Endline Survey: Mat Troi Be Tho Social Franchise Model and Mass Media Campaign on Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices, for the Alive & Thrive Initiative

Alive & Thrive (A&T) is an initiative to save lives, prevent illness, and ensure healthy growth and development through improved breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices. Good nutrition in the first 1,000 days, from conception to two years of age, is critical to enable all children to lead healthier and more productive lives. In its first five years (2009 to 2014), Alive & Thrive demonstrated that innovative approaches to improving feeding practices could be delivered with impact and at scale in three contexts: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Viet Nam. Alive & Thrive is now supporting others to scale up nutrition by applying and adapting tested, proven approaches and tools in contexts such as Burkina Faso, India, and Southeast Asia. Alive & Thrive is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the government of Canada and Ireland. Managed by FHI 360, Alive & Thrive builds on lessons learned through its partnership with BRAC, GMMB, IFPRI, Save the Children, UC Davis, and World Vision in the first phase of the initiative.

In Viet Nam, A&T launched an innovative social franchise model – Mat Troi Be Tho (MTBT) – to provide goodquality nutrition consultation services. Franchise services aimed to increase the availability of accurate information support on IYCF through effective interpersonal counseling and/or group sessions beginning in the third trimester of pregnancy and continuing through the first two years of life. Services are offered at all levels, from commune health centers (CHC) to district and provincial health facilities and hospitals. Complementing the social franchise model, A&T launched a communication strategy that includes print materials for clients, an interactive website (www.mattroibetho.vn) a forum, a fanpage and a mobile application. A mass media campaign reinforces the IYCF messages delivered through the franchises and generates demand for Mat Troi Be Tho services. Key messages were communicated via national and provincial television, educational short films and audio clips on the internet, radio spots, bus wraps, village loudspeaker systems and mobile technologies.

In addition to household surveys conducted in 4 impact evaluation provinces, A&T contracted the Institute of Social and Medical Studies (ISMS) to conduct a baseline survey in 11 provinces from July to August 2011, to establish benchmarks for detecting changes in IYCF practices resulting from franchise services and the mass media campaign. The baseline survey was conducted in A&T intensive (MTBT franchises with mass media) and A&T non-intensive areas (mass media only). From April to May 2014, A&T and ISMS conducted an endline survey in the same 11 provinces in the same A&T intensive and non-intensive areas to evaluate the role of the A&T’s franchise model and mass media campaign on IYCF practices among children less than 2 years of age. Information about nutrition status and IYCF feeding practices were collected at endline and compared to baseline rates. This report compares and presents the key findings from the baseline and endline survey in the 11 provinces: Ha Noi, Hai Phong, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Da Nang, Quang Nam, Khanh Hoa, Dak Lak, Dak Nong,
Tien Giang and Ca Mau.