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Home // In Practice // Social norms change

In Practice
Social norms change

  • Approach

    • There are many different factors that influence behavior, including individual-level factors such as personal attitudes and knowledge, structural factors such as laws, social factors such as power dynamics in relationships, and material constraints such as access. Within this interplay of factors, social norms can act as either a “brake” in the process of behavior change, or an accelerator; thus, understanding more about the potential role that social norms play in sustaining specific behaviors and in what contexts is important.

      Drawing from research on the topic, CARE articulated 8 design principles for engaging with social norms change, which include:

      1. Find early adopters: Often, people are already living their lives in positive ways that support girls’ choices and opportunities. Find them.
      2. Build support groups of early adopters: It can be hard to embody positive, rights-based change alone. Groups help individuals support, encourage and trouble-shoot.
      3. Use future-oriented positive messages: Help people imagine positive alternatives. Change is possible.
      4. Open space for dialogue: Get people talking to each other about new ideas. Challenge the implicit assumptions that everyone holds the same views, experiences and preferences.
      5. Facilitate public debate: Engage publicly with community members to debate on what is OK in this context.
      6. Expect by-stander action: Move from envisioning possibilities of justice to action. This involves building community and accountability, so that people show up for girls’ rights in their words and actions.
      7. Show examples of positive behavior in public: Demonstrate that the positive shift we hope for already exists. And it is totally normal.
      8. Map allies and ask for their support: Identify the resources and networks we need to support positive change for individuals, families and communities.

      Selected initiatives applying social norms change approaches

      CARE’s Tipping Point initiative focuses on addressing the root causes of child, early and forced marriage (CEFM), promoting the rights of adolescent girls through community level programming and evidence generation in Nepal and Bangladesh, and multi-level advocacy and cross-learning efforts across the globe. Based on these experiences, they published a set of innovation briefs related to social norms interventions:

      • Innovation Brief: Raksha Bandhan
      • Innovation Brief: Girls' Football
      • Innovation Brief: Tea stall conversation
      • Innovation Briefs: Intergenerational DialoguesInnovation Briefs: Intergenerational Dialogues
      • Innovation Brief: Amader Kotha
      • Innovation Brief: Street DramaInnovation Brief: Street Drama
      • Innovation Brief: Amra-O-Korchi
      • Innovation Brief: Cooking Competition

       

      The Indashyikirwa ('champions of change' in Kinyarwanda) project is a gender based violence (GBV) prevention programme that is being implemented in 14 sectors across seven districts of Rwanda from 2015 to 2019. This innovative partnership brings together practitioners and researchers to better understand what works to address intimate partner violence (IPV) and to implement a package of interventions. These interventions are designed to work at individual, family and community levels to shift attitudes, practices and social norms that perpetuate gender inequality and GBV.

       

      The EMERGE project worked to shift social norms and support men and boys as allies for gender equality, so as to advance respect for women and reject violence in their families and the broader community. To do this, CARE Sri Lanka worked at multiple levels:

      • At the household level, CARE worked with married couples to strengthen healthy communication, reject violence against women and promote gender-equality in households.
      • At the community level, the project hosted village-level forums to discuss issues of gender-based violence. EMERGE also supported male change agents at the village level to act as peer educators around issues of GBV and toxic masculinity.
      • At the district level, the project worked with local government to address broader structural concerns around gender inequality.
      • At a national level, the EMERGE project undertook a research study in collaboration with Partners for Prevention in four districts of Sri Lanka, on the knowledge, attitudes and practices around Gender-Based Violence – one of the largest studies of it’s kind in the country at the time. 

      Following the EMERGE project, CARE Sri Lanka began a new phase of work with selected communities in Sri Lanka’s tea plantations under the RENEW Project (Redefining Norms to Empower Women), to challenge social norms around intimate partner violence, promote gender-equal norms through media campaigns, school-based interventions and work through community influencers.

    • CARE-tipping point phase 2 program summary (2019) opens in new window
      CARE-tipping point phase 2 program implementation (2019) opens in new window
      CARE-tipping point phase 2 results framework (2019) opens in new window
      CARE-tipping point phase 2 research design (2019) opens in new window
      CARE: Tipping Point Innovation Brief: Raksha Bandhan opens in new window
      CARE: Tipping Point Innovation Brief: Girls' Football opens in new window
      CARE: Tipping Point Innovation Brief: Tea stall conversation opens in new window
      CARE: Tipping Point Innovation Brief: Intergenerational Dialogues opens in new window
      CARE: Tipping Point Innovation Brief: Amader Kotha opens in new window
      CARE: Tipping Point Innovation Brief: Street drama opens in new window
      CARE: Tipping Point Innovation Brief: Cooking competition opens in new window
      CARE: Tipping Point Innovation Brief: Amra-O-Korchi opens in new window
  • Guidelines

