Can ICT Nudges Prompt Better Social Service Provision? Evidence from Sierra Leone

• In Event: Information and Perceptions

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have the potential to transform governance by re-configuring the ways in which citizens, politicians, and bureaucrats interact with one another. In particular, ICT tools have been studied as interventions to facilitate political communication and to help citizens hold government service providers accountable. Practitioners and scholars have suggested that another potential use of ICT to improve governance is by allowing public managers to bolster the performance of front-line service providers in a cost-effective manner. How can ICT tools be leveraged to prompt behavior change among those tasked with providing or facilitating services?

In this paper, we examine whether ICT nudges can enhance the responsiveness of a particular type of service provider that is common in many contexts: non-state volunteer social workers. We explore this in the case of child protection in Sierra Leone, a context marked by a substantial role for non-state actors in service provision, and costly transportation barriers that limit in-person training and coaching. We utilize the random assignment of an ICT system created by UNICEF and the Government of Sierra Leone called the Child Protection Knowledge and Information Network (CPKIN). CPKIN allowed UNICEF staff based in the capital city to send child protection volunteer-workers text messages with prompts and questions on child welfare issues, which they then answered via open-ended discussions with individuals and groups in their communities.

The results from the randomized evaluation of CPKIN in 124 villages in rural Sierra Leone indicate that these nudges were successful in improving the responsiveness of volunteer-workers. We find positive and significant effects of CPKIN on the involvement of volunteer-workers in reporting and responding to cases of child abuse. However, we find no evidence to suggest broader effects such as the visibility of the volunteer-workers in their communities, or volunteer-worker involvement in a wider set of child protection activities. We also find no average impact of CPKIN on the incidence of harm towards children in treatment communities.

Authors

• Ryan M. Sheely, Mercy Corps

• Akshay Govind Dixit, Harvard University