Social and Behavior Change: Ideas and Practice in DRG

This month’s Learning Digest covers the intersection of social and behavior change (SBC) science and democracy, human rights, and governance (DRG) practice. DRG programming often focuses on certain objectives, such as improving election administration, access to justice, or voter turnout, but less often on the factors influencing the behaviors that need to change to achieve those objectives. As articulated in the new SBC DRG Primer, the SBC paradigm “focuses on what motivates people to undertake behavior, especially on how social factors influence behavior. SBC accounts for factors like social pressure, norms of behavior, habits, salience, cognitive load/complexity, and institutional incentives to understand when and why a person engages in a behavior. This paradigm blends work from various fields, including psychology, neuroscience, economics, and political science.” People-centered behavioral designs ask the question: what needs to change for people to engage in the target DRG behavior? An SBC approach involves identifying how to encourage people to engage in the target behaviors by removing barriers or building the relevant bridges. Underlying SBC efforts is the recognition that we are usually not trying to change people’s minds, but rather enabling them to do what they already want to do by leveraging that existing motivation.

SBC approaches don’t exist in a vacuum; instead, they complement and build on – not replace – many traditional forms of programming. In addition, SBC approaches are not new. For years they have been applied in global health efforts such as the fight against AIDS, in behavioral economics (link only accessible to USAID personnel), and in tackling many other public policy challenges – and now we are encouraging their targeted and intentional application in the DRG sector. Recent announcements of support for SBC programming by USAID Administrator Power hold promise for improved SBC programming in international development in general and also in the DRG sector specifically.

The DRG Center Evidence and Learning (E&L) Team is pleased to inform USAID readers that our American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) SBC Fellow, Levi Adelman stands ready to assist Missions with adapting SBC approaches to their DRG programming. He can be contacted at ladelman@usaid.gov or the general E&L Team mailbox at ddi.drg.elmaillist@usaid.gov.

This edition of the DRG Learning Digest:

• Reviews the theory of behavior change and a programmatic approach to SBC laid out in a new SBC Primer for DRG
• Introduces three SBC intervention approaches, and evidence to support their use
• Highlights a SBC approach to human rights programming by the USAID/Philippines Mission.