Rapport d'Activite Positive Deviance en Nutrition dans 8 Villages de la Zone Sante Sikasso is an evaluation by the Bougouni field staff for April-December 2001 (in French). It includes the results of the Hearth sessions, constraints faced, lessons learned and recommendations.
Evaluation of Positive Deviance Activities in Bougouni, Mali describes a follow-up to this evaluation from these same villages.
The Bougouni office of Save the Children (USA) in Mali was opened in 1996, funded by a USAID grant aimed at improving child survival in the region. Nutrition activities began at this time, with two animators hired for each village. Analysis of the growth monitoring data showed that there was a high prevalence of malnutrition (PEM). Furthermore, continued analysis of the data indicated that the nutrition demonstrations were not significantly alleviating the problem. It was decided that the Positive Deviance Approach would be utilized with the goal of reducing the prevalence of infant malnutrition with the hope that a sustained reduction in malnutrition would lead to a reduction of childhood mortality. An evaluation of 8 villages was completed by the Bougouni field staff in 2001 with promising results. A follow-up of this evaluation a year later found an improvement of between 0.18 and 0.46 weight-for-age Z scores for children in the intervention villages, while in control villages WAZ dropped between .06 to .47 for children in comparable age groups.
For basic information on the project history, overall goals and objectives, and partners (in English), read The Positive Deviance Approach and Nutrition Rehabilitation Activities in Mali.
For a list of key indicators, resources, and the PD development plan using the 6 steps (in French), read Projet de l'utilisation de l'approche Positive Deviance (Model Positif) avec les C.S.C.O.M.