Male Motivation Campaign

• Project Overview
• Objectives and Strategies
• Activities and Highlights
• Research
• Materials and Resources

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Male Motivation Campaign was a major BCC intervention of the PRISM project. This campaign focused on achieving the intermediate goals of increased access to family planning and other health care services, increased demand for these services, improved quality of care, and improved coordination and linkages among health care providers and services.

This BCC campaign was implemented in two phases. Phase I used advocacy interventions to build support among religious leaders for family planning. Phase II focused on married men; multimedia interventions were used to promote spousal communication about family planning in order to increase the use of available services. Secondary audiences included women of reproductive age and service providers.

The Male Motivation Campaign was launched in three project regions and at the national level. Partners included the Ministry of Health, Oulemas de Guinée, Kine-Sud-Video, and Rural Radio/Nzerekore.

OBJECTIVES/STRATEGIES

Among religious leaders, the intervention specifically sought to:

• Increase knowledge about modern contraceptive methods.
• Increase the frequency of talking about family planning during sermons.

Among married men, women of reproductive age, and service providers, the campaign sought to:

• Increase the proportion of married men capable of citing at least one modern contraceptive method.
• Increase the proportion of men who discuss family planning with their spouses.
• Increase favorable attitudes toward small family size and contraceptive use.
• Increase contraceptive use in the study regions.

ACTIVITIES AND HIGHLIGHTS

Phase I: Religious Leaders' Advocacy

Conferences: Islamic religious leaders attended 3-day conferences in each of the project's 15 prefectures. Approximately 450 leaders, including the Imam, Deputy Imam, and Communal Secretary from each sub-prefecture, attended the conferences designed around the themes pertaining to Islam and Child Health, Maternal Health, Couple Health, and Family Planning. N'Zerekore was the host region for a Christian Leaders and Reproductive Health Conference. After the conference, attendees formed a support group mobilizing Christian leaders to back health centers and reproductive health activities.

Print Materials: During community mobilization events, religious leaders received a brochure and poster in the French language and the local dialect, Malinke.

Video: The main support material for the religious leaders' conference was a video produced in Malinke and subtitled in French on Islam and reproductive health issues.

Phase II: Multimedia Interventions

Launches: The campaign had a national launch in Conakry (covered on TV); regional launches in Kankan, Faranah, and N'Zerekore; and launches in 12 prefectures (aired on national and rural radio). The launches featured speeches, parades, music, dance, theater, film, and other activities inspiring the mostly male audiences to discuss family planning with their wives and encourage the women to use a health center.

Music Contests: Traditional music contests, conducted in 15 prefectures, familiarized the community with local health centers and family planning providers. Health centers held contests where local artists performed songs conveying family planning messages to about 22,500 people. Rural radio stations broadcast a compilation of winning songs.

Community Mobilization Activities: Almost 30,000 people attended community mobilization events surrounding 30 rural health centers (2 per prefecture). The events included dances, presentation of the religious leaders' video, question-and-answer sessions, and distribution of campaign materials.

Print Materials: The tag line on 9,000 posters, half produced in French, half in Malinke, featured the quote "I talk to my wife about family planning. How about you?" Multi-paneled campaign brochures, produced in both languages, totaled 200,000.

Audio Materials: A 20-minute cassette, entitled La Vie N'est Pas Compliquée, featured a popular local comedian who demonstrated a husband's dilemma in discussing family planning with his wife. Distribution of 3,000 of these cassettes, produced in French and Malinke, took place during the campaign. A 26-episode radio drama, with the same title and based on the same theme, aired in French on National Radio during the campaign. Ten rural radio programs, produced in four languages, frequently aired during the campaign, while ten radio spots in five languages aired prior to and during the campaign.

Publicity Materials: Materials produced to support launches and community mobilization events featured the campaign logo and slogan and included t-shirts, plastic and cloth bags, hats, stickers, water pots, key chains, pens,and cloth wraps.

Materials for Service Providers: Health service providers and community health agents received existing materials including family planning, AIDS, diarrhea, and adolescent health flipcharts; AIDS prevention posters; brochures on family planning, AIDS, and childhood communicable diseases; and wooden penis models. Health centers received a GATHER poster for improved counseling, an infection prevention poster in French and English, and contraceptive sample cases.

RESEARCH

The evaluation design of the Male Motivation Campaign consisted of two components: a panel study among religious leaders, and a population-based study among men and women of reproductive age.

