Abstract
The growth of the randomized controlled trial (RCT) as the “gold standard” for evaluation has justly been praised as an advance in the professionalization of social programs and projects, an “adoption of science” - in the words of the Lancet. None the less, the emphasis on the RCT biases funding for projects that distribute private goods and which focus on “low hanging fruit” in health, nutrition, and sanitation, simply because those areas lend themselves to the sort of measurement that works with RCTs. As a result, many project developers in the government and NGO sectors lament that a hegemonic focus on RCTs impedes creativity or new models that challenge traditional paradigms. This case study of CanalCanoa, a community video coaching project for indigenous parents of young children in the Rio Negro region of the Amazon Basin, offers techniques to measure for innovation. Instead of developing a new RCT for an extremely diverse population (27 ethnic groups) where traditional childcare methods are in historical flux because of urbanization, CanalCanoa measured variables shown by previous RCTs to be causally connected with positive development results. By researching the impact of the intervention on nutrition, language (multilingualism, use of traditional songs and stories), and social network expansion, CanalCanoa measured upstream indicators, thus mixing scientific rigor with an opportunity for innovation and providing important insight and reform of a theory of change.
Highlights
Indigenous children of the Amazon enjoy a wealth of resources for their intellectual, physical, and social development: the liberty to explore the jungle and experience science-as-curiosity, the joy of collective play, the chance to learn side by side with parents as they paddle, hunt, and garden [1]
Just as the small rivers that support remote villages flow into the huge Rio Negro, the close-knit social networks that define indigenous life mean that project benefits will spill over into any control group within the same ethnic group: families share ideas, childcare, and even goods that might seem private
The idea of “video-coaching” [7] has gained important currency in some childhood development circles as a way to create positive feedback loops for parents: CanalCanoa serves as a kind of cultural video coaching, in which larger communities and ethnic groups can look at themselves in the mirror of the camera and movie screen to evaluate and adapt their own child-rearing
Summary
Indigenous children of the Amazon enjoy a wealth of resources for their intellectual, physical, and social development: the liberty to explore the jungle and experience science-as-curiosity, the joy of collective play, the chance to learn side by side with parents as they paddle, hunt, and garden [1]. Just as the small rivers that support remote villages flow into the huge Rio Negro, the close-knit social networks that define indigenous life mean that project benefits will spill over into any control group within the same ethnic group: families share ideas, childcare, and even goods that might seem private This spillover makes randomization impossible and a control group non-existent. The idea of “video-coaching” [7] has gained important currency in some childhood development circles as a way to create positive feedback loops for parents: CanalCanoa serves as a kind of cultural video coaching, in which larger communities and ethnic groups can look at themselves in the mirror of the camera and movie screen to evaluate and adapt their own child-rearing. Because of the community orientation of the culture of the Upper Rio Negro, we quantified changes by group, and not by individual
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