PARTNER
Living goods| Medic mobile
SECTOR
Health
PROJECT TYPE
Field and Lab Experiments
BEHAVIORAL THEME
Uptake | Timing | Incentives
OVERVIEW
Community Health Workers (CHWs) play a crucial role in regional health ecosystems, and their motivation is essential for their performance and well-being. To enhance their motivation, digital badges were designed and given to top-performing CHWs to display on WhatsApp.
A survey revealed that CHWs who received the badges felt recognized and appreciated for their work, which increased their motivation. However, CHWs who did not receive badges were affected by not being recognized, with some feeling disappointed and uncertain about the evaluation criteria. Overall, the badges positively reinforced good performance but did not necessarily motivate better performance in the absence of recognition.
The CHW system relies on cooperation and knowledge sharing but may also foster competition. Given the importance of CHWs during the pandemic, the question arose of whether the community dynamic could improve motivation and performance. The chosen intervention, digital badges, aimed to motivate and recognize CHWs’ efforts. The badges were tested on a small scale, and while recipients felt recognized and energized, non-recipients felt demotivated and disappointed. The badges served as a self-signal of hard work for recipients but contradicted the sense of identity for non-recipients.
The study highlighted the need to test interventions before scaling and emphasized the importance of understanding CHWs’ motivation levels and role comprehension during challenging times.
