Identifying the Social Norms Impacting SRHR in Your Context
We can’t develop effective behaviour change approaches to address social norms until we understand the which norms are present in our context and the ways in which they are impacting sexual and reproductive health and rights.
To get started, we need to break down who your target audience is; what we want them to do; and what is keeping them from doing this (the barriers). The simplest behaviour is the one described in the framework here: “using a family planning method”. In your work, you will often want to go deeper: do you want them to take up an IUD? To use family planning right after having their first child? You will also want to consider whether the barriers identified are even things we can address using communications?
The next exercise can help you think about the barriers a specific target audience may face.
Can you think of some barriers for first-time mothers taking up a family planning method?
| Target audience | Desired behaviour | Barriers | Can address with communications? |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-time mother | Taking up an FP method after first child | ||
You can find the full worksheet here. You can go as far with this as you want. For most programmes, it will make more sense to choose one target audience and barrier to focus on at once.
Here are some examples you might have come up with:
| Target audience | Desired behaviour | Barriers | Can address with communications? |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-time mother | Taking up an FP method after first child | Nervous about return to fertility after FP | YES |
| No facility near her | NO | ||
| Family wants her to have as many children as soon as possible | YES |
As you can see, the second barrier is an example that cannot be fixed with communications alone – time to get your Operations team on the case! The other two barriers take us to the topic of social norms.
Let’s recap the definition:
If you’re not sure if the barrier you’re dealing with is a social norm or not, you can use this tool to check!
Phrase the barrier in the following format: “I believe… my family wants me to have as many children as soon as possible”
If you follow the decision tree for the belief above, you get the following outcome:
| Is there a behaviour/decision influenced by the belief? | YES |
| Is the supernatural involved? | NO |
| Are there social consequences for going against this belief? | YES |
| Is it an unwritten rule in the community? | YES |
| Result: | Social norm |
If we take a different belief, we might get this: “I believe it’s against my religion to use family planning.”
| Is there a behaviour/decision influenced by the belief? | YES |
| Is the supernatural involved? | YES |
| Why does the person believe this? | Religious leader/religious education |
| Result: | Religious norm |
FAQ: What is the difference between religious norms and social norms?
What is the difference between religious norms and social norms? Religious norms and social norms are often heavily intertwined. However, one is the subsets of the other, requiring a specific approach: religious norms can almost never be addressed without involving a religious leader/ influencer, which is not the case for social norms.
Having trouble identifying barriers? Try grabbing some colleagues for a quick brainstorm, especially those that work directly with the target group, such as your community mobilisers. You can also use the “five whys” exercise: for every behaviour, ask “why” it is not taking place. Ask “why” 5 more times until you have a strong set of answers. For example…
- Why is there no discussion on puberty between adolescents and parents?
- Parents like me don’t talk about sex with their children
- My friends would think poorly of me as a parent if I discussed sex openly with my children
- Speaking of sexuality is taboo in this community
- Parents don’t have knowledge to share
- Parents feel inferior to children on the topic if they do not have the same education level
- Nobody talks to their children about puberty
- Using the tool, which ones do you think are social norms?
- Did you get it right? The social norms are…
- Parents like me don’t talk about sex with their children
- My friends would think poorly of me as a parent if I discussed sex openly with my children
- Speaking of sexuality is taboo in this community
- Nobody talks to their children about puberty
Still struggling? There’s a whole section about insight gathering on social norms here.
Now that you’ve filled out the template and used the Norm or not tool, you should have a set of social norms that impact SRH access in your context. Congratulations, you have completed a social norms mapping!
Prioritising social norms to work with
If the exercise above went well, you might have a long list of relevant social norms in your context. How do we prioritise the social norm(s) to work on?!
STEP 1
Before you go any further, make sure you have one clear target audience and desired behaviour in mind. You cannot do everything at once!
STEP 2
Deepening your understanding on the social norms you have in front of you. It’s time to analyse the relevant social norms, or to gather some more insights if you need to.
STEP 3
When you’re ready, you can use the simple template below can help you narrow your focus. You can find a tool version of this here.
- Impact: how much influence the norm has on our desired behaviour
- Ease of influence: how easily our programming/activities could affect this – opportunities through existing interactions, reference group power,…
