Complementary Feeding Project in Ethiopia
Condition: Egg Consumption
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), a Swiss-based foundation, implemented a
      complementary feeding project to improve dietary quality among children 6-59 months of age
      living in Ethiopia by improving demand and access to eggs. Using a quasi-experimental design
      and two separate cross-sectional surveys at baseline and end-line, the evaluation seeks to
      determine the effects of the program on egg consumption, availability of eggs, caregivers'
      behaviours toward eggs, and caregivers' willingness to pay for eggs.
    

Detailed description: 
      The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), a Swiss-based foundation, implemented a
      complementary feeding project to improve dietary quality among children 6-59 months of age
      living in Ethiopia by improving demand and access to eggs. The complementary feeding project
      aimed to boost children's consumption of eggs. The intervention incorporated demand creation
      campaigns and supported selected delivery channels and producers who provided eggs to
      communities. GAIN's demand creation strategy was designed to complement the Ethiopian
      government's effort to use social and behavior change communication to encourage consumption
      of nutritious complementary foods. This campaign was implemented through the existing health
      extension system.

      Areas included in the intervention arm received direct support for egg producers and
      suppliers and an egg demand creation campaign. Supply-side interventions included training
      for farmers, identification of distribution channels, mapping of retailers, and creation of
      linkages between egg producers and egg suppliers. Egg demand-creation activities were
      executed through above-the-line (ATL) and below-the-line (BTL) campaigns. The ATL campaigns
      included radio messages, bajaja branding, billboard mounting, and digital promotion. The BTL
      campaigns include market activation, road shows, sensitization workshops for key community
      groups, door-to-door promotion, and mobile promotion in collaboration with creative agencies
      and health extension workers. Both sets of activities focused on creating awareness around
      eggs as a daily nutritious food option for children.

      Originally, the study intended to also increase availability of, and demand for,
      commercially-available complementary foods (i.e., Cerifam and Fafa), however, these
      components of the intervention were not delivered. Therefore, we have removed these
      components from the description and removed the outcomes that corresponded with these
      components of the intervention.

      Using a quasi-experimental design and two separate cross-sectional surveys at baseline and
      end-line, the evaluation seeks to determine the effects of the program on egg consumption,
      availability of eggs, caregivers' behaviours toward eggs, and caregivers' willingness to pay
      for eggs.
    

Intervention name(s): Complementary feeding intervention
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The study promoted eggs.
GAIN provided training to egg farmers to increase their egg production and marketing, helped increase mother's access to eggs by making them more available in local kiosks and getting retailers to display promotional messages around eggs, conducted sensitization workshops with retailers to increase egg purchases, and employed a demand creation campaign.
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: Cross-sectional pre- post-evaluation of intervention and comparison group
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Prevention