The Power of Positive Deviance

SEVEN

Infant Mortality

The Way to Change a Community (Is Not to Engage in Community Change)

The Pashtun-speaking people in the remote mountains of North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan, endure one of the world’s highest infant mortality rates. One of every twenty newborns dies within the first year of life. A fiercely independent people, their communities have a long history of rebuffing the efforts of health authorities to address this problem. Recognizing these inhibiting features as conditions in which positive deviance often flourishes, Save the Children resolved to give the process a try. No prior experience prepared the team for the formidable barriers they would encounter. Monique describes a journey that combines the overt intentions ...