Boys who participated had more positive attitudes toward women and were twice as likely to intervene in case of witnessing verbal, physical and sexual violence. More positive attitudes predicted boys’ intervention in the case of witnessing gender-based violence.

The featured woman farmer now grows kale, spinach, amaranth and tomatoes in her vegetable garden, and her family consumes them almost daily.

Students in intervention schools were more than 7 times more likely to use soap for washing hands at school toilets than control schools.

Positive changes from bystander interventions are reported across behavioral, cognitive and attitudinal measures, including statistically significant decreases in perpetration of violence and increased empathy for survivors.

The campaign evaluation found a nine percent increase in reported account ownership among low-income women who viewed the media and materials.

Because this was a qualitative research study on existing perceptions and behaviors, the anticipated outcomes of the suggestions made could potentially result in an increased uptake of facility based delivery.

Within one year, the number of women who received family planning services at clinics per month increased from 93 to over 1,000 women due to improved trust between communities and health facilities, better facilities for clients and improved working environments for providers. After seeing the results of the renovations of the clinic, a local government leader was so inspired that the local government added a waiting room to the existing clinic.

Building community support and responding to any resistance made sexuality education accessible. 

Findings indicated improved couple communication, including an increase in frequency of couple communication and greater shared decision-making about family planning, which positively influenced contraceptive use and continuation.

Analysis found that the most significant variable affecting household water use behavior was whether the focal child had undertaken wetland education through their school’s wildlife club; children studying wetland topics had a highly significant positive influence on household water use behavior and parent knowledge. Interestingly, parents did not recognize that they were influenced by their child.

A qualitative review in three countries (Zambia, Mozambique and Uganda) indicated that community dialogues helped build cooperation within communities, change social norms related to sick child care-seeking and increase uptake of iCCM, thus improving care-seeking for childhood illnesses.

Intervention communities demonstrated significantly more gender equitable attitudes than control communities, primarily due to changes in attitudes held among men.

At baseline, handwashing with soap at critical moments was only 1% in intervention and 2% in control groups. At 6-week follow-up, handwashing with soap at any of the critical moments rose to 19% in the intervention group versus 4% in the control group, a difference of 15 percentage points (p=0.005). At 6-month follow-up, the proportion of those handwashing with soap at any of the critical moments was 37% in the intervention group and 6% in the control group, a difference of 31 percentage points (p=0.002). The short intervention implemented in the control groups after the end of the intervention had the same effect on handwashing behaviors as the longer intervention.

The evaluation found a 20% difference in clean cord care and an 8% difference in delayed bathing between intervention and control area, associated with delivery in a health facility, and a postnatal care home visit from a Village Health Team (community health worker). Community health services should include support for resolving practical constraints including practical measures that enable families to save and access transport services to enhance adequate preparation for birth.

Neonatal mortality reduced by 54% through improvements in birth preparedness, hygienic delivery, thermal care, cord care, skin care and breastfeeding practices.

The neonatal mortality rate during this period was 30 per 1000 livebirths in the intervention group and 44 per 1000 livebirths in the control group with an odds ratio of 0.60.  Including this study, a meta-analysis of participatory women’s groups found an overall 22% reduction in neonatal mortality.

The program worked with 12 industries, representing 6,785 employees (5,947 men and 838 women).  Reaching them through the employers lends credibility. Uptake was highest in larger firms with champions for health programs.  

Ongoing research (as of June 2018) aims to assess a variety of factors, including changes in knowledge, gaps to emphasize during patient monitoring visits, and assess the increase in health service utilization and request for services to reduce pre-eclampsia and eclampsia.

Assessments in both India and Timor-Leste pointed towards evidence of improved vaccination timeliness and coverage. In India and Timor-Leste, the number of infants tracked and immunized rose substantially with use of the visual community tool. In India, coverage in communities that used the tool increased to much higher than overall coverage in their respective districts.

The newly-trained and rebranded former traditional birth attendants contributed to a significant improvement in early initiation of breastfeeding as well as postnatal care seeking for the mother and newborn compared to control groups. These women reported greatest satisfaction with counseling mothers, followed by the social enterprise option to sell goods during home visits.

Higher exposure to Smart Couple was associated with increased odds of women using any method of contraception almost three-fold and the odds of using a modern method more than two-fold. Consistent with the theory of change, higher exposure resulted in more discussion with a spouse about desired family size, contraceptive use and family planning provider visits.

Households who received the intervention demonstrated significant reductions in violence, both intimate partner violence (IPV) and physical child punishment at endline and over the longer term.

In intervention areas, people had lower acceptability of interpersonal violence (IPV), and women had fewer experiences of IPV in the past year, compared to control areas including significantly less high intensity emotional aggression and controlling behaviors, and cessation of physical, sexual and emotional IPV where it was previously occurring. The analysis found that interpersonal communication with community-based change agents and social network members were most effective in facilitating individual and collective change.

