External Evaluation of Mobile Phone Technology-Based Nutrition and Agriculture Advisory Services in Africa: Mobile Phones, Nutrition, and health in Tanzania: Cost-Effectiveness Endline Report

The quantitative evaluation was designed as a cluster randomised controlled trial, with two stages
of randomisation: a village-level randomisation where villages were assigned to a treatment group
or to a control group, and a household level randomisation within treatment villages whereby
households were either assigned to receive the mNutrition content on just the mobile phone of the
primary female or on the mobile phones of both the primary female and the primary male. In
villages that were assigned to the treatment group, sampled households were offered access to
the mNutrition content on their mobile phone, free of charge, through a door-to-door, in-person
visit. In villages that were assigned to the control group, no offer of access to the service was
made. Though registration for the mNutrition service was possible for all households regardless of
treatment assignment, pre-baseline discussions with the organisation implementing the mNutrition
service in Tanzania suggested that take-up of their existing service was low in the study region.