Assessment Report for the Hewlett Foundation’s Strategy to Apply Behavioral Economics (BE) to

Evaluation Background In 2014, Tulane University was contracted by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to examine the application of behavioral economics (BE) in the field of family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) and to explore the potential for behavioral economics to address the challenges of FP/RH behavior change. [...] The principal goal of the evaluation was to assess the impact of the Foundation’s BE strategies aimed at improving FP/RH service delivery in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, with a primary focus being to examine the work of two behavioral economics grantees funded by the Hewlett Foundation - ideas42 and the Behavioral Economics in Reproductive Health Initiative (BERI) at the Center for Effective. [...] The Tulane evaluation of the Hewlett initiative has focused on several components, spanning both the micro questions related to the interventions developed by ideas42, BERI and their in-country counterparts and the macro questions related to the relevance and application of BE within the FP/RH fields: 1. [...] The value added from applying BE concepts to the field of FP/RH: This involves multiple areas of focus, including comparisons of BE with behavior change theories and applications in related fields (e.g., behavior change communication and social marketing); a review of literature associated with the interventions of the grantees and their partners; the diffusion of BE within the field and of new co. [...] 10 Literature Reviews The focus of the literature reviews was on examining the expansion and uptake, if any, of BE activities in the FP/RH field and the relevance of the piloted interventions for generating potential advances in the field.