Report claims ‘Go Nisha Go’ game helps develop teenage girls’ personality
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Howard Delafield international (HDI), a woman-owned team integrating behavioral insights and emerging technologies hosted Gamechangers’ 24 earlier this month. The event aimed to showcase the impact of the Go Nisha Go game in shaping knowledge and behaviors among 15–19-year-old girls. The role-play game is calimed to be downloaded by over 300,000 adolescents, shows players the power of choice-making through an avatar and how the decisions they make shape their lives.
The game has five levels that cover negotiation with parents, menstruation, consent, contraception, and delaying early marriage in a fun and interactive way. The research, conducted by Population Council Consulting, is claimed to have revealed significant improvement for girls who played the game. Those who played the game were at least twice as likely to have comprehensive knowledge of modern contraceptives, including condoms, oral contraceptive pills, and emergency contraceptive pills, compared to those who did not. Fertility awareness, denoting a correct understanding of the menstrual cycle and pregnancy window, was nearly non-existent (3.5%) at baseline, but at the endline, the players had a 119% higher likelihood to know about it. The likelihood of intention to seek help for contraceptive and menstrual-related issues was higher amongst players by 132% and 115%, respectively. Results also indicate that girls in the treatment group had a higher ability to seek health advice and buy menstrual products online, demonstrating the effectiveness of the Direct-to-consumer (DTC) approach. Notably, confidence to control the timing of marriage, negotiate contraceptives and consent was also higher by 1.7, 1.2, and 2.9 times, respectively.
Dr Susan Howard, Co-founder of HDI, professor at George Mason University, and the visionary behind Go Nisha Go, shared, “The overall takeaway is that fun and interactive games can activate the motivation and desire to learn through a challenge or quest, simulate ‘push-pull’ conflicts, and allow players to experience choices in a safe place. Moreover, games can nudge players to explore in-game resources and try products and services for use in real life. Finally, games can stimulate confidence in real life through successes and failures within the game with the option to ‘replay’.”
Speaking at the event, Dr. Zoya Ali Rizvi, Deputy Commissioner, National Health Mission, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, said, “Go Nisha Go represents a significant step towards empowering adolescent and young people with knowledge that extends beyond the virtual world. This knowledge supports positive behaviour and informed decision-making by them.”
The game has five levels that cover negotiation with parents, menstruation, consent, contraception, and delaying early marriage in a fun and interactive way. The research, conducted by Population Council Consulting, is claimed to have revealed significant improvement for girls who played the game. Those who played the game were at least twice as likely to have comprehensive knowledge of modern contraceptives, including condoms, oral contraceptive pills, and emergency contraceptive pills, compared to those who did not. Fertility awareness, denoting a correct understanding of the menstrual cycle and pregnancy window, was nearly non-existent (3.5%) at baseline, but at the endline, the players had a 119% higher likelihood to know about it. The likelihood of intention to seek help for contraceptive and menstrual-related issues was higher amongst players by 132% and 115%, respectively. Results also indicate that girls in the treatment group had a higher ability to seek health advice and buy menstrual products online, demonstrating the effectiveness of the Direct-to-consumer (DTC) approach. Notably, confidence to control the timing of marriage, negotiate contraceptives and consent was also higher by 1.7, 1.2, and 2.9 times, respectively.
Dr Susan Howard, Co-founder of HDI, professor at George Mason University, and the visionary behind Go Nisha Go, shared, “The overall takeaway is that fun and interactive games can activate the motivation and desire to learn through a challenge or quest, simulate ‘push-pull’ conflicts, and allow players to experience choices in a safe place. Moreover, games can nudge players to explore in-game resources and try products and services for use in real life. Finally, games can stimulate confidence in real life through successes and failures within the game with the option to ‘replay’.”
Speaking at the event, Dr. Zoya Ali Rizvi, Deputy Commissioner, National Health Mission, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, said, “Go Nisha Go represents a significant step towards empowering adolescent and young people with knowledge that extends beyond the virtual world. This knowledge supports positive behaviour and informed decision-making by them.”
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