We optimized remote communication for Peru's Programa Nacional Cuna Más to support the development of children under 36 months during the pandemic.
When COVID-19 suspended in-person services, Peru's PNCM, created in 2012, had to keep supporting the development of children under 36 months in low-income areas, now through remote channels only.
The program serves families in communities living in poverty and extreme poverty, through caregiver training and food supplements. The abrupt shift to remote communication created a need to evaluate and improve how the program reached caregivers at a distance.
We ran a comprehensive project to diagnose and optimize PNCM's communication, focused on understanding the barriers and enablers behind caregivers adopting the program's recommended practices.
We explored caregivers' perceptions and behaviors to understand what helped or hindered adoption of the recommended practices.
We tested the findings at greater scale to validate the barriers and enablers of remote communication.
We proposed how to communicate content more effectively at a distance to encourage behavior change among caregivers.
Addressing caregivers' emotional responses turned out to be an integral part of the communication strategy, alongside clarity, personalization, and social proof.
Based on our recommendations, MIDIS and the Programa Nacional Cuna Más developed a public policy (Resolución de Dirección Ejecutiva N° 000858-2023-MIDIS/PNCM-DE) that promotes early childhood development through remote channels.
This shows how behavioral science can drive meaningful change at a national scale. The results of this case also offer a replicable model for other countries seeking effective solutions to similar challenges in early childhood development and social inclusion.