Following Promoted Child Care Practices

Outcome

% of caregivers following at least X out of Y promoted child care practices

This is a composite indicator measuring the proportion of caregivers who follow at least a specified number of selected child-care practices promoted by the intervention. It is useful when a project promotes several practices and wants to track their combined adoption through one indicator.

Determine the indicator's value using the following methodology:

1) Identify the child care practices that your project actively promotes (or will promote) among the target caregivers. Examples of promoted practices may include giving children small snacks (e.g. local fruit); serving children food on their own plate (to help ensure they eat their share); breastfeeding even when the mother has a common illness such as a cold; or ensuring that children do not stay in areas contaminated by animal faeces. Ensure that the selected practices are appropriate to the child’s age and context and are consistent with current technical guidance.

2) For each practice, prepare relevant survey question(s) that assess whether caregivers follow it. Clearly define what response counts as following the practice and, where relevant, specify an appropriate reference period. Take advantage of relevant IndiKit guidance on measuring specific practices.

3) Decide how many of the selected practices (X out of Y) a caregiver needs to follow to meet the indicator criterion. Set this threshold based on the nature of the promoted practices and your intervention's design. Separately, set the project target for the percentage of caregivers expected to meet this criterion. Use existing data, where available, to help set a realistic target. For example, the indicator and its target might be: “75% of caregivers follow at least 4 out of 6 promoted child care practices."

4) Conduct individual interviews with a representative sample of caregivers to assess whether they follow the selected practices.

5) Count the number of interviewed caregivers who follow at least the minimum number of measured practices specified in Step 3.

6) To calculate the indicator's value, divide the number of caregivers who follow at least X out of Y promoted practices by the total number of interviewed caregivers. Multiply the result by 100 to convert it to a percentage.

This data can be disaggregated by caregiver's relationship to the child (see below), age group and gender, and, if relevant and feasible, also by the exposure to project activities, disability status and other locally relevant vulnerability characteristics.

1) For this indicator, a caregiver is a person substantially involved in the child’s day-to-day care and able to answer the selected practice questions. Do not automatically assume that this person is the mother. Define the respondent selection rule before data collection and apply it consistently. Where caregiving is shared, record the respondent’s relationship to the child and recognise that some practices may be performed by another caregiver.

2) An X-of-Y composite can hide important differences between individual practices. For programme interpretation, also review the result for each individual practice. Keep the practices, definitions and threshold unchanged when comparing results over time. If these change, do not interpret changes in the composite percentage as a trend.

3) Self-reported caregiving practices can be affected by recall and social desirability bias. Use neutral, behaviour-specific questions and an appropriate reference period for each practice.

4) Interpret the results in light of caregivers’ enabling environment. A caregiver may be unable to follow a promoted practice because required food, water, health services, safe space, time or social support are unavailable. This indicator measures whether the practice is followed; it does not explain why it is or is not followed.

Take advantage of existing IndiKit guidance on measuring specific practices, particularly in the Nutrition, Maternal and Child Health and WASH sections.