Participatory Research Toolkit for Social Norms Measurement

"Participatory research tools facilitate and engage intended beneficiaries of social norms programming throughout the programme cycle."

Despite global efforts to create a safer and more equitable world for girls, harmful practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM) persist due to their deep rootedness in the longstanding beliefs and social norms of communities. Participatory research methods are designed to empower and encourage participants to discuss complex and sensitive topics such as FGM in engaging ways that can complement traditional research methods. Centred around nine such methods, this practical "how to" document is designed to enhance the social-norms-related programme efforts of researchers, programme planners, programme implementers, and evaluation experts. It was produced by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)-United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Joint Programme on The Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation: Accelerating Change in collaboration with the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University and Communication for Development at UNICEF.

The information presented in this toolkit is a culmination of social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) research and practice from around the world, sharing methods that have been tried and tested within academic institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and UN agencies, and further refined through expert consultations. The toolkit is intended to be used for a broad range of issues, including nutrition, parenting, gender socialisation, and protection, especially around harmful practices such as FGM, child marriage (CM), and violence against children (VAC).

Benefits of using participatory research methods, as outlined in the toolkit, include:

• Engaging participants' auditory, visual, oral, written, and numeric skills;
• Empowering participants by fostering skill-building and initiating critical dialogue;
• Raising participant consciousness around previously unarticulated behaviours and beliefs;
• Shifting power from researchers to participants;
• Enabling in-depth examination of the thoughts, beliefs, and practices of participants;
• Allowing participants to take on various roles in the design, implementation, analysis, and distribution of data;
• Determining the assets and needs of community-based issues that are important and relevant to participants; and
• Providing input into culturally relevant indicators.

The toolkit: introduces nine participatory research activities to measure social norms and related constructs; explains what each of them measures; gives examples of how they have been used in the field; and provides instructions for their use, and makes suggestions for analysis of the data produced by the tools to qualitatively measure social norms. The tools include, in brief:

1. Body Mapping: Maps knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours regarding the body and sheds light on normative beliefs and practices.
2. Cannot Do, Will Not Do, Should Not Do: Defines the extent to which behaviours are driven by social norms (expectations of others), personal norms (one's own choice), or environmental barriers (not a choice or norm; something one cannot do because the environment prevents it).
3. Complete-the-Story: Identifies and describes what behaviours and practices are normative and measures attitudes around a specific topic (especially sensitive topics where participants may be reluctant to disclose information on their personal attitudes and actions).
4. Free Listing: Reveals the different types of norms that impact specific behaviours, which can provide insight into how participants conceptualise a concept or construct, as well as the terminology and categorisation participants use in relation to that concept or construct.
5. Gender Boxes: Provides data on beliefs, attitudes, and norms around gender.
6. Gender Jumble: Measures gender norms.
7. Lifeline: Identifies normative cultural practices; provides a timeline to determine when key events occur; and helps identify the importance of these practices.
8. Social Network Mapping: Visually represents reference groups across different levels of the social ecological model (SEM); categorises reference groups by level of trustworthiness, as well as allies and barriers to specific practices; and identifies norms that are held in place by perceptions about approval, practices, and expectations of people whose opinions matter.
9. 2x2 Tables for Social Norms: Describes the existence and nature of social norms; allows the components of social norms (injunctive and descriptive norms, behavioural expectations, attitudes, and social rewards and sanctions) to be measured individually and compared so norms can be understood on a deeper level; identifies perceptions of rewards and sanctions; and allows participants to reflect on the extent to which their opinions and actions are driven by others.