The evaluation found significant improvements in some behaviors including early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding, minimum meal frequency and minimum dietary diversity. Results showed a dose-response relationship for dietary diversity, meal frequency and minimum acceptable diet. Health post visits were associated with greater early initiation of breastfeeding while three or more home visits was associated with improved complementary feeding behaviors. Caregivers exposed to four or more communication channels were more likely to achieve a minimum dietary diversity and minimum acceptable diet.

Technology specific variables (e.g. yield potential and acceptability) are associated with greater adoption of the behavior. The findings call for increased emphasis on sharing information, field demonstration, and farmers’ participatory research and training programs to popularize new inputs as well as offer more choices in varieties. Such programs ultimately help farmers develop more profit-oriented behavior which are necessary to reach long-term goals.

Compared to non-viewers, men and women who viewed community theater performances were significantly higher fertility awareness, more likely to have sought information about family planning methods from a provider, and significantly more likely to report intent to use modern family planning method (45% of viewers compared to 9% of non-viewers). Women who viewed the performances reported higher couple communication on birth spacing.

Adolescents in three schools who participated reported new perceptions and preferences, including adding more nutritious foods (such as fruits and vegetables) into their diet and engaging in more physical activity. The findings suggest that gamification of nutrition can lead to improve dietary behavior among adolescents in the short term.  More studies are needed to evaluate the long-term effects of nutrition interventions that use gamification techniques.

Women in the program group reported lower rates of physical and sexual violence: 35% of female participants experienced sexual violence from their husband or partner vs. 60% in the comparison group and greater contraceptive use: 70% of women in the vs. 61% in the comparison group reported current use of modern contraception. In addition, the evaluation found a 30% difference between groups in households that said that their husbands had the final say in decisions.

Grandmothers’ correct knowledge on infant and young child feeding translated into mothers’ correct knowledge and optimal practices.

The approach changed community norms about appropriate care for a pregnant woman and where childbirth should take place, and increased men’s knowledge and beliefs about safe pregnancy and childbirth. The pilot resulted in doubling of the numbers of women who delivered in a health center. The approach was expanded to another 100 communities.

By engaging fathers-to-be through simple, free text messages that provide information, fathers built their own knowledge base and shared the information and reminders with their wives.  Many fathers also took action to help their wives and better care for their child as a couple.

The evaluation found significantly higher dietary diversity among children under 5 years and women of reproductive age in households benefiting from traditional vegetable promotion and demand creation activities. There was found no significant impact of promotion activities on household dietary diversity. Authors hypothesize that this is related to food security; in times of scarcity these households prioritize food consumption by women and children. Nevertheless, the results suggest that scaling up promotional and demand creation activities to encourage consumers to grow and eat traditional African vegetables would be an important element in initiatives to increase dietary diversity.

Intensive handwashing promotion led to greater maintenance of handwashing materials in locations where mothers are cocooned with neonate and modest increase in the frequency of handwashing with soap among new mothers during the first 30 days after the birth of their child. Handwashing with soap was significantly higher before breastfeeding and after fecal contact among intervention mothers than among controls.

Impact: Children of mothers who received three home visits to discuss breastfeeding and complementary feeding were 10% better nourished than children of mothers who did not receive the intervention, in a setting without resource constraints to complementary food.

Postnatal care within 48 hours after childbirth increased over 30 percentage points (from 15% to 47%) through facilitated family meetings and labor and birth notifications. Mothers who attended two or more family meetings with their family, who received antenatal care, and/or who had the phone number of a health extension worker on a household, friends or neighbor’s phone were significantly more likely to get postnatal care than other mothers.

This review identified innovative solutions to challenges to improve the quality of teaching and learning, and promote the widespread adoption of successful practices. Experiences suggest that teachers are more likely to adopt new methods when programs use a phased training approach and a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic incentives may be needed to motivate teachers and improve teaching quality.

Findings suggest that comprehensive models are most effective in increasing contraceptive use among married youth, and that a ‘gender synchronized’ approach in which both male and female partners are engaged, both together and separately, was associated with stronger results than working with only young men or only young women.  For example, in Phase III of this program, from baseline to endline, the odds of currently using contraception increased 34% more among young married women in intervention areas than in comparison areas. Additional findings suggest that contraception initiation earlier in life correlated with future contraceptive use.

Impact: Evidence of effective interventions to increase vaccination coverage include those which facilitate action (through reminders, prompts, and primes), reduce barriers (through logistics and healthy defaults), and shape behavior (through incentives, sanctions, and requirements).

Researchers in this analysis discuss the potential influence of social media in adolescents lives and suggest potential impact through communication strategies such as using posts and comments on social media to target or identify particularly vulnerable or at-risk youth, the potential of using GPS tracking at concerts or parties to promote condoms, safe rides or looking out for friends. Finally, the article suggests the potential that widespread dissemination of images of positive norms could have a similar positive effect on perceived norms.

Social contact-based education and outreach with the general public, students and providers lead to less stigmatizing attitude and behaviors towards people with a mental illness, including through reduced anxiety and increased empathy.

