This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more
Learn how we use evidence-based behaviour change campaigns to improve and save lives in low-income countries.
Learn about how DMI brings together two different worlds: demonstrable scientific practice and creative storytelling.
Background
14,000 children under-5 die every day worldwide. And at 76 deaths per 1,000 live births, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest child mortality rate in the world (compared to 40 per 1,000 in South Asia and eight per 1,000 in Europe).
Providing doctors, hospitals and drugs is crucial, but even the very best health services won’t prevent a single death unless people use them. Parents need to know when their child needs help, and to feel confidence in the treatments available. Improving knowledge and shifting behaviours is essential for more children to survive their early years.
Our Child Survival Work
Our child survival campaigns encourage preventative behaviours such as handwashing, exclusive breastfeeding or the use of bed nets. They also help parents recognise symptoms of life-threatening diseases such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea and to seek prompt treatment. Our campaigns also encourage pregnant women to attend antenatal care and give birth in a health facility, which results in higher chances of child survival and improved maternal health.
Radio, TV and mobile phones are the dominant information sources in much of Sub-Saharan Africa. Using mass media enables us to reach millions of parents with our messages, changing thousands of behaviours at a time. This is the underlying reason why our interventions are considered among the most cost-effective ways of saving a child’s life.