DMI

Location Capacity strengthening, Nutrition

Haninaja

Objective

Madagascar, particularly the Southern regions of the country, is currently facing a major food security crisis and has seen high rates of malnutrition, with 40% of children in the country suffering from chronic malnutrition in 2024 (WFP, 2024). Adequate nutrition throughout the life course, including in infancy, childhood, as well as during pregnancy, is a building block for good health and resilience against disease.

Haninaja, meaning “young child food” in Malagasy, is a project working in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP) as part of their Madagascar Country Strategic Plan (2024-2028), aiming to address the most pressing nutritional issues and behaviours in the country.

Locations

Madagascar

Themes

Nutrition – promoting diet diversity and positive infant and young child feeding practices

Formats

60-second radio spots in 4 Malagasy dialects

Recipe videos

Interactive radio shows

Videos of testimonies and model families

Workshops for WFP, government, and NGO partners on the development of SBC campaigns

Scope

This multi-media and capacity development campaign will take place from 2024 to 2028 in the Grand Sud region of Southern Madagascar.

Our Approach

Science

Informing evidence-based nutrition messaging

Haninaja will take place in four regions in Southern Madagascar: Anosy, Androy, Atsimo-Andrefana and Atsimo-Atsinanana. These regions are amongst the hardest hit by malnutrition in the country.

To help inform our SBC campaign, we conducted extensive formative research via discussion groups and interviews with key audience community members in the Southern region of Madagascar. The barriers to good nutrition are almost entirely structural: climate, drought, and the cost of living. There were, however, important gaps in knowledge as to what constitutes an “optimal diet”, for example which complementary foods are most appropriate for infants. In addition, strong gender norms influence the distribution of food within households.

Stories

Engaging, high-impact content

From the formative research, we have been able to identify and prioritise the following messages:

  1. Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months
  2. Complementary feeding, including dietary diversity for children under the age of 2
  3. Nutrition during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

These key themes will be translated into various messaging formats, including radio, as pictured here in the studio.

Saturation

Radio, Video and Capacity Strengthening

This campaign is a collaboration between DMI, WFP and its partners, and will be developed through an iterative process. It will feature series of short and interactive radio programming, recipe videos, dramatised videos, and testimonies from families showing exemplary behaviours.

As part of DMI’s commitment to sustainability, Haninaja will also involve a strong capacity strengthening element. We are running workshops on communications and SBC theory for the development of evidence-based behaviour change campaigns. These will be available to staff from WFP, relevant government departments, and partnering organisations. The hope is to have this knowledge reach beyond the direct beneficiaries of this campaign and into other projects led by our partners.

Partners & Funders

We are grateful to the World Food Programme and their partners for funding this collaborative initiative.