Cost-Effective or Just Low-Cost? Evaluating the Effectiveness of Nudge Messaging Interventions in West Africa

Photo of Wunni Sabo and another parent from the Zarantinga community reading a nudge message on their mobile phone. Credit: Daniel Peprah.

Wunni Sabo, a parent from the Zarantinga community, recalls how his perspective on education changed when he began receiving nudge messages on his mobile phone from School for Life, a research partner of EdTech Hub. These messages urged him to prioritise his daughter’s education over a marriage proposal she received while attending senior high school. As a result, Sabo declined the proposal, emphasising the importance of her becoming self-reliant through education. Despite struggling with her exams at first, his daughter remains determined to succeed. She now attends a private school and plans to pursue a career in nursing.

However, not all stories reflect such positive outcomes, leading researchers to question the overall effectiveness of these interventions. In 2022, Central and West Africa accounted for 24.1 percent of the 236 million children out of school worldwide, according to a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Since then, countries like Ghana have made efforts to expand educational opportunities for out-of-school children. One initiative is the implementation of nudge messaging, where parents and teachers receive targeted education-related information designed to boost student attendance and participation.

Despite these efforts, a forthcoming study by Mitchell et al.(2024)  which analysed 10 studies on nudge messaging in West Africa, found that six had negative, null, or insufficient effects on learning outcomes. This suggests that while nudge messaging may be low-cost, its limited effectiveness undermines claims to cost-effectiveness. This raises a critical question: Are these interventions in West Africa genuinely cost-effective, or are they merely a low-cost form of EdTech with limited impact on learning outcomes? Challenges such as low device access, caregiver literacy, and economic conditions may hinder the effectiveness of nudge messaging. As suggested by Damgaard and Nielsen (2018)and Weijers et al. (2021), nudges may improve immediate outcomes like grades, but they often fail to induce long-term behavioural change, particularly across varying economic contexts. Therefore, it is essential to critically review the effectiveness of nudge messaging in specific contexts rather than relying on generalised recommendations.

Case Studies and Contextual Challenges

Examining the cost-effectiveness of nudge messaging interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) reveals significant complexities, especially when considering varying economic contexts and implementation settings. Aurino and Wolf (2024) highlight that many nudge-based studies have focused on urban areas, leaving rural settings, which often face different challenges like lower literacy rates underexplored. This focus on urban settings or higher income settings may skew the perceived effectiveness of such interventions.

Photo of A parent from the Zarantinga community reading a nudge message on their mobile phone. Credit: Daniel Peprah.

A key study that showcases this is by Wolf and Lichand (2023), who investigated the impact of nudge-based text messaging on education and found that while these interventions showed promise in wealthier countries, in Côte d’Ivoire, they did not have significant effects. The authors concluded that if implemented in rural West African contexts without additional pedagogical support, nudge-based text and audio message interventions for caregivers and teachers would have limited effects compared to similar studies in other contexts. Furthermore, the costs of these interventions have high variabilities depending on the country in question in West Africa.

Unintended Consequences and Limitations

It is also important to evaluate the unintended consequences and limitations of nudge messaging. For instance, a study by Aurino and Wolf (2024) found that SMS messaging had unintended consequences when working with marginalised subgroups. While SMS messages supported caregiver educational engagement, child school participation, and social-emotional learning (SEL) measures among caregivers with previous exposure to formal schooling, negative effects occurred for those without such exposure. They argue that the cost-effectiveness of these interventions, despite being low-cost (US$7.56 per child in 2021), depends on appropriately targeting messages based on education levels. Additionally, Mitchell et al.’s (2024) analysis of Lichand and Wolf (2020) identified decreased teacher motivation and attendance as an unintended consequence of SMS nudges to caregivers and teachers, particularly when caregivers monitored teachers too frequently. Ultimately, the cost-effectiveness of nudge messaging interventions is not solely about the initial cost but also about the contextual support required to ensure their success. Without adequate support and tailored approaches, the benefits of these programs may be diminished, making it crucial to account for the economic, cultural, and infrastructural realities of each specific setting.

Key challenges:

• SMS messaging can have negative effects on marginalised groups lacking formal schooling exposure.
• Low-cost interventions must be targeted effectively based on recipients’ education levels.
• Teacher motivation and attendance may decrease if caregivers monitor teachers too frequently through SMS nudges.
• Success depends on contextual support, including economic, cultural, and infrastructural factors.

Conclusion

The overall assessment of the cost-effectiveness of educational messaging in West Africa presents a mixed picture. While these interventions are low-cost, their limited effectiveness in improving measurable learning outcomes casts doubt on their claimed cost-effectiveness. The effectiveness of nudge messaging cannot be assessed solely on cost but must also account for how well it improves learning outcomes in diverse settings. Some of the key questions to help with this assessment would be: 

• Are we using the right metrics to evaluate these interventions? 
• How do we address the variability in infrastructure and support across different regions? 
• Can a low-cost intervention be truly cost-effective if it does not consistently enhance educational outcomes?

It is crucial to critically examine these factors and address these questions to determine whether nudge messaging is a viable educational solution or if it requires significant modifications to be genuinely effective. EdTech Hub is actively exploring these issues through various research initiatives:

• Optimising Messaging to Promote Returns to School in Ghana for Marginalised Learners: This study explores the effectiveness of targeted messaging in encouraging school returns for marginalised learners in Ghana.
• What is ‘Nudging’ in Education and How Does it Contribute to Behavior Change?: This article delves into the theory behind nudge messaging and its role in educational behaviour change.
• Nudges to Improve Learning and Gender Parity: Preliminary Findings on Supporting Parent-Child Educational Engagement During COVID-19 Using Mobile Phones: This research investigates how mobile phone-based nudges can support educational engagement and gender parity during the COVID-19 pandemic.