Shifting Social Norms - What Works?

Thank you Rebecka,

(Ed: This is a comment on Shifting Social Norms - What Works? Please share your own critique and ideas in support of the work of others)

Great analysis of what works in terms of social norm and the shift. Looking at my own perspective running an innovative hub (social change hub) in the Gambia, where one of my major objective in all we do is to achieve is digital inclusion for all especially our women and youth.

When folks are digitally included their voices are heard and they change the narrative in various aspects.

...

I believe digital inclusion is key, the more women are empowered and youth about the benefits of been digitally literate, the more they economically and socially empowered to make informed decisions. In my neck of the woods in the Gambia peoples communication lives be it mainstream news, entertainment, sports etc are all derived mainly from facebook Inc mainly (facebook, instagram and whatsapp social groups).  Its was not surprising when Facebook services went down some weeks ago I got several calls whether the internet was down? I had to explain the internet is up but facebook services where down.  These calls where numerous, countrywide etc  As a lot of folks mainly online in Gambia is been on Facebook, sending whatsapp messages and so on etc, so if whatsapp is offline to them the Internet might as well be off.

The overall shifting norm in my context is how social media especially the facebook services have become the main source of information for the average Gambian.  Its on this basis my digital inclusion 101 programs I run I include social media as a tool for empowrrment. As the shifting norm in my hood is social media  as the means for information dissemination.  Our presidential election is taken place on the 4th of December  the first since the dictatorship was ousted in the December 2016 election, its interesting to note of all the over 15 registered political parties including independent presidential candidates for this coming election, facebook live streaming is the number one choice of getting their messages out, all the major news outlets in Gambia use their facebook page more now.  I watch our national news from the state brioadcaster via facebook, so thats my shifting in norm in my Gambia, the smallest country in mainland Africa.

My little 1% contribution Rebecka to this inteesting thread discuss you started.

Peace

Poncelet

Note: For length and space reasons some of the original post has been edited.

Thanks

Dear Rebecka,

Thanks for your very good, hard work in promoting the social norms aspect of behaviour change communication. I work as an individual private Consultant in Social and Behaviour Change Communication/Communication for Development in the East and Central Africa Regions, including the Republics of Sudan and South Sudan mainly with hard-to-reach, risk-prone transitional societies with very strong socio-cultural norms, many of which are harmful to their own development as promoted by the international community. Your area of specialisation, Reproductive Health, is one of those highly affected. 
I did write to one of the members in the Social Norms Network requesting registration in the group, but never got  a response. Could you please register me. This an area of core interest to me and my work.  
Finally, I am available for short-term consultancies if any of your member organisations of UN agencies require this kind of support. I have recently completed 18 months of consultancy in Communication for Development with UNICEF covering Health, Education, Water and Sanitation, HIV/Aids, Child Protection, etc. I am Ugandan but am willing to work anywhere required.
And thanks,
Michael Wod-Awat Olworo.

Rebecka posed these two very important questions as the basis for us all sharing our knowledge in support of the work of others on the vitally important challenge of what works to shift social norms?

What are the different communications approaches you have found effective for social norms shifting?

What are their strengths and challenges?

Of course COVID has given heightened importance to these questions. But they are very relevant to the full range of development action - from reproductive health and gender to child rights and democracy and governance.

Please do send your responses either by email reply (and we will do the rest to share) or online with a new comment logged in at this link

Some recent network shared knowledge that may be insightful in relation to those questions include:

" ...harnessing [a] sense of 'we' within communities is crucial in order to encourage COVID-19 vaccination willingness."

"HPV communication interventions may...consider mobilizing those who have received the vaccine to share their experiences and express their endorsement so that pro-vaccination norms can be established on social media."

"Findings from this mapping show the range and types of pro-equity strategies implemented in different contexts and can be useful for countries facing similar challenges to consider. This will help in the drive to achieve much-needed progress towards universal vaccination, especially in low and middle-income countries."

"Concrete data on the operationalization and testing of the effectiveness of social norms approaches, especially those using communication approaches, is limited." 

"SWE is a method that involves everyone. With these stories we are involved, consulted and active, from start to finish. We are actors of our own development. Nobody imposes positions on us. The stories encourage us to unite, reflect and discuss our problems. So we prefer Stories Without An Ending." - young girl in Sare Yira

Your insights? What you have learned about how best to shift social noems? Please do share!

With many thanks for engaging as we all seek to make greater impact on some tricky development issues, problems and opportunities.

Warren

[This is a response to the questions posed by Rebecka re What Works to Shift Social Norms? Please share your own learning in support of the work of others.]

Just received findings for an FAO kitchen gardens nutrition project with women in remote areas of Balochistan.  

Indicators for Theory of Planned Behaviour identify that social norms are closely linked with other attitudes and perceptions and can change with improvements in participant capability and confidence.

Findings for the intervention group, against a control group not provided with training or other incentives (see table at this link), show highly significant differences against norms indicators.

This is in line with findings for these groups with other attitudes and perceptions including self-efficacy and perceived behavioural control.

I suspect inclusion of village leaders and other credible opinion leaders in the training program played a big part in changing norms.

