Perceived Agreement of Influencers

The indicator shows the extent to which the target group members believe that the targeted influencers (e.g. their mothers-in-law, husbands) agree with them following the child nutrition practices that are (or will be) promoted by an intervention. Keep in mind that it assesses what the target group members think about the influencers’ attitudes – this is important but it can be different from what the influencers actually agree with.

Determine the indicator's value by using the following methodology:

1) Define a limited number (3 to 7) of the child nutrition practices that are (or will be) promoted by the intervention. Since you want to make sure that the respondents are able to say whether the influencer (e.g. a husband or mother-in-law) agrees with the practice or not, avoid selecting practices that are too specific or uncommon.

2) Decide how many (and/or what types of) practices the respondent should believe the influencer agrees with in order to be considered as “thinking that the influencer agrees with the promoted child nutrition practices”. For example, “at least 4 out of 6 promoted practices” or “all essential practices and at least two additional practices”.

3) For each desired child nutrition practice, prepare two statements – one describing the optimal practice the target group member should follow, the second the practice you aim to discourage (both need to specify who is doing what and possibly also when). For example, in the case of exclusive breastfeeding, the statements can be:

   - When I have a healthy baby aged 4 months, I should give the baby only breastmilk and no other fluids or foods.

   - When I have a healthy baby aged 4 months, I should give the baby breastmilk but sometimes also other fluids or foods.

It is very important that the statements (especially the one about the negative practice) are defined in a very neutral way, so that they do not lead the respondent to a particular answer.

4) Conduct individual interviews with a representative sample of the target group members (e.g. women of reproductive age). After a brief introduction (see below), always read the two statements and ask the respondent which of the two statements she thinks the given influencer (e.g. her husband) agrees with more. See the example below. If the respondent is not sure, read the statements again.  Repeat this process for the remaining pairs of statements / practices.

EXAMPLE OF SURVEY QUESTION (Q) AND POSSIBLE ANSWERS (A)

Q1: Do you have [specify the influencer]?

A1: yes / no

(ask the next question only if the previous answer is “yes”)

Introduction: Now I am going to read a series of child nutrition practices that come in pairs. Each time please tell me which of the two practices you think your [specify the influencers] agrees with more.

Q2.1: When I have a healthy baby aged 4 months, I should give the baby only breastmilk and no other fluids or foods.

Q2.2: When I have a healthy baby aged 4 months, I should give the baby breastmilk but sometimes also other fluids or foods.

With which statement do you think that s/he agrees more with?

A2: _

1) thinks that s/he agrees more with the first statement (only breastmilk)

2)  thinks that s/he agrees more with the second statement (breastmilk and other fluids / foods)

3) does not know

5) Per each respondent, count how many correct practices the respondent thinks the influencer agrees with. For example, the respondent’s answers might show that s/he thinks that the influencer agrees with 4 out of 5 correct practices.

6) Count how many respondents thought that the influencer agrees with at least the minimum number of the correct practices (see point 2).

7) To determine the indicator’s value, divide the number of respondents who thought that the influencer agrees with the minimum number of correct practices by the total number of interviewed respondents (exclude those who responded that they do not know even once). Multiply the result by 100 to convert it to a percentage.

Disaggregate the data by age group and other criteria relevant to the context of your intervention (e.g. ethnic group or residence in rural vs. urban areas).

1) If you prefer to measure what the influencers actually agree with, you can use an alternative indicator “% of [specify the influencers] who agree with the [specify the target group] following the promoted child nutrition practices” (see guidance). However, bear in mind that this will require you to collect your baseline/endline data using two samples of respondents (the target group members and the influencers) which will considerably increase your workload.

2) Consider also reporting separately on the individual practices - for example, on the percentage of target group members who think that the influencer agrees with exclusive breastfeeding; on the percentage of target group members who think that the influencer agrees that children aged 12 to 16 months should eat eggs as a part of their meals; etc. Such data will tell you which practices are likely to be least agreed with by the influencers, showing you what the focus of your intervention should be.

3) When training the data collectors, emphasize that they have to verify whether they understood the respondent’s response correctly. For example, when the respondent says: “I think that he agrees more with the first practice”, they should verify it by saying “Do I understand correctly that you think that he agrees that children aged 4 to 5 months should receive only breastmilk and no other fluids or foods?” This simple measure will help prevent possible misunderstandings.

4) Ensure that the endline survey asks about exactly the same practices as the baseline survey did.

5) Change the order of the correct / incorrect answers – do not always, for example, put the correct statements first as this might influence the respondents’ answers.