 In a year, Love9 reached just over half (53%) of young people. By the end, it recorded 2.5 million views on YouTube and over 550,000 likes on Facebook.

The project findings indicate that water consumption was reduced by 30-40% in homes serviced by the new female plumbers. Community members also lauded some of the economic benefits for the women, many of whom now provide for their families.

Prenatal enrolment in community-based programs working on child nutrition can improve exclusive breastfeeding practices, with an adjusted odds ratio of 1.55.

Prior to the endline survey, pre-results revealed that the process engaged all village members and potentially offers a low-cost, public health approach to prevent contamination of children’s complementary food.

The evaluation found that the SHOUHARDO II Project was successful in reducing child stunting by addressing a broad range of underlying and immediate causes of malnutrition including empowering women to promote households’ livelihoods.

Consumers heeded the warning labels to varying degrees, but most observed that their children, particularly the youngest, gained more positive attitudes toward the regulation and have become promoters of change in their families. This information contributes to better understand how regulatory actions may influence people’s consumer behaviors.

The Indian government launched a “Clean India Mission (Rural)” in an effort to attain open defecation-free (ODF) status over five years, and has reached 314 ODF districts out of 644. Efforts continue to achieve full coverage through local and regional efforts that engage women’s collectives to build their own latrines and a youth-driven social media campaign.

Students in schools with savings lock boxes with less restriction on the use of funds saved more that students with more restrictions. When combined with parent outreach, students who received cash payouts were significantly more likely to have a complete set of school supplies, and owning those supplies led to higher test scores.

In Senegal, 13 multi-service hubs help to standardize quality millet and increase resources for individual farmers. One hub with nearly 500 members can now access services like plowing, threshing, financing inputs, marketing and millet storage. Last year, the network broke records for the region, surpassing 50,000 tons in harvested millet. With the longer term storage and services from the millet hubs, member farmers were able to invest in the financing fund and spread that investment across the year.

Policymakers can utilize numerous policy options can influence norms and/or maintain behavior change.  When it comes to environmental issues, norms of conformity or cooperation can induce pro-environment behaviors; pro-environment attitudes and values are not necessary to establish before behavior change. Policies can effectively change behaviors by tapping into the desire to confirm and/or signal cooperation, as well as by making behaviors more convenient and more visible.

The woman featured in the story said, “I now harvest 300 liters of goat’s milk every year…I give the milk to my grandchildren, and I can see a difference in their health.” She taught her daughter and daughter-in-law everything she learned who have also started raising goats.

Caregivers who participate in the village saving program are more likely to have tested for HIV and know their own HIV status, and their child’s status. For example, in Nigeria, giving referrals for HIV testing to group members resulted in a 19-percentage point increase in HIV testing in the past 12 months compared to a referral alone. This shows the potential value of the integration or convergence of activities and services for caregivers.

The social network diffusion paradigm was highly effective in catalyzing normative community changes that create increased awareness, acceptance and use of modern family planning methods. Women’s use of family planning was significantly higher than in intervention areas (59%) than control areas (39%). Women and men who reported that their social network approves of family planning were significantly more likely to discuss method use with their partner and seek services, and perceptions that one’s social networks support family planning were positively and significantly linked to increased use of contraception and met need.

Seoul has increased food waste recycling levels from 2 percent to 95 percent.

Exclusive breastfeeding was significantly higher in the intervention compared to the control group as a result of multi-level interventions: in the intervention group, the median length of EBF was 18 weeks compared to .1 week in the control group. At 24 months, 37.0% of mothers were exclusively breastfeeding in the intervention group compared to only 3.7% of mothers in the control group.

Tailored checklists for infection prevention in health care facilities can save lives, when introduced in a human-centered way that engages providers to accept and own the procedures, and communicating openly across power hierarchies.

A human-centered approach helped to redesign reproductive health services to fit the lives and aspirations of Zambian teens. For girls who visit one of the three Diva Centres, 82% got contraceptive services and 36% returned for another visit. Following this initial success in urban areas, there are plans to build a total of ten Diva Centres by 2017 and adapt the urban Diva Centre model to serve teens in more rural areas of the country.

The study found that six to 10 months after the social transfer program, women receiving only transfers experienced no significant difference in any dimension of IPV relative to the control group, but women who had received transfers with communications activities experienced significantly less physical violence than either the transfer-only group or the control group.

Surveys found that the five targeted food hygiene behaviors increased six weeks after the intervention in the intervention group (43%), higher than the control group (2%).

The findings showed that community-owned ECD centers can be an effective platform to deliver agriculture and nutrition interventions and achieve improvements in household production and consumption, maternal knowledge of child nutrition, and preschool children's diets while also benefiting their younger siblings’ dietary diversity and linear growth. Younger siblings in the intervention group had significantly greater increases in height-for-age than children in the control group and greater reductions in the prevalence of stunting.

OPOWER has harnessed the power of community norms and competition to influence household behaviors. By harnessing the individual’s desire to conform, OPOWER increased participation in energy efficiency programs from 5% to 80%, and the savings appear to be sustained.