"Girma" is a multisectoral development project implemented in Niger and funded by USAID/Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance. In Girma's project area, women are underrepresented in community-based organizations (CBOs) and almost never reach leadership positions. Girma developed a multisectoral approach for tackling the root causes of this problem. This approach combines four activities: (i) Leadership training for women who are already members of CBOs; (ii) Training on women's rights for all members of targeted CBOs; (iii) A couple's strengthening approach called Maison Familiale Harmonieuse (Harmonious Family House), including a specific module on local governance; and (iv) Literacy training for both women who are already members of CBOs and others aspiring to become members. The main result was a spectacular increase in women reaching leadership positions in CBOs within one year, widely exceeding project targets. Key lessons learned (with programmatic implications) are that: (i) for catalyzing social change, both influential and marginalized groups need to be involved; and (ii) in a low literacy environment, the ideal sequencing of activities starts with literacy training, followed by leadership training, the establishment of action plans and a frequent post-training accompaniment and monitoring of action plans implementation. 

South Africa planned to roll out its first vaccination program in February 2021, targeting 1,2 million healthcare workers (HCW). However, there was no data on how HCW felt or thought about the vaccine and the potential impact of hesitancy on broader uptake. UNICEF, in partnership with the National Department of Health (NDoH), implemented a Behavioural and Social Drivers (BeSD) survey to address this gap, and inform the response. The adapted BeSD survey tool was run on the low data Internet of Good Things (IoGT) from 29 January to 05 February 2021. The NDoH launched and promoted the IoGT survey link through its cost-free website, online learning platform, by email, WhatsApp and multiple stakeholder networks. Of the 22,751 HCW who responded, 80% indicated the vaccine was important for their health and 70% indicated they would take the vaccine. Only 32% trusted the vaccine "very much", with efficacy (31%), safety (26%) and trust in authorities (14%) core concerns. The adaptable survey tool and digital platforms and networks were key to UNICEF rapidly advocating for the survey and it's effective, speedy and free distribution and uptake. Results were shared with the response team. Although the line to a specific response was not always direct, the HCW survey provided concrete and actionable evidence to inform vaccine rollout programming and advocacy, demonstrating how digital networks and accessible data collection and analysis platforms can transform data gathering for SBCC. Broader access to, and more effective use of this infrastructure should be promoted.  
 

Background: Gender digital exclusion is a global problem with a higher gap in Sub-Saharan African countries. In Ethiopia, technology literacy and use of digital tools among women including female health professionals is very low. Approaches: USAID Digital Health Activity (DHA) is a five-year USAID-funded project that supports the health sector of Ethiopia in digitalization, data use and governance. The project conducted a gender analysis at the beginning of 2020 to identify the gender digital gap, and has intervened to ensure gender equality in the program implementation. Results:  During the last two years, the proportion of women assuming leadership positions reached 33.0%. Training was given on Health Information System (HIS) to 12, 984 staff within the health sector in Ethiopia of which 5511 (42.4%) were women. The proportion of female trainees increased by 338 percent between 2020 to 2021. Thirteen youth enterprises composed of 95 members were established with the technical and financial support of DHA where eight of them are led by women. These women-led enterprises supported 449 (65.1%) of the 690 project supported health institutions across the country. Lessons learned: Empowering women by bringing them to leadership positions, and through providing development related training within digital health intervention projects help bridge the gender-digital divide.

This presentation describes the design and effective use of a tablet-based digital tool to improve family planning (FP) counseling and service outcomes in Indonesia. The Balanced Counseling System (BCS) was designed to reduce contraceptive method discontinuation rates caused by two typical failings of FP counseling processes: (1) failure to ensure that clients are able to make an informed method choice that matches their personal contraceptive needs, and (2) failure to adequately prepare clients to use their chosen method effectively, including understanding and managing potential side effects. For this study, three waves of data were collected (including observations/videotaping of 600 counseling sessions with 60 providers, and interviews with those same providers and clients) in treatment and control facilities, before and after BCS training. Comparisons of counseling techniques and content delivered pre-post training showed dramatic improvements in counseling practices among trained providers. Better counseling was hypothesized to reduce twelve-month method dropout rates. Analysis after 12 months showed lower rates of discontinuation among women in the treatment facilities compared to the national average (8.2% vs. 28.2%). Clients were also less likely to cite side effects as the reason for discontinuation in treatment facilities compared to the national average (20% vs. 33%). This presentation will discuss the advantages and challenges of using digital solutions to improve service delivery quality and outcomes.