Norms for Change: Changing the Way You See the World - Training Package

"A social norm exists when individuals practice a behaviour because they believe that others like them or in their community practice the behaviour, or because they believe that those who matter to them approve of them practicing the behaviour."



This training package is designed to equip stakeholders working to prevent harmful practices through social and behaviour change with the skills and tools (emotional, cognitive, and technical) to design, implement, and measure programmes that seek to change social norms. In particular, the package is intended to change social norms related to harmful practices such as child marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM), and sexual and gender-based violence.



The training package was developed by ThinkPlace for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, in collaboration with the Western and Central Africa Regional Office and Headquarters, as part of a project that was designed to create a social norms training package. The training package is intended to be used in the context of two global programmes focusing on harmful practices (child marriage and FGM), coordinated by UNICEF and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), respectively.



The package's content draws inspiration from the publication "Everybody Wants to Belong" (see Related Summaries, below) and incorporates insights from various academic sources and practical case studies to illustrate how theoretical concepts can be applied in real-world situations.



As explained in the package, "Social norms are the perceived informal, mostly unwritten, rules that define acceptable and appropriate actions within a given group or community, thus guiding human behaviour. They consist of what we do, what we believe others do, and what we believe others approve of and expect us to do. Social norms are therefore situated at the interplay between behaviour, beliefs and expectations...A norm-shifting intervention is a deliberate approach that seeks to transform the social beliefs which drive and sustain harmful behaviours."



The objective of the package is to offer a training programme that will allow participants to understand the characteristics and benefits of well-designed social norms change programmes and equip them with the skills they need to identify, implement, and measure effective interventions in their work. The training outlines the Behavioural Drivers Model (BDM), which allows users to be able to understand behaviour, influence it, and track change. It also looks at a four-stage approach to shifting social norms outlined in the "Everybody Wants to Belong" Guide (see Related Summaries, below), which is: (i) change social expectations through a community-based participatory approach; (ii) publicise change within the prioritised community and towards new ones; (iii) build an environment that supports new norms and behaviours; and (iv) evaluate, improve, and evolve. To measure shifts in social norms, the package offers guidance on using the ACT Framework Package, a tool to track social norms change after social norms have already been diagnosed through formative research (see Related Summaries, below).



The package consists of a facilitator's manual, a participant handout, and a presentation deck:



Norms for Change: Changing the Way You See the World - Training Manual for Facilitators: The training manual consists of the following sections and modules:

PART 1 - Overview of the Learning Journey

• Acknowledgement and purpose of document
• Course overview
• Learning journey
• Learning intentions
• Success criteria

PART 2 - The Training Package

• Training package overview
• Course overview
• Piecing it all together

PART 3 - Hints and Tips for Facilitators

• Guiding principles
• Participant expectations
• Overview of the content structure

PART 4 - The Learning Package Content

• Course structure
• Pre-course framing
• Course content:
  • Module 1: Building the Foundations
    • Session 1: Setting expectations and understanding the fundamentals of social norms
    • Session 2: Understanding how social norms influence the world around us, and why they are important
    • Session 3: Building confidence and understanding how social norms impact our work
  • Module 2: Making It Practical
    • Session 1: Understanding behavioural drivers in practice
    • Session 2: Learning how to shift social norms and drawing on best practice
    • Session 3: Creating successful social norms programmes
  • Module 3: Rolling up Our Sleeves
    • Session 1: Implementing social norms change programmes, and what they look like in practice
    • Session 2: Building on case examples and designing for change
    • Session 3: Understanding how to measure and track social norms change

Norms for Change: Changing the Way You See the World - Participant Handout: The participant handout document is designed to support learners during and after the training experience. These handouts provide extra information to remind participants of what they learned during the course, and they link to additional content for those who wish to learn more. While the content in the handouts does not mirror the course modules directly, each of the sections relates to a specific presentation in the course.



Understanding Social Norms and Programming for Behaviour Change - Presentation Decks: This selection of slides is designed to assist the facilitator as they go through each of the training modules.