ABSTRACT
In response to COVID-19 and the Rohingya refugee crisis, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) piloted a program to support young children and their parents in refugee camps and the surrounding communities of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The program, Gindegi Goron (“Developing Future” in Rohingya), used pre-recorded interactive voice response (IVR) system-generated phone calls, facilitator phone calls, and text messages to deliver behaviorally-informed messages on pregnancy, breastfeeding, nutrition, early learning, and other aspects of early childhood care. Weekly messages were delivered to pregnant and lactating women and their husbands and mothers-in-law, who often make decisions for the household. Women also received biweekly mobile quizzes and personal check-in calls from IRC-trained facilitators. Over two years, the IRC took an iterative human-centered design approach that included refining and relaunching the digital platform and ultimately integrating home visits. These modifications enabled the IRC to better serve and track multiple unique groups and assess the reach and effectiveness of the intervention. This chapter presents key findings from each prototype and concludes with lessons learned that could inform ECD programming in other humanitarian settings and in response to other crises. Additionally, the chapter explores the usefulness of iterative human-centered design processes in humanitarian contexts.
