Before COVID-19, there were over 60 million children out-of-school in developing countries; and in sub-Sahara Africa, 87 percent of ten-year-old children were learning-poor. Demand-side and home-learning solutions in rural, low-literate and traditional societies remain greatly overlooked by policymakers and researchers.
Through a cluster randomized control trial, we tested two components of a 5-day intervention targeting 6-9-yo girls and boys and their parents in northern Nigeria. These components consisted of community video screenings to reshape parental aspirations and attitudes towards education, and a mobile app add-on to improve learning. After 12 months, community screenings decreased out-of-school children by 42 percent but did not improve learning. In half of the treatment communities, we provided an add-on where a third of attending households received a smartphone pre-loaded with gamified and digital library apps. This combined intervention increased literacy and numeracy skills by 0.18 and 0.33 standard deviations. The intervention worked for both girls and boys, with effects generally being the same. Finally, the combined intervention had spillovers on non-targeted children, where we observe an increase in literacy and numeracy skills (0.15 and 0.26 SDs), and on adolescents a decrease in parenthood (13%) and early entry into the labor market (14%). Our results suggest that combining aspirational videos with engaging apps could be a cost-effective tool for home-learning and development initiatives targeting rural, low-literate and traditional societies, where the evidence base remains scarce.

Young people love using their smartphones. But increasingly, the phones are using them. Addiction to social media such as Facebook, as well as exposure to hate speech through their content have already emerged as a potential threat to mental health in developed countries. Post-pandemic SBCC initiatives for the youth of the developing world must therefore include some aspect of Digital Wellness training. 
Before the pandemic, the average American spent 4 hours staring at mobile screens, with 60% of their youth diagnosing themselves as addicted. Several studies in both OECD and BRICS nations - including our Fullbright-funded research at the University of Chicago - demonstrated these harmful effects, such as reduced self-esteem via exposure to social media. In 2020, 1 in 4 youth reported exposure to hateful or racist comments.
These dangers become even more pertinent for emerging economy countexts, where development agencies advocate connectivity on the grounds of economic opportunity. This myopic approach overlooks the dangers to young internet users, at least 76% of whom access social media, and may be exposed to disturbing propaganda campaigns in their ethnically and linguistically diverse societies. 
In this session, we will connect stories of pre-pandemic youth outreach strategies (at nonprofits in Kenya and India) with an insider's look from two social entrepreneurs and technologists at the University of Chicago. Through this novel perspective on Digital Wellness, we aim to discover practical answers and deeper questions to help ensure that even in our increasingly fractured world, smartphone users emerge as phone-smart.