The Drum Beat 800 - Community-Level Action Related to Social Norms

• 1.Bringing Ethical Thinking to Social Change Initiatives: Why It Matters
  by Susan Igras, Anjalee Kohli, Paul Bukuluki, Beniamino Cislaghi, et alDesigners and implementers of norms-shifting interventions (NSIs) in low and middle-income countries must ask ethical questions - particularly if they are community outsiders. This article proposes ten ethical values and practical ways to engage ethically with the social complexities of NSIs and the social change they seek. One way forward is for designers to "engage community members as part of formative assessments and, when possible, in strategic decision-making during the definition of key project parameters and strategies. Incorporating values that expand the design environment...can build trust and demonstrate transparency to stakeholders." [Sep 2020]
   
• 2.Getting Practical: Integrating Social Norms into Social and Behavior Change Programs
  The result of a participatory process of input and feedback organised by teams from Breakthrough ACTION and the Social Norms Learning Collaborative, this step-by-step guide is written for practitioners in the field of social and behaviour change (SBC) who know how important social norms are but who may be unsure of how what they know about social norms should change their strategies, audiences, and messages. For example, one of the modules offers guidance for engaging purposefully with the community to share the norms assessment and to seek input on whether and how norms should change. [Feb 2021]
   
• See also:
  * Multidimensional Model for Change (MMC)
  

• 3.Effectiveness of the Communities Care Programme on Change in Social Norms Associated with Gender-Based Violence (GBV) with Residents in Intervention Compared with Control Districts in Mogadishu, Somalia
  by Nancy Glass, Nancy Perrin, Mendy Marsh, et al.The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)'s social-norm-based Communities Care Program: Transforming Lives and Preventing Violence was implemented in conflict-affected Mogadishu, Somalia. Community engagement was facilitated through: actions to strengthen the community-based response to gender-based violence (GBV) survivors; structured, peer-facilitated dialogues to examine social norms that cause and maintain GBV; public declarations by those who commit to changing particular behaviours; and interpersonal communication and social and mass media to help build an enabling environment. Among the findings of this evaluation: Men and women participants in the intervention district had significantly greater improvement in change in harmful social norms for all three of the subscales as compared to the control group. [Mar 2019]
   
• 4.Impact of the Change Starts at Home Trial on Women's Experience of Intimate Partner Violence in Nepal
  by Cari Jo Clark, Binita Shrestha, Gemma Ferguson, et al.The Change Starts at Home intervention in Nepal works to prevent intimate partner violence (IPV) and to foster social norms change through a social and behavioural communication (SBCC) strategy involving radio, couples' group work, and community engagement. For example, radio listening and discussion groups (LDGs) are supported to become "norms incubators" who act as advocates in the community for more equitable social norms. Overall, the findings of this mixed-methods cluster randomised trial "highlight the need for community-wide engagement on a level intense and sustained enough for detectable change to occur in a typical grant timeframe, especially when using community-wide measurement to determine primary outcome impact." [Dec 2019]
   
• 5.Community Activism as a Strategy to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in Rural Rwanda: Results of a Community Randomised Trial
  by Sangeeta Chatterji, Erin Stern, Kristin Dunkle, and Lori HeiseConducted by external researchers as part of What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls, this evaluation focuses exclusively on the community activism/mobilisation portion of Indashyikirwa ("Agents of Change" in Kinyarwanda), a multi-component IPV prevention programme implemented by CARE International in Rwanda and local partners between 2015 and 2018. Among its community-wide elements: supplemental sessions staffed by trained community volunteers who had been recruited from the villages where community activists were active. The failure of the activism component of Indashyikirwa to reduce IPV at a community level highlights the "importance of cultural adaptation, adequate training and length of implementation." [Mar 2020]
   
• 6.Exploring the Impact of a Community Participatory Intervention on Women's Capability: A Qualitative Study in Gulu Northern Uganda
  by Loubna Belaid, Emmanuel Ochola, Pontius Bayo, et al.Community-based women's groups using a participatory learning and action (PLA) cycle involve a trained female facilitator discussing mothers' and children's health issues with women from her community. This approach is anchored in Freire's philosophy, which proposes that marginalised communities can mobilise themselves and take collective action. This evaluation of a project using women's groups practicing the PLA cycle in Gulu, Northern Uganda, found, for example, that the women developed strategies to stop IPV by sharing their experiences and seeking support from the group. In some cases, women asked if the facilitator could counsel them with their spouse. Women saw this outcome as a significant change that they attributed to the intervention. [Jan 2021]
   