    • CARE: Social Norms Design Checklist (2021) opens in new window
      عراف الاجتماعية ألاقائمة فحص تصميم (2021) opens in new window
      CARE: Liste de contrôle pour la Conception de programmes visant les normes sociales (2021) opens in new window
      CARE: Lista de chequeo de diseño de normas sociales (2021) opens in new window
      CARE report: applying theory to practice: CARE's journey piloting social norms measures for gender programming (2017) opens in new window
      CARE-Tipping Point: phase 1 strategy brief (2019) opens in new window
      From Globalization and Health: Theory and practice of social norms interventions: eight common pitfalls opens in new window
      CARE Blog: What are social norms, and how can understanding them help us prevent gender-based violence? (2016) opens in new window
      CARE-EMERGE policy brief: addressing men's health as a means of primary prevention of GBV (2013) opens in new window
      CARE-EMERGE policy brief: exploring women's attitudes and the impact of GBV on their mental and physical health (2013) opens in new window
      CARE-EMERGE policy brief: child protection - including childhood experiences the their impact on violence perpetration (2013) opens in new window
      CARE-EMERGE policy brief: working with youth to prevent violence against women and girls (2013) opens in new window
      CARE-EMERGE policy brief: preventing sexual and gender-based violence (2013) opens in new window
      opens in new window
  • Tools

    • Infographic: Addressing social norms to address gender-based violence (2016) opens in new window
      CARE-EMERGE video: Using forum theater to engage communities (English, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE video: Using forum theater to engage communities (Sinhala & Tamil, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE video: What is forum theater? How does it work? (English, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE video: What is forum theater? How does it work? (Sinhala & Tamil, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE video: Forum theater performance in Hatton (English, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE video: Forum theater performance in Hatton (Sinhala & Tamil, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

  • Learning

    • CARE: web discussion on using the Social Norms Analysis Plot (SNAP) framework (2019) opens in new window
      CARE-Tipping Point Nepal: phase 1 evaluation findings (2019) opens in new window
      CARE-Tipping Point Bangladesh: phase 1 evaluation findings (2019) opens in new window
      CARE-Tipping Point: leading change by being change- staff transformation in Tipping Point phase 1 (2019) opens in new window
      CARE- Tipping Point phase 1 outcome mapping report on the analyses and syntheses of the change stories collected in Bangladesh and Nepal (2018) opens in new window
      CARE: Redefining norms to empower women: experiences and lessons learnt (2016) opens in new window
      CARE-EMERGE final evaluation (2015) opens in new window
      CARE-EMERGE: Where the fault lies-redefining norms to end domestic violence (English, 2016) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE: Working with men and boys: Sharing experiences of community-based organizations (English, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE: Working with men and boys: Sharing experiences of community-based organizations (Sinhala & Tamil, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE: Challenging masculinities (English, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE: Challenging masculinities (Sinhala & Tamil, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE: Challenging masculinities in Batticaloa District (English, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE: Challenging masculinities in Batticaloa District (Sinhala & Tamil, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE: Challenging masculinities in Polonnaruwa District (English, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE: Challenging masculinities in Polonnaruwa District (Sinhala & Tamil, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE: Challenging masculinities in Nuwara Eliya District (English, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE: Challenging masculinities in Nuwara Eliya District (Sinhala & Tamil, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE: Working with men and boys for gender equality in Batticaloa district (English, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE: Working with men and boys for gender equality in Batticaloa district (Sinhala & Tamil, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE: Working with men and boys for gender equality in Polonnaruwa district (English, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE-EMERGE: Working with men and boys for gender equality in Polonnaruwa district (Sinhala & Tamil, 2015) opens in new window

      Care Video

      CARE and Partners for Prevention: broadening gender study on masculinities in Sri Lanka (2013) opens in new window
      CARE factsheet: broadening gender summary of findings (2013) opens in new window
      CARE factsheet: unpacking men's health (2013) opens in new window
      CARE factsheet: childhood experiences and impact on mens use of violence (2013) opens in new window
      CARE factsheet: women's attitudes and health impact of GBV (2013) opens in new window
      CARE brochure: stakeholder consultations on preventing sexual and gender-based violence (2013) opens in new window
  • Resources

    • CARE Tipping Point project website opens in new window
      CARE: Indashyikirwa project documents opens in new window
      CARE Gender Primer: promising practices toward social norms change opens in new window
      The Lancet: series on gender norms and health opens in new window
      STRIVE research consortium on social norms and inequalities driving HIV (part of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) opens in new window
      IRH: Passages learning collaborative to advance normative change opens in new window
      ALIGN: Advancing Learing and Innovation in Social Norms opens in new window

In practice

  • CARE gender marker
  • Ending gender-based violence
  • Engaging men and boys
  • Gender and equity in organizations
  • Gender equality and women's voice
  • Gender equality in emergencies
  • Impact inquiry on gender in emergencies
  • Rapid gender analysis
  • Social norms change
  • Supporting social movements
  • Women lead in emergencies

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