Location Menstrual health

Menstrual Hygiene Management

Objective

Poor menstrual hygiene management (MHM) can lead to negative health outcomes and low school attendance for adolescent girls. We have partnered with the World Bank’s Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend project (SWEDD) to design an intervention in Mauritania that addresses social, behavioural, and information-related barriers to MHM.

Locations

Mauritania

Themes

Menstrual hygiene management – reducing period stigma and promoting positive MHM practices.

Formats

4 x short films.

Scope

Our films have been loaded onto audio-visual cards, for distribution over 13 months in specially created adolescent safe spaces.

Our Approach

Science

Changing attitudes and behaviours towards MHM

DMI previously worked on the Sahel Women’s Empowerment and Demographic Dividend project (SWEDD) in 2017 and 2018, promoting family planning through a TV, radio and social media campaign in six countries across the Sahel region.

We are excited to continue to help increase women and adolescent girls’ empowerment through SWEDD, this time creating an SBCC intervention to help adolescent girls in Mauritania to manage their menses with dignity and comfort. Using formative research commissioned by The World Bank’s Africa Region Gender Innovation Lab (GIL), we have created four films promoting positive MHM behaviours. We anticipate that our materials will be used to support dynamic discussions within the target group as a way of changing attitudes and behaviours towards menstruation.

As well as designing the intervention, DMI is developing all content, training NGOs to implement this intervention, and providing technical assistance to the implementers of this project.

Stories

Relatable stories and informative content

Our MHM videos are intended to provide discussion and teaching aids for adolescent girls, their teachers, and caregivers.

We have produced two animations targeting adolescent girls and their mothers, which aim to re-frame menstruation and address the misperception that menstrual blood is impure. We have also shot two live-action videos, each focused on a different caregiver, which aim to shift negative parental attitudes about menstruation.

We are working in close contact with the SWEDD Mauritania team and local producers to ensure the stories we broadcast are culturally relevant and sensitive.

Saturation

500 video cards, 4 videos, 3 languages

The films have been uploaded onto audio-visual cards that will be distributed in specially created adolescent safe spaces within the intervention zones.

We have conducted a training workshop to demonstrate to the safe space leaders how to use the cards and we will provide technical assistance to the community-based agents implementing the campaign.

Cards may also be distributed by local NGOs to increase the reach of the campaign.

Partners & Funders

We are grateful to the World Bank for funding this intervention.