• 7.Manual - Gender Action Learning System (GALS) Implementation Toolkit
  by Gulmira Rasulova, Asel Kuttubaeva, and Ulyana IvchenkoBased on a methodology piloted in the Kyrgyz Republic, GALS is a community-led empowerment approach for promoting more harmonious and violence-free relationships in families and communities. Its goal is not to increase the knowledge of participants by imposing it from outside, but instead to focus on examples of positive change already occurring. Thus, GALS advocates for change at the macro-level by helping participants envision change, develop concrete plans for change, and, through their personal experiences, broaden the minds of family members, colleagues, and communities. [2020]
   
• See also:
  * Social Norms Diagnostic Tool: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights & Gender-Based Violence
  

• The Drum Beat 784 - Social Norms, Gender, and Culture
• The Drum Beat 792 - The Power of Dialogue?
  
  
• More social norms knowledge can be found and filtered here.

• 8.Using Longitudinal Social Network Analysis to Evaluate a Community-Wide Parenting Intervention
  by Lisa M. Kleyn, Miles Hewstone, Catherine L. Ward, and Ralf WölferThis paper presents a social norms intervention implemented in a deprived community in South Africa to prevent harsh parenting attitudes and behaviours. It consisted of social activation methods to mobilise the community around parenting and age-specific Parenting for Lifelong Health programmes. Results of a social network analysis indicated community-wide increases in positive parenting behaviour. Furthermore, "caregivers who attended parenting programs became more connected within the caregiver network than did non-attendees, and caregivers influenced the behavior of those to whom they were connected - particularly, if they attended a parenting skills training program." [Nov 2020]
   
• 9.Evaluation of the Responsible, Engaged, and Loving (REAL) Fathers Initiative on Physical Child Punishment and Intimate Partner Violence in Northern Uganda
  by Kim Ashburn, Brad Kerner, Dickens Ojamuge, and Rebecka LundgrenREAL Fathers is a community-based initiative that addresses the social and gender norms that underlie the use of violence in child discipline and with intimate partners in post-conflict Northern Uganda. It involves a community-grounded mentoring programme, wherein volunteers from the community are selected by the young fathers and then trained to serve as mentors, holding one-on-one and group sessions with the young fathers participating in the programme. In addition, a series of posters with REAL Fathers messaging are displayed around the community. In this evaluation of the REAL Fathers pilot, the initiative was found to have led to "significant, positive effects...on increasing positive parenting practices, confidence in using nonviolent discipline, and lowering the odds of use of physical punishment, and use of psychological and verbal IPV." [Oct 2016]
   
• 10.The Current State of Tostan's Community Empowerment Program (CEP) and Diffusion Communities
  by Philile Shongwe, Mallika Sobti, Felicia Belostecinic, Zack Devlin-Foltz, Heather Lanthorn, and Cassandre PignonTostan's 3-year Community Empowerment Program (CEP) envisions fostering communities that are able to progressively negotiate and create new positive social norms and practices that reflect the community vision of well-being and are aligned with human rights principles. Tostan commissioned IDinsight to carry out a study in five African countries three to five years after communities had completed the CEP. IDinsight found evidence of social norms against female genital cutting (FGC) in most CEP villages, among other impacts. Notably: "Where external actors are initiators of positive changes, some are perceived as not sustained when these actors leave the community." [Jun 2020]
   
• 11.Promoting Community-Driven Change in Family and Community Systems to Support Girls' Holistic Development in Senegal
  by Judi AubelLaunched in the Velingara area of Senegal in 2008, the Grandmother Project (GMP)'s Girls Holistic Development (GHD) programme works to create an enabling environment around girls in which family and community actors support change related to girls' education, child marriage, extra-marital teen pregnancy, and female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). This case study describes the programme, its impact to date, and the lessons learned that may be relevant to other collectivist cultures. For example, it cites a USAID-funded Passages Project study that found the GHD programme's dialogue-based approach has provided a platform for the community to discuss norms and practices that are harmful to girls and to identify their own solutions through consensus-building. The study also revealed that GHD interventions that focus more on involving community and family members, rather than solely on adolescent girls, can have greater impact on changing norms and behaviours that affect girls. [Jan 2021]
   
