Adolescents are the future and their nutritional needs are critical for the well-being of any country. The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), together with Shornokishoree Network Foundation (SKNF), is currently implementing the national-scale effort “Nourishing Dreams: improving the quality of adolescents’ diets in Bangladesh” that aims to improve consumption of nutritious and safe foods. Nourishing Dreams has several components, including a grassroots-led communication campaign motivating adolescents to recognize the importance of healthy diets to realise their dreams and join the social movement Bhalo Khabo Bhalo Thakbo, the “Eat Well, Live Well” Movement.
Following the campaign, a “pocket money pledge”, the Bhalo Khabo (Eat Well) Pledge, will be launched as a way for adolescents to individually and collectively demonstrate their commitment to eating more nutritious foods by spending their pocket money to purchasing healthier snacks before, during and after school. It is anticipated that Nourishing Dreams will directly increase the demand for healthier snacks, demonstrate to the food industry adolescents’ demand potential, and encourage adolescents to recognise their agency to make decisions in different aspects of life, including food habits.
Recognising that this is a new space with little evidence, IDS in partnership with the Development Research Initiative (dRi) is conducting an evaluation of the Nourishing Dream campaign. Evaluating the campaign presents various challenges including a highly dynamic and constantly evolving campaign design, an unpredictable landscape within which the campaign is embedded, potentially low reach and varying levels of engagement of adolescents with the campaign, and the changes that the campaign aims to trigger are complex and depend on many different steps and interactions with external factors. The IDS team aims to address these challenges with an innovative evaluation design that draws on a mix of methods and approaches.
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