The first 1,000 days between a woman’s pregnancy and a child’s second birthday offer a critical opportunity to dramatically affect his or her development. Organizations like 1,000 Days advocate for better and more informed nutrition to improve a child’s well-being and possibly break the cycle of poverty. New efforts by the Department of Social Development … Continue reading
Category Archives: Reproductive Health
The Benefits of Peer Pressure
We often hear about the negative impacts of peer pressure, but a recent New York Times article highlights its potential benefits. Peer pressure can be harnessed to change social norms and encourage the adoption of beneficial health products and services. Depending on an organization’s capacity and community needs, there are several different ways to use … Continue reading
Technology and Sexual and Reproductive Health Education
A recent Huffington Post article emphasizes the importance of leveraging technology to improve sexual and reproductive health education. New technologies offer a key opportunity to engage adolescents and apply tools from behavioral economics that maximize the benefits of these platforms, particularly among social media. Improved social media campaigns and messages targeted towards youth can harness … Continue reading
Identity Priming to Improve Reproductive Health Services
People are constantly subjected to stimuli that influence their decision-making processes. Advertisers commonly harness this tool – priming – to promote their products or services. Businesses may choose a particular color scheme, building temperature or music to subtly influence people’s decisions. Priming allows people to quickly filter or emphasize the important information. In the context … Continue reading
Engaging Youth in Indonesia
Two weeks ago in Indonesia, a non-profit organization, Kita Sayang Remaja (Kisara — We Care for Youth) organized a three day workshop to educate and train youth to be sexual and reproductive health peer educators. Workshop participants are expected to return to their homes and spread the knowledge to their peers to increase youth access to … Continue reading
Uptake of Long-term Contraception Remains Low
Increasing the availability of long-term family planning methods, such as intrauterine devices or implants, has done little to increase uptake among women in Malawi. Lack of information and intra-household dynamics were cited as prominent factors preventing the increased use of long-acting contraception. Yet, frequent stockouts of the preferred short-term methods – birth control pills and … Continue reading
The Provider Bias Problem: Barriers Women face when Accessing Reproductive Health Services
Globally, women continue to face discrimination and abuse from healthcare providers when they seek out reproductive health services. A study of several Latin American countries revealed that 41 percent of women feel discriminated against when they specifically seek out reproductive health service, and less than half felt they received competent care. 77 percent of women … Continue reading
Provider Incentives Increase use of Long-Acting Reversible Contraception in the UK
A pay for performance scheme in the United Kingdom seeks to increase women’s awareness of and access to long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC) methods such as injections and intrauterine devices. Women in the UK use LARC methods at a five percent lower rate than the global average in part because of the common misconception that pills are … Continue reading
Leveraging Mobile Technology in Reproductive Health
In Cameroon, mobile service provider, Orange, and the Ministry of Health have launched My Healthline, a mobile phone based health service. Users text their sexual health questions and receive answers from medical professionals within an hour. Orange ensures all questions are anonymous and sends them to Cameroonian doctors and nurses. Not only does this help manage the massive … Continue reading
The ideas42 Summit: Innovative Solutions to Reproductive Health Challenges
Last Friday, approximately 60 reproductive health service providers gathered at the ideas42 summit in Washington, DC to discuss how behavioral economics can help create innovative solutions to some of the major challenges in reproductive health and family planning. In addition to an in-depth explanation of behavioral economics and the psychologies of decision making and action, … Continue reading
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