• 12.Enabling Gender Norm Change through Communication: A Case Study of a Trans-Media Entertainment-Education Initiative in Bangladesh
  by Ami Sengupta, Suruchi Sood, Neha Kapil, and Tania SultanaA social-norm-driven entertainment-education-based television series Icchedana (On the Wings of Wishes) was at the heart of a multi-phase trans-media campaign launched in 2017 by the Government of Bangladesh, with UNICEF and partners in the Joint Global Programme on Ending Child Marriage. Examples of activities around the series, which focused on adolescent empowerment and gender equality, include: adolescent radio listeners' groups, community dialogue sessions, fathers' groups and courtyard sessions, and social mobilisation (e.g., sensitisation of Union Parishad members and others on child marriage). Sample evaluation finding: Reports of taking action against child marriage, which were higher by level of exposure, included the Union Parishad Chairman from Pragpur Union in Kushtia District playing an active role in preventing several marriages and being recognised for his efforts and commitment. [Dec 2020]
   
• See also:
  * How Far Do Parenting Programmes Help Change Norms Underpinning Violence against Adolescents? Evidence from Low and Middle-Income Countries
  

• 13.Social Capital and Utilization of Immunization Service: A Multilevel Analysis in Rural Uttar Pradesh, India
  by Md Zabir Hasan, Lorraine T. Dean, Caitlin E. Kennedy, et al.Conducted in the caste-based social structure of rural Uttar Pradesh, India, this study examined the association of individual- and community-level social capital on diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT3) immunisation among 12- to 59-month-old children. The results showed that only community-level social cohesion of the mothers was associated with a child's DPT3 immunisation status. Furthermore, when the collective social cohesion of mothers was low, higher engagement with frontline workers and the community had a positive relationship with DPT3 immunisation of a child. [Jan 2020]
   
• 14.HPV Vaccine Promotion: The Church as an Agent of Change
  by Ariana Y. Lahijani, Adrian R. King, Mary M. Gullatte, et al.The high human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancer statistics among African Americans highlight the need to increase HPV vaccination coverage among this population. Research shows that African American women often base health decisions - more specifically, vaccine decisions - on their strong religious beliefs. Drawing on pre-established trust in church-based interventions, faith leaders could help tailor HPV prevention and vaccination messages that are socially and culturally appropriate in order to help change the social, cultural, and institutional norm of it being taboo to discuss sexual health in the church. [Sep 2020]
   
• See also:
  * Immunization Innovation Lab: An Accelerator to Support Local Innovators in East Africa, Empowering Caregivers and Communities in Public Health
  

• 15.Rohingya Response: Impact of COVID-19 on Gender Programming
  Since 2017, humanitarian actors in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, have promoted gender equality through gender mainstreaming and used advocacy and other approaches to support the empowerment of women and girls. However, community engagement strategies needed adaptation to COVID-19 containment measures, and some key initiatives such as capacity-building around women's leadership were placed on hold. Furthermore, in the strict social-religious context of Rohingya society, norms hold that it is not acceptable for women to substantially interact with men outside of their households, which is why the presence of female staff and volunteers is essential. ACAPS' concern is that gains achieved in the past years could be reversed. [Jun 2020]
   
• 16.Equity in Vaccination: A Plan to Work with Communities of Color Toward COVID-19 Recovery and Beyond
  by Monica Schoch-Spana, Emily K. Brunson, Divya Hosangadi, et al.In the United States, Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities, who have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, could derive individual and systemic gains from the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. However, longstanding biases and barriers often hinder them from obtaining COVID-19 vaccines. In this action and accountability plan, CommuniVax argues that effective communication with BIPOC community members is essential and can involve: identifying and supporting trusted BIPOC individuals and organisations who can relay information and help set community norms related to COVID-19 vaccination, applying learning from "listen-and-plan" sessions to frame COVID-19 vaccination in the communities' own terms, and enlisting allies to blanket BIPOC communities with accurate information that can drown out misinformation. [Feb 2021]
   
• See also:
  * Go Corona Go! Cultural Beliefs and Social Norms in India during COVID-19
  

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