media, as well as attributable improvements in several critical indicators. During the
intervention period, A&T facilitated the training of over 75,000 frontline workers and
health providers across the country. The program model reached large scale with an estimated
1.7 million mothers of children under 2 years in 50 sub-districts. The mass media
intervention operated at a national level and through national television channels. Compared
to the 2010 baseline survey, improvements were seen in several key IYCF practices that are
attributable to A&T intensive package of interventions. Specifically, large significant
impacts were seen on two key breastfeeding indicators: EBF (DID impact estimates: 36.9
percentage point-pp) and early initiation of BF (DID 19.4 pp). Similarly, large significant
impact were seen in minimum dietary diversity (DID 16.3 pp), minimum meal frequency (DID
14.7 pp), minimum acceptable diet (DID 22.0 pp), and consumption of iron rich food (DID 24.6
pp).

In 2016, a follow up study will be conducted to determine the sustained impacts on IYCF
practices, expansion of operations and promoted practices into new areas, and diffusion of
IYCF information, two years after the termination of external project support. Because
achievements related to service delivery and outcomes are intended to be sustained in the
intervention areas and even expanded to other areas where BRAC's Essential Health Care
program operates, including the comparison areas, this study aims to examine elements in
both the original intervention and comparison areas.

This study focuses on the follow-up survey of the BRAC community-based model. The study
research questions include:

Sustained impacts

1. To what extent are IYCF knowledge and practices sustained in the intervention areas?

2. To what extent is exposure to IYCF and nutrition behavior change communications
sustained in the intervention areas?

Expanded operations and reach 1) To what extent has exposure to IYCF and nutrition behavior
change communications been expanded (i.e. in comparison areas)?

Diffusion of information

1) To what extent is IYCF information diffused through social networks or by other sources
(i.e. other than BRAC frontline workers)?

Inclusion Criteria:

- Women with children <24 months of age

Exclusion Criteria:

- Age <18

- Mental disorders that cannot understand and answer the questions