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Look Upstream: Measurement for Innovation on the Upper Rio Negro of the Amazon Basin

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...

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Autores principales: Shaw, Kurt, da Silva, Rita de Cácia Oenning
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7875013/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33585359
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2020.567257
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author Shaw, Kurt
da Silva, Rita de Cácia Oenning
author_facet Shaw, Kurt
da Silva, Rita de Cácia Oenning
author_sort Shaw, Kurt
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-78750132021-02-11 Look Upstream: Measurement for Innovation on the Upper Rio Negro of the Amazon Basin Shaw, Kurt da Silva, Rita de Cácia Oenning Front Pediatr Pediatrics 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. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-01-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7875013/ /pubmed/33585359 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2020.567257 Text en Copyright © 2021 Shaw and da Silva. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Pediatrics
Shaw, Kurt
da Silva, Rita de Cácia Oenning
Look Upstream: Measurement for Innovation on the Upper Rio Negro of the Amazon Basin
title Look Upstream: Measurement for Innovation on the Upper Rio Negro of the Amazon Basin
title_full Look Upstream: Measurement for Innovation on the Upper Rio Negro of the Amazon Basin
title_fullStr Look Upstream: Measurement for Innovation on the Upper Rio Negro of the Amazon Basin
title_full_unstemmed Look Upstream: Measurement for Innovation on the Upper Rio Negro of the Amazon Basin
title_short Look Upstream: Measurement for Innovation on the Upper Rio Negro of the Amazon Basin
title_sort look upstream: measurement for innovation on the upper rio negro of the amazon basin
topic Pediatrics
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7875013/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33585359
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2020.567257
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