Panel Survey of Religious Leaders

The panel design included baseline interviews at the start of the advocacy activities of half of the religious leaders who attended seven randomly selected conferences. When the project ended 4 months later, the baseline respondents were re-interviewed. In all, 98 religious leaders were interviewed at the two points in time. Major findings were as follows:

• At baseline, 73 percent of religious leaders were aware of 3 or more modern methods. This increased to 99 percent at follow-up.
• Those who believed Islam supports the use of family planning for child spacing increased from 55 percent at baseline to 94 percent at follow-up.
• The leaders who reported ever discussing family planning with their spouses increased from 41 percent at the baseline to 95 percent at follow-up.
• About 96 percent at follow-up compared with 43 percent at baseline reported they encouraged someone to use modern contraception.
• Those who ever preached in favor of using modern family planning methods increased from 38 percent at baseline to 96 percent at follow-up.
• Almost one-third of religious leaders continued to believe that family planning could encourage adultery.
• Current use of modern family planning methods increased insignificantly from 9 percent at baseline to 11 percent at follow-up.
• At follow-up, about 53 percent of the non-contracepting respondents aged 60 years or less indicated the intention to use a modern contraceptive method in the future.

Population-Based Study Among Men and Women of Reproductive Age

The evaluation design for assessing the impact of the campaign among the general population involved identifying and re-interviewing men and women who were interviewed in the 1999 Guinea Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) within 110 enumeration areas. The evaluation survey, conducted between August and September 2000, 14 months after the GDHS, consisted of 55 randomly selected enumeration areas. Analysis of campaign impact comprised both baseline and follow-up interviews of 1,045 respondents.

• Seventy-seven percent of men and 68 percent of women were exposed to at least one campaign material or activity.
• Among men, those who could spontaneously cite a modern contraceptive method increased from 35 percent at baseline to 64 percent at follow-up. The same indicator more than doubled among women, from 29 percent to 65 percent.
• Those who reported discussing family planning with their spouse or partner during the 12 months preceding the survey increased significantly from 20 percent at baseline to 25 percent at follow-up.
• The proportion reporting approval increased from 55 percent at baseline to 69 percent at follow-up. Increased approval of family planning occurred only among the respondents exposed to the campaign. Among those not exposed, approval of family planning decreased.
• Those reporting perceived spousal approval increased significantly from almost 23 percent at baseline to 30 percent at follow-up. The relative increase in perceived spousal approval was larger among men (58 percent) than among women (24 percent).
• Twenty-six percent reported discussing family planning with a relation or acquaintance at the baseline survey, compared to 40 percent at follow-up. Men were almost twice as likely to report increased discussion about family planning as women.
• Between baseline and follow-up, the proportion using a modern family planning method increased insignificantly from 3.9 percent to 4.9 percent among women and remained at the same level, 13 percent, among men.

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

Religious Leaders Video: PRISM and the private firm Kine-Sud-Video, in collaboration with partners from the MOH and private sectors (including Oulemas de Guinee), produced a video on Islam and RH issues. The video includes the four themes identified in the conferences: Islam and Child Health, Islam and Maternal Health, Islam and Couple Health, and Islam and Family Planning. The video, produced in Malinke, was sub-titled in French.

Posters: Poster messages included, "Talk to your wife about modern methods of family planning" and, "Go to your health center." Posters featured the tag line: "Planification Familiale-J'en parle avec ma femme. Et toi?" ("I talk to my wife about family planning. How about you?") and were in French and Malinke with Arab script.

Brochure: "Talk to your wife about family planning" were multi-paneled brochures in French and Malinke.

Cassette: PRISM developed and, in collaboration with Rural Radio/Nzerekore, recorded a 20-minute cassette, featuring a popular local comedian who demonstrated a husband's dilemma in discussing FP with his wife. The cassette's title, "La Vie N'est Pas Compliquée" ("Life Is Not Complicated"), was also the title of the radio drama.

Rural radio programs: PRISM contracted and worked with the national rural radio station to produce 10 programs in 4 languages (Malinke, Kissi, Kpele, and Konian).

Radio spots: PRISM produced ten radio spots in five languages.

Radio drama: The 26 episode radio drama, "La Vie N'est Pas Compliquée," was produced in French, as well as in three local languages.

Publicity materials: Materials produced to support launches and community mobilization events, featured the campaign logo and slogan "Planification Familiale-J'en parle avec ma femme. Et toi?" and included: t-shirts, plastic market bags, cloth bags, hats, stickers, water pots, key chains, pens, and commemorative cloths (pagnes).

CBD Logo: IEC/BCC, in collaboration with the community-based distribution (CBD) component, produced and distributed pagnes and shirts featuring the CBD logo.