Behaviour Change

Scroll through the sections below to find descriptions and links to various tools. Where available, tools are also provided in Swahili.

OVERVIEW

Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) programmes are most successful when they marry a thorough understanding of local context with a knowledge of the epidemiology of poor health and clarity about state-of-the-art programmes that have improved nutrition both inside and outside of Tanzania. The following brief describes the evidence-based approach ASTUTE used to design its programs.  

How evidence transformed the design of SBC strategies in Tanzania

This document—developed at the inception of the ASTUTE programme—outlines ASTUTE’s overall strategies at the national, regional, LGA, and community levels to make it innovative, unique, and effective. This document includes a short description of the tools presented in this kit, designed to improve the uptake of behaviours known to reduce stunting and improve maternal nutrition.

ASTUTE's approach to SBC

The following tools were developed by Mtoto Mwerevu to strengthen its SBC strategy, including tools to improve people's practice of health behaviors at the individual level (Home Visits), in groups (Personalized Support Groups for Action and Positive Deviance/Hearth), and at the national and sub-national levels (Mass Media).
 

INDIVIDUAL LEVEL
Home Visits

This toolkit includes a number of resources that when used properly will improve health behaviours known to positively impact maternal and child nutrition. As part of ASTUTE, Community Health Workers (CHWs) conduct home visits using a proven strategy known as negotiating for behaviour change. Details of this strategy can be found in the USAID-funded manual Make Me a Change Agent, which you can find linked below (see lesson 3 of the manual). One reason for ASTUTE’s success is a focus on small, do-able actions (SDAs). SDAs are behaviours that CHWs (and CSO volunteers) promote and that household members can easily try because the practices themselves are not complex. When considered collectively, SDAs add up to large changes in health behaviours and outcomes.

This is a USAID-funded manual for front-line health workers that provides training curricula for many SBC activities, including negotiated behaviour change. Make Me a Change Agent manuals are also available for agriculture and WASH. Lesson 3 contains information about negotiated behaviour change.

Make Me a Change Agent
 

GROUP LEVEL
Personalised Support Groups for Action

A number of implementing partners - including the Government, international NGOs, and CSOs - use support groups regularly. However, when done poorly, they are often simply vehicles for sharing messages. In Tanzania, support groups may fail to respond to the needs of the community and are not tailored to group members. They are often used to tell group members what they “have to do,” and don’t commit support group members to adopting healthy practices. As part of the ASTUTE project, PANITA worked with 50 CSOs to strengthen their capacity in the management of support groups. In Geita region and elsewhere, PANITA piloted the use of Personalised Support Groups for Action. This document outlines what personalised support groups for action are and outlines basic program elements.

This is a step-by-step outline for conducting personalised groups for action.

This short, ready-to-use training module shows how to conduct training for personalised support groups for action. The module is for on-the-job training of CSO staff.

Positive Deviance/Hearth

Positive Deviance/Hearth (PDH) is an assets-based strategy for improving nutrition and related behaviours. It requires community mobilisation and includes 1) identifying positive deviants (at-risk, poverty-stricken families) whose children are well-nourished 2) learning from them 3) encouraging parents of underweight children to adopt the same practices using hearth sessions, and 4) following up with families in their homes to make sure that they are able to maintain the positive deviant practices they learned about during hearth sessions. This document shares lessons learnt and recommendations for the government and others who implement PDH.

PDH for stunting reduction

These are the state-of-the-art training manuals and handouts developed by World Vision, to be used with PDH programs globally:

NATIONAL AND SUB-NATIONAL LEVELS
Mass Media

Here you will find a tool developed by Development Media International (DMI) that provides guidelines on developing a mass media campaign:

Here you will find a sample of radio spots DMI created for ASTUTE. Radio spots are aired over two-week time periods across much of northwestern Tanzania and the Southern Highlands. They are played on average 10 times a day.

You will also find a sample of TV spots DMI developed to reach ASTUTE’s target population, which increasingly uses TV as a form of entertainment and news.