Social and Behavior Change Design: Handbook for Resilience Food Security Activities During the Refinement Period

"Human behavior is key to the success of any project."



This handbook offers step-by-step instructions and practical tools for developing social and behaviour change (SBC) initiatives for communities that are vulnerable to malnutrition and food insecurity. The handbook was developed by USAID Advancing Nutrition for partners working for Resilience Food Security Activities (RFSAs) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)'s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA). RFSAs are designed to address critical challenges in food security, nutrition, and poverty and to improve the resilience of households and communities by implementing activities in an integrated way across multiple technical sectors.



As part of this work, USAID/BHA is committed to strengthening SBC in RFSAs. As explained in the guide, the reason for this is that "theories of change (TOCs) invariably incorporate dozens of behavioral or social elements. This is because what people do shapes not only demand for services, products, and improved practices, but also improves efforts to increase supplies and enabling environments for change. As a result, RFSAs that apply SBC best practices achieve greater impact."



The guidance in the handbook is organised around seven SBC programming milestones that are intended to be reached in what the BHA terms the "refinement period". This refinement period forms part of a co-creation process known as "Refine and Implement" (R&I) that underlies most of the BHA-awarded RFSAs. The refinement period happens before the full implementation of an award and takes place mainly in the first year of a five-year award. During the refinement period, implementing partners (IPs) refine the activity design based on evidence and stakeholder input, invest in staff development, and tailor implementation strategies to the local norms and context. Start-up and implementation of proven interventions that have a robust evidence base and are adapted to the operational/cultural/other context(s) also occur during the refinement period. Incorporating SBC strategy planning into the refinement period is also considered an important part of the process. BHA has, therefore, developed seven milestones that lay out how SBC should be incorporated into the refinement period. For more information on these milestones, see "Social and Behavior Change Parameters for Resilience and Food Security Activities during Refine and Implement".



The seven milestones used to organise the best practice instructions and tools in this handbook are categorised in (loosely defined) time periods in the refinement period. "Early refinement" lasts from award to an inception workshop. "Mid-refinement" is when partners conduct pilots, learning, and research studies. "Late refinement" is the time prior to a Culmination workshop, and "later refinement" is between Culmination and the Year 2 Pipeline and Resource Estimate Proposal. Although the milestones are presented within these time periods, SBC is meant to use iterative processes with continual learning and refinement during R&I and throughout the life of the project.



Each discussion on how to achieve a particular milestone looks at why that particular milestone is necessary and how it aligns with SBC best practice. It also offers concrete examples of the milestone to be achieved and includes links to resources such as worksheets for each milestone.



The chapters in this handbook are as follows:



I. Early Refinement

• Milestone 1: Prepare an initial draft list of priority behaviours.
• Milestone 2: Identify SBC-related information gaps.
• Milestone 3: Develop and submit a protocol or statement of work (SOW) for formative research or assessments. (See Related Summaries, below, for a resource to support this milestone.)

II. Mid-Refinement

• Milestone 4: Implement research and learning activities.
• Milestone 5: Begin SBC capacity assessments and capacity strengthening.

III. Late Refinement

• 6. Synthesise findings related to the SBC information gaps.

IV. Later Refinement

• 7. Submit the first draft of the SBC strategy.