Social norm(s) addressesd:
“New wives are expected to give birth early in their marriage to prove their worth in their new family.” & “Good wives do not use family planning without their husband’s permission.”
Organisation: MSI – Sahel countries
La Famille Ideale is a suite of participatory tools for use by community mobilisers. The tools (a game and facilitated couples’ conversation) target adolescent women directly as well as their husbands and other key influencers (such as mothers-in-law). LFI is being used by all four of MSI’s programmes in the Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Senegal) to create awareness and demand for the quality contraception services offered by MSI teams.
The tools:
- Involve husbands in a discussion about FP, to show that husbands can and should be a part of these discussions
- Explore who can use FP, when and for what reason, challenging the norm that young couples should wait to use FP until they have multiple children
- Model the role mothers-in-law can play to support FP uptake, by exploring the role of this key reference group
- Focus on the benefits of FP for birth spacing, shifting individual understandings and beliefs to give people the confidence to challenge the norm themselves