Social and Behavior Change for Family Planning: How to Develop Behavior Change Strategies for Integrating Family Planning into Maternal and Child Health Programs

Many maternal and child health programs want to add family planning (counseling, referrals or even services) into their programs. One way to get started is through social and behavior change. That means learning about the community’s family planning knowledge, attitudes and practices, and then creating strategies based on what is learned. Many health program and government staff would like to get the skills needed for this process—but time and resources are not available for a week(s) long training.

This curriculum can share these useful skills without requiring a lot of time or resources. It is designed to be used “off-the-shelf”—which means it is not necessary to bring in an outside trainer. A local staff person or team can use this guide to run a 2.5 day training course that teaches the basics of “designing for behavior change.” This can serve as an energizing starting point for addressing family planning by building skills and helping staff get started in social and behavior change. The concepts and tools can actually be applied to other topics as well, including maternal and child health, nutrition, infectious disease care and control, sanitation, and more.