Best regards

Tahir Turk (MComm, PhD) - Senior Partner
Communication Partners International

[This is a response to the questions posed by Rebecka re What Works to Shift Social Norms? Please share your own learning in support of the work of others.]

Experience from a violence against children project in school and home settings - informed us that it requires a multi stakeholder intervention:

The approach we followed emphasised the need to:

- empower children to get to know their rights, address their concerns to school authorities; be confident to report cases of violence

- train teachers to use less harsh disciplining in the classrooms and prevent all problems coming from class management

- talk to parents/train them to use a more positive approach to disciplining in home settings. It was important to inform parents on anything their children and teachers were talking and doing in the school related to violence. We wanted to see that both parents/teachers and children were coming across the same messages toward violence. Premises enriched with messages (posters/quotes from outstanding people) in positive disciplining were of additional reinforcement to icrease awareness. 

- including family doctors and pediatritians to inform parents had added value in changing behavior of parents of young children.

Hello,

Social norms issues is top are i want to know more .. any tools and approaches to bring positive social norms and fight negative ones?

pls

Kind regards, phili

Philipos Petros

Senior Advisor (Policy, Institutional Framework, Leadership & Management,Research) - Addis Ababa , Ethiopia.

[This is a response to the questions posed by Rebecka re What Works to Shift Social Norms? Please share your own learning in support of the work of others - just email a reply or click on this link above: "Please click to review, comment and access any attachments".]

In relation to social norms and COVID, the data from the COVID Behaviors Dashboard suggest  the three most important reasons why people refuse the vaccine are:

1. Fear of side effects

2. Wait and see to see if it is safe

3. Don't know if vaccine will work

Other reasons (don't like vaccines, against my religious beliefs, don't believe COVID-19 is a serious illness) are, on the whole, much less important. 

The above indicate that the overarching reason for vaccine hesitancy is a distorted view of the balance of risks and benefits. That there are social norms emerging re side effects fear, waiting and questions around efficacy. 

Which leads me to ask:

Are public health communication campaigns adequately focused on correcting this distorted view? Are they using methods that help people better understand the risks and benefits?

Is anyone aware of a social norms focused public health intervention that communicates this effectively? 

Neil Pakenham-Walsh, HIFA Coordinator,   

The SOCIAL NORMS Network - Advancing social norms for more informed and engaged societies

Thanks Rebecca, I'll contact Heidi Larsen and the Vaccine Confidence Project - if anyone can help, I'm sure they can. 

Best wishes, Neil

Thanks for opening comments on this important topic.

In our experience in Sierra Leone, we have found that behaviour change is incremental and takes a number of steps, but it all starts with finding a comfort zone where women and girls can learn to talk about the difficult issues and then question whether they make sense. Our target audience is rural and highly illiterate so we deliver our programs by audio podcast in local languages, as our beneficiaries do not have access to digital technology or electricity or the internet.   

Here are two examples of what has worked for us.

(1) Our journalists create podcast programming that approach the topic of FGM by interviewing and amplifying local women’s voices who ask the question—what is the benefit to me of FGM/secret societies that require this practice, and why are we still doing this? Our experience is that it is more relatable and easier for community members to agree with questioning the practice than to agree with a direct condemnation of the practice. In order to shift the norms, one must be open to question them first. The next step is to discuss the facts about how FGM harms women physically.  Then we move on to the emotional harm and ultimately to creating a movement to end the practice.  We’re not there but that’s where we’re headed.

(2) Small workshops with an activity that keeps hands busy has proven to create an atmosphere where women and girls feel safe engaging in discussions about difficult topics. For example, we taught groups of 10 girls to cut and sew reusable menstrual pads as an activity while listening to a podcast on how their bodies work and the importance of menstrual health. This allowed the girls to open up in a safe space where they felt comfortable to discuss the very taboo topics of menstruation and sexual health. 

It is fair to say that this was a highly successful project and has resulted in the project spreading organically among girls in our communities, and it has been adopted by 14 local schools in the region.

Both of these things are very simple approaches and have worked for us as an opening to begin shifting social norms. 

Lisa Sebree - Media Matters for Women

In addition to this thread commenced by Rebecka "Shifting Social Norms - What Works?" and the conments posted please also see Judi's post "West Africa lessons - Norms changing strategies".

Please join the conversation. Just click to comment link below or reply by email and we will communicate.

The SOCIAL NORMS Network - advancing social norms for more informed and engaged societies

Social norms and practices around child marriage in western uganda are so much linked to parenting:

"Child marriage is okay, normal, is not a crime and accepted by everyone in Rwenzori rural communities, so parents marry off their children early" (Kasese, Bundibugyo, Ntoroko)

“Teenage girls who get pregnant are expected to leave their parent's home, otherwise, they will be called cheap, prostitutes and their parents will be ridiculed and abused by community members” (Bundibugyo) 

"If a girl refuses to   get married, she  is cursed by her  parents; in some instances, they go for witch craft to force her into marriage” (Kasese, Bundibugyo)

“Parents who report cases of child marriage to police, the family of the boy starts hating them and the whole community will discriminate them”  (Ntoroko, Kasese)