Catherine Cheney was a keynote speaker at SwitchPoint 2016, an annual conference held by IntraHealth Internation in Saxapahaw, NC. Cheney's article challenges readers to question: Could your global programs use a nudge?

Excerpt: 

A crowd of mothers hold screaming babies and chase crawling toddlers. At the center of this open air pavilion, in the Thies region of Senegal, a health worker calls women up one by one to determine what immunizations their children need. As forms and needles circulate, a midwife asks these women if she can cut in for a causerie — a chat — about the range of family planning methods available to them.

There has been a movement over the last decade to integrate family planning into other services, so that no opportunity is lost. But when a team from ideas42, a design and consulting firm that applies behavioral sciences to social problems, visited this health clinic, they questioned how these women could reflect thoughtfully on family planning options in the midst of such apparent chaos.

Their feedback was rooted in a field of research that seeks to explain why people make decisions that are inconsistent with what they claim to want, in this case as a result of the effect of cognitive overload.

Read the full article at Devex.com.