Resource Library: Social and Behavioral Change

This training module, developed by CORE Group, is designed to help NGOs and civil society organizations learn how to conduct audience research to develop social and behavior change (SBC) activities. This module focuses on SBC that can be used to add family planning to existing maternal and child health programming, with a focus on community level work. Staff of such organizations can learn first to conduct very targeted audience research, and then to use their findings to develop effective social and behavior change strategies. This module can be adapted for training public sector employees, community health volunteers, and others.

The tool is designed for use of local staff to run a two-and-a-half day training course that teaches the basics of "designing for behavior change." It serves as a starting point for addressing family planning by building skills and helping staff get started in social and behavior change. The concepts and tools can also be applied to other topics including, maternal and child health, nutrition, infectious disease care and control, sanitation, and more.

The objective of the Care Group Operational Research was to identify the key components to the effective use of the Care Group Methodology. The OR included qualitative and quantitative survey methods to determine if the Care Group methodology was carried out as designed and identified methodological adaptations that occurred based on problems and difficulties that arose.

This presentation explores how to boost project performance with social and behavioral change and how to update current methods. Please click here to view slides.

A Positive Deviance/Hearth Nutrition Program is a home-and neighborhood-based nutrition program for children who are at risk for protein-energy malnutrition in developing countries.

Quality Improvement and Verification Checklists (QIVCs) provide a detailed check of development workers’ performance on their key processes in order to monitor and improve their performance, identify “system problems,” and to encourage them.  QIVCs are being used in many countries throughout the world to improve key processes.&

This document describes a methodology that FH has used to better understand the determinants of malnutrition in particular developing countries (Burundi, Mozambique, Kenya, Bolivia and Ethiopia). The study compares poor mothers who have children who are growing well with poor mothers of children who are malnourished, identifying possible messages and project activities that can make a difference in terms of preventing malnutrition.

This guide and manuals were developed at the request of mother-to-mother support group facilitators in Western Kenya. It is meant to provide more detailed background information on possible support group topics for facilitators to use to prepare for meetings, or to do research if mothers have questions that facilitators do not know the answers to.

This guide was prepared to support grandmother dialogue group mentors who have been trained to facilitate dialogue group meetings with their peers. This guide is designed to provide dialogue group mentors with key questions to encourage lively discussions around issues such as breastfeeding, complementary feeding, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and encourage reflection, support, and experience sharing.

This handbook, designed by AIDSCAP's Behavior Change Communication unit, is intended to help planners and implementors look at the effectiveness of their BCC interventions.

The handbook will help implementors in monitoring as it can point out both strengths and potential weaknesses of an ongoing intervention.

It can also be used as a planning tool because it highlights important points for designing and developing effective BCC programming.

Although not all criteria will be appropriate for all interventions, following the criteria laid out in the handbook is likely to ensure a thoughtfully designed and effective intervention.

The period of complementary feeding (6–23 months) is a time when young children are most vulnerable to undernutrition and consequent growth faltering. Feeding of children during this time, commonly referred to as complementary feeding, involves providing food in addition to breastmilk to meet the nutritional demands for childhood growth. It is well recognized that an underlying cause of child undernutrition is inappropriate feeding practices. Changes in behaviors related to feeding practices are possible through well-designed and implemented behavior change communication programs. This review analyzes complementary feeding behavior change interventions aiming to improve complementary feeding practices and child nutritional status. Recommendations are made for their effective design and implementation. Critical to the success and sustainability of interventions is involving the needs and interests of the community.

This document outlines the various criteria for Care Groups in the French language.

These files provide an example of how LQAS can be used to periodically measure changes in behavior and provide concise feedback to each district on what they need to continue to work on.  More details are given in the document, “Overview of FH LQAS Use with Care Groups.doc".