Over the last four years, Breakthrough ACTION has produced dozens of tools on social and behavior change (SBC) for family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH). However, figuring out which tools best suit which audiences can be a challenge. In response, and in order to ensure that these tools (which are often a result of co-creation) are actually used, Breakthrough ACTION, in collaboration with Springboard and the Ouagadougou Partnership Coordination Unit, hosted a virtual share fair and workshop in English and French.
The event featured six tools that address key programmatic challenges identified by Springboard members:
This virtual workshop was held over two half days:
The spotlighted tools included:
Theme | Tool |
Helping SBC practitioners continue implementing quality interventions during COVID | Guidance on Social and Behavior Change for Family Planning During COVID-19 |
Convincing stakeholders of the effectiveness of SBC programming and advocating for investment in SBC | Advocating for Social and Behavior Change in Family Planning Programs: A Message Framework |
Encouraging male engagement in FP programs and addressing key barriers and drivers of their engagement | Advancing Male Engagement in Family Planning + Reproductive Health: An Advocacy Tool |
Know, Care, Do: A Theory of Change for Engaging Men and Boys in Family Planning | |
Meeting the FP/RH needs of youth and improving youth-related FP access and outcomes | Empathways (digital and print versions) |
Applying Segmentation to SBC in Family Planning |
SBC professionals with various degrees of experience attended the event and shared their experiences. One hundred fifteen participants from Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, and Zambia attended the English-speaking workshop, while the French-speaking workshop reached over 185 participants from Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Congo-Brazzaville, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.
Participant feedback on the virtual workshop
“The breakout room sessions promoted active participation.” – India
“I loved the format of the workshop, especially the action planning activity.” – Ghana
“The blend of presentation introductions and self-study deep dive was interesting.” – Nigeria
“The exchanges and experience of other colleagues in relation to the difficulties in the community was beneficial.”- Guinea
In the post-workshop survey, participants noted that they appreciated the opportunity to build their skills using various SBC tools, which prompted them to solve challenges in their own programming:
“From the workshop, I got new skills for how SBCC approaches can be used to address key issues in a manner that people can understand. Shared experience from different participants also strengthened my capacity.”
“With prior knowledge from Breakthrough on Provider Behavior tools, this workshop was eye-opening, as it allowed me to understand how to engage with other stakeholders on SBC programming.”
Many participants told us that they plan to use the various tools across the project life cycle, from design to implementation and evaluation. As a first step, a participant from Mozambique noted their plans to “share the information with colleagues and discuss how we can apply the shared knowledge.” Another participant from Uganda noted that they will use the principles of male engagement in their work preventing HIV.
“We will first do advocacy with the donor, then exchange with the specific national program of adolescents and youth to see if there are possibilities of adaptation, especially of the Empathways model, … and exchange with your representation in Kinshasa, then move onto the implementation through the training of actors on its use and monitoring.”
Breakthrough ACTION will continue to support participants via Springboard as they share their completed action plans and apply these tools to their programming. In the future, we will explore ways to engage participants more fully in the design of the share fair so we also learn more about their experiences with SBC for FP/RH best practices and tools. From this workshop, we hope participants continue to explore and use Breakthrough ACTION’s tools to build capacity among their networks and solve various SBC for FP/RH challenges.