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Benin
This brief explains that theTékponon Jikuagou project in Benin is a low-cost package of activities that relies on existing social networks to diffuse new ideas in support of family planning.
Tékponon Jikuagou was developed as a response to persistent low rates of family planning uptake in Benin. Tékponon Jikuagou, which means “doing everything possible to prevent infant mortality” in the local language of Adja, aimed to reduce unmet need for family planning through social network interventions, thereby improving healthy timing and spacing of births .The six-year project (2010-2017) was developed by the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University and managed in collaboration with Plan International and CARE.
The Tékponon Jikuagou consortium prepared this guide to encourage others to adopt the package through social networks as a stand-alone initiative or as a supplement to their ongoing health and development programs in West Africa.
The main objective of the baseline household survey was to collect data on study respondents’ attitudes and behaviors related to fertility, child spacing and FP, to identify their FP need status, and to learn about their social networks.
In preparation for a campaign that was to be carried out in Mali (but was then moved to Benin following a political coup in Mali in 2012), formative research was carried out in two sites to look at the dynamics between network size, function, composition and density and the diffusion of ideas about family planning and fertility generally.
The aim of the research was to address the role of women’s social networks in facilitating or hindering family planning acquisition and use in Mali. The research was carried out in two villages.
The objective of the ethnographic research was to look at the spread of influence and family planning information through social networks in order to evaluate the role of social networks in facilitating or hindering family planning acquisition and use.
The main objective of the baseline household survey was to collect data on study respondents’ attitudes and behaviors related to fertility, child spacing and family planning, to identify their family planning need status, and to learn about their social networks.
Tékponon Jikuagou aimed to develop and test a scalable package of social network activities to engage men and women in discussion and reflection about unmet need for family planning.
