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Behavior change communication and Movercado :)*(:

Posted in development, ICT4D, ICTs, mobile and technology, m4D, mHealth, Mozambique, wait... what?, tagged , , , , , , on October 24, 2011| 5 Comments »

A few weeks ago, Iulian Circo, who’s working at Population Services International (PSI) in Mozambique, asked if I’d look at some slides about an idea called ‘Movercado’. I checked it out and it seems pretty cool.

Movercado is described as “an  interpersonal communication experiment” with the goal of supporting behavior change communication (BCC) in large countries with poor infrastructure.

The problem that Movercado would address?

‘Taking behavioral messages above the line (TV, Radio, Mass media)  doesn’t really work beyond the all important effect of creating awareness. Organizations such as PSI know that very well and focus a lot on inter-personal communication. That means we need a critical mass of trained “agents” placed throughout the country that conduct standardized information, education and communication sessions in their communities.  Obviously, supervising, training and deploying such an army of “agents” is difficult, slow and very costly. Additionally, efforts to ensure quality and keeping the training materials up to date adds to the costs. Finally, reaching the critical mass required to have an impact with this traditional model in a large country is very difficult.’

Enter Movercado, which aims to facilitate this process through a series of face-to-face training, SMS, calls, incentives, data collection and personalized messaging with agents and the target population.

There is a step-by-step detailed description on the Movercado blog, but since I don’t know the context well, it was confusing at first. So Iulian created a quick user  scenario and had a friend draw up the visual below to help with understanding the process and flow of the application:

How would Movercado work?

‘Manuel lives in Beira, Sofala Province. He sells airtime and cigarettes nearby the port and is always looking for more business opportunities. He also goes to school at night. One day he sees an announcement in the papers about an inter-personal communication training offered by PSI, that will allow him to supplement his income. He registers for the training.

The training is about inter-personal communication in the area of Malaria Prevention. Upon successful completion of the training, he receives a training kit that contains training materials, training aids, information sheets as well as a stack of cards containing unique codes. He leaves his telephone number and some other personal details with the trainer and three days later he receives a SMS informing him that his registration with Movercado is completed and he can start delivering IPC sessions.
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Now, Movercado links his details to the range of codes in his kits, which means that every code in that range represents a session in Malaria prevention conducted by Manuel.
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Emelita works at the market nearby the port selling cashew nuts and tangerines. She often buys airtime from Manuel. One day Manuel asks her if she knows anything about malaria prevention and proceeds to go through the standardized session as learned in the training. Upon completion, he hands her a card and tells her that she should text the code on the card to such and such number – the message is free and she will receive an additional 5MTN in cash (6 cents US). 
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After arriving home, Emelita texts the code to the given number. A few minute later she receives a message congratulating her for having undergone a very important prevention session along with a voucher for 5 MTN in airtime. 
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Shortly after, Manuel receives an SMS  informing him that the session with Emelita has bene validated and he receives an incentive in Airtime or M-Kesh, whichever he prefers.
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A few months later, due to the rainy season, malaria becomes more prevalent in Beira. Manuel receives an SMS informing him that during this period his incentives for every session delivered will be higher. 
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A month later Emelita receives a call from a trained PSI quality control agent who goes through the session with her, reinforces the message and provides more specific information on Malaria, including health centers where nets are available for free.
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Less than six months later, Manuel finishes all his cards. He calls PSI on a toll-free number and is informed that in order to receive new cards he needs to attend a refresher training – he is given specific details about the regular refresher trainings implemented by Nova, a partner in Beira.  
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In another scenario, Manuel works for Viva, a local community NGO. In this case Manuel’s incentives may be slightly different, as per the agreement between PSI and Viva. Viva themselves receive a payment for every session that Manuel conducts (or they receive points that are then converted in financing), and they may be trained and certified to deliver either the initial training and/ or the refreshers themselves.

I think the idea has merit. My main concern is the still low mobile phone penetration rate and skill levels in Mozambique. The ITU reports only 31 mobile phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (likely lower in rural areas), an adult literacy rate of 55%, and the country has low network coverage. It is currently ranked 141st out of 152 in terms of ICT access, 135th in terms of use and 147th in terms of ICT skills by the ITU. So the idea would need to be supplemented by other approaches to reach the majority of the population (something Movercado aware of too, of course).

Iulian  has written up some other potential risks to the idea, such as quality assurance control and the possibility that people would try to game the system.

I think it’s a really interesting model. What do others think?

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