Impact Evaluation of the Marketing Innovation for Health Project in Bangladesh

Author(s): MEASURE Evaluation

Year: 2017

Abstract:

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Bangladesh awarded the Marketing Innovation for Health (MIH) project to Social Marketing Company (SMC), Bangladesh in July 2012 for a period of four years. SMC implemented the project in close collaboration with four partner nongovernmental organizations—BRAC, CWFD, PSTC, and Shimantik. (We use the CPS abbreviation to collectively refer to the latter three organizations, because they had similar intervention strategies that differed from those of BRAC.) The project aimed to contribute to sustained improvements in the health status of women and children, by increasing access to and demand for essential health products and services through a private-sector approach in 19 priority districts, with a total population of about 20 million.

A difference-in-differences analysis of data collected through baseline and end line surveys from randomly selected intervention and comparison clusters shows that there was a significant increase in client-worker contacts and in women’s knowledge and use of health products and services, as the project intended. There were differences in the performance of BRAC and CPS in some of the indicators considered, which is possibly because of organizational, policy, and fieldworker differences among the implementing organizations. For example, our findings of significant positive impacts of CPS on current use of modern contraceptives and of BRAC on receiving four or more antenatal care visits can be partially explained by these differences. The programmatic implications of the findings are discussed and recommendations are made.