Rejoice Architecture Meets Social Norms to Accelerate Vaccinations in Nepal

Rajiv Rimal of George Washington University in the U.S. will increase vaccination uptake in Nepal by improving the state of health centers to make them more enjoyable and practical places for mothers to bring their children and to motivate health workers to provide better care. In Nepal and many other low-resource settings, essential health services such as vaccinations are often provided in settings with long waiting times and limited facilities, which is also demotivating for the staff. To address this, they will interview recent mothers and service providers to understand the challenges around receiving and providing vaccinations. These will be used to design an intervention that involves improving the relationship between service providers and those giving the vaccinations as well as cleaning up the health centers by painting and providing seating. They will test the ability of their approach to increase vaccination uptake by conducting a two-arm cluster randomized study using 10 clinics in the Makwanpur district.