English Archives - SBC Learning Central

Gender Analysis for Vaccine Response

Research on the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for a more gender equitable approach to a vaccine response. As public health agencies around the world work to ensure that everyone has access to vaccines, risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) actors must recognize and address the different ways in which gender can impact vaccine acceptance and uptake.

Breakthrough ACTION developed the Gender Analysis Toolkit for Vaccine Response for RCCE actors working with national health authorities and other partners to develop, implement, and monitor a vaccine response. This toolkit provides practical guidance to identify gender related barriers that need to be addressed and identify opportunities that can be leveraged to enable a gender equitable vaccine response that increases coverage for all. While Breakthrough ACTION developed this toolkit based on improving uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, it is applicable for any vaccine response.

The toolkit includes:

Evidence on the importance of considering gender in a vaccine response.
Step-by-step guidance and tips for conducting a gender analysis.
Worksheets to collect, organize, and analyze existing information and make recommendations across three RCCE pillars: RCCE systems for emergencies, risk communication, and community engagement.
An illustrative gender analysis based on a country’s COVID-19 vaccine response.
Additional resources for integrating gender in RCCE activities.

Shifting Social and Gender Norms as Part of Social and Behavior Change, Part 1

When behavior change is the goal, program planners need to understand if, how, when, and under what conditions a behavior is influenced by social and gender norms. Social and gender norms are the implicit, informal rules that most people accept and abide by; these rules are learned and reinforced from childhood to adulthood through observation, instruction, and social interaction. Norms play out at all levels, in individual decisions, relationships, and communities, and are also embedded in formal and informal institutions. They can have profound effects on individuals and group behaviors and actions.

This online course was developed by Breakthrough ACTION and adapted from the in-person and virtual Social Norms Training Curriculum developed by the Passages Project. Part 1 offers an overview of social and gender norms and an introduction to using norms assessments for designing social and behavior change programs. The course uses animations and real-life case examples to illustrate the application of this work in different contexts. Part 2, which will be available in 2024, covers the design of norms-shifting interventions and the measurement of these approaches.

USAID, Passages, and Breakthrough ACTION logos

Malaria SBC Toolkit for Community and Faith Leaders

Faith and community leaders have deep roots in local communities. Local leaders also play an important role in health issues around the world, including the fight against malaria. Malaria is a deadly disease, but it can be prevented and cured. Local leaders are crucial in helping communities take action in the fight against malaria.

This toolkit will guide faith and community organizations to use their own strengths, community connections, and resources to educate on how to prevent malaria and support proper treatment in local communities. Using the processes of social and behavior change (SBC), the toolkit will help leaders influence communities’ knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and social norms to help people adopt key behaviors to prevent and treat malaria. The toolkit consists of four sections: Context, Malaria Actions to Promote, Using Malaria SBC in Your Work, and Advocacy; and is available in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

The toolkit contains:

Resources to learn more about malaria in your country or region.
Tools for communicating effectively and creating lasting behavior change.
A list of key actions to promote to fight malaria in your community.
Steps for integrating malaria into your current work.
Examples of community malaria activities.
Strategies for being malaria advocates.

Leaders can use these tools to help local people and families change their everyday actions to prevent malaria and promptly and safely treat malaria if they become sick. Together we can help stop the spread of this disease, treat those who fall ill, and save lives.

Rumor Tracking and Infodemic Management in Public Health Emergencies

The overabundance of health information—including rumors and misinformation on and offline—has been a growing challenge across the world. This situation, called an infodemic, requires public health officials and health providers to work even harder to provide the public with accurate, up-to-date information.

This course is intended for risk communication and community engagement program implementers and other professionals working to identify and respond to emerging rumors. It offers an overview of the theory and practice of creating an infodemic management system, including step-by-step instructions, case studies, and links to additional tools. Participants will learn key definitions, consider how to conduct an infodemic landscaping analysis, and select sources of rumor data. The course modules also cover a variety of analysis techniques, strategies for addressing misinformation, and considerations for monitoring and evaluating infodemic management efforts.

Behavioral Design to Inform Social and Behavior Change for Nutrition

Behavioral science offers empirical insights into how people interact with their environment and each other under different conditions. It includes research from various fields, such as cognitive and social psychology, marketing, neuroscience, and behavioral economics, that provide insight into the complexity of human behavior. Behavioral design leverages insights from behavioral science to develop and test innovative solutions that, rather than trying to change people, seek to reshape their context to positively influence their behavior. It offers a powerful tool to address some of the stickiest challenges in health and nutrition programs, services, and policies.

This online course, developed by Breakthrough ACTION and USAID Advancing Nutrition, offers a practical, hands-on introduction to behavioral science and behavioral design, and how to apply these approaches to nutrition challenges. It uses a real-life case example to illustrate the behavioral design process in action and guides participants to consider whether and how the solutions can be adapted to their own contexts. This case example draws from research and design work conducted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to support families to follow nutrition guidelines for feeding their young children during and after illness.

Worksheet activities are assigned at several points within the course. The activities prompt learners to think through how what they are learning can be applied to their work and within their organization, services, or programs. Learners are encouraged to download the worksheet, which is also located under the “Materials” tab above, and to use it when completing course activities. The worksheet is for personal use and is not required to receive the course certificate.

Introduction to SBC for Nutrition

Behavioral science and behavioral design are tools that can strengthen social and behavior change (SBC) program design. If nutrition SBC is new to you, you may find it useful to complete the Social and Behavior Change for Nutrition introductory course first. It explains the importance of SBC to achieving nutrition outcomes and offers an overview of SBC models, approaches, and processes.

Engaging Communities for Reproductive Health and Family Planning

Community engagement is critical for encouraging positive behaviors and addressing reproductive health and family planning (RH/FP) social and structural barriers. Community engagement can foster increased uptake of RH/FP services, improved provider-client interactions, and enhanced partnership and social accountability between health and community systems.

This is a skills-building course for Ministry of Health staff, NGO program managers, and donor organization personnel to learn how to work with communities to build local strengths and support community-led action for RH/FP issues. The course consists of six sessions structured around the adapted Community Action Cycle. It outlines key steps for designing and managing effective community engagement programming, including the process, principles, and values of community engagement and the time, staffing, and budget needed to carry out community engagement for RH/FP. Additional reading materials and tools help the learner more deeply understand and apply course content.

Learning Objectives

Articulate the role of community engagement within broader social and behavior change (SBC) programming for RH/FP
Identify key steps in designing, implementing, and documenting community engagement for collective action
Utilize additional resources for community engagement planning and guidance

Know, Care, Do: A Theory of Change for Engaging Men and Boys in Family Planning

Engaging men and boys in family planning (FP) and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) can improve their own lives and those of their intimate partners, families, and communities. Evidence shows that engaging men and boys in FP/SRH programs decreases unintended pregnancy, improves maternal health, reduces sexually transmitted infections such as HIV/AIDS, and advances gender equality (see Materials tab for references). Though progress has been made to engage men and boys more effectively in FP/SRH programs, most programs continue to do so in incomplete ways.

This course is intended for program implementers who are working to increase and improve the engagement of men and boys in FP programs and services. Course participants will deepen their understanding of what engaging men and boys in FP means and how programs and services can engage them in supportive, affirming, and gender equitable ways. Throughout this course, participants will familiarize themselves with the Know, Care, Do theory of change and case studies that guide the design and implementation of programs and services that engage men and boys in FP/SRH across their life course and across all levels of the socio-ecological model. Allowing for pauses to complete short reflection exercises, this course will take approximately two hours to complete.

Introduction to Behavioral Economics

Every day, billions of people make trillions of decisions, at work, at home and everywhere else. Behavioral economics (BE) is the study of the decisions and actions we make as human beings. This course will introduce you to BE, which includes behavioral biases and ways to apply behavioral design to family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH). BE teaches us that the interplay between context and psychological features of humans can have a surprisingly powerful effect on our behavior. Insights from behavioral analysis allow us to anticipate and account for these inconsistencies in human behavior when designing products, programs, and policies in public and reproductive health and beyond. The sessions in this course consist of instructional videos and engaging tasks that you can complete to deepen your understanding of the application of behavioral economics. We look forward to working with you and hope you enjoy the process.

Audience Segmentation for Vaccination

This toolkit is intended for use by social and behavioral change communication professionals to encourage vaccine acceptance and uptake by employing segmentation based on attitudes and behaviors of their intended audience. The goals of this toolkit are to:

Familiarize toolkit users with the concept of segmentation and how it can be employed to target messaging during epidemics.
Provide resources for policymakers and implementers.
Support preparedness efforts to protect against and anticipate needs in the next pandemic.

If you would like to save or print this toolkit, it is available as a PDF in the Materials tab above.

Audience Segmentation for Malaria

Social and behavior change (SBC) strategies are critical for encouraging positive behaviors and addressing social and structural barriers around malaria prevention and case management. SBC can foster an increased utilization of health services, improved client-provider interactions, and the proper diagnosis and treatment for malaria.

To increase the effectiveness of SBC strategies, program planners need to understand the intended audience(s) of SBC efforts and the factors driving their behavior. Audience segmentation is a technique that divides a population into groups with similar characteristics related to a topic or behavior of interest, enabling a deeper understanding of the demographic factors, norms, and attitudes that drive malaria-related behavior among each group. The use of audience segmentation can help SBC practitioners develop interventions and messages tailored to each group’s particular characteristics and needs.

This course is intended for use by social and behavior change (SBC) and service delivery professionals to encourage antimalarial acceptance and uptake by employing segmentation based on attitudes and behaviors of their intended audience(s).