Beniamino Cislaghi

Values Deliberation and Collective Action: Community Empowerment in Rural Senegal

This book describes how a program of values deliberations–-sustained group reflections on local values, aspirations, beliefs and experiences, blending with discussions of how to understand and to realize human rights--led to individual and collective empowerment in communities in rural Senegal. The study explains what happens during the deliberations and shows how they bring about a larger process that results in improved capabilities in areas such as education, health, child protection, and gender equality. It shows how participants, particularly women, enhance their agency, including their individual and collective capacities to play public roles and kindle community action. It thus provides important insights on how values deliberations help to revise adverse gender norms.

Four avenues of normative influence: A research agenda for health promotion in low and mid-income countries.

Health promotion interventions in low and midincome countries (LMIC) are increasingly integrating strategies to change local social norms that sustain harmful practices. However, the literature on social norms and health in LMIC is still scarce. A well-known application of social norm theory in LMIC involves abandonment of female genital cutting (FGC) in West Africa. We argue that FGC is a special case because of its unique relationship between the norm and the practice; health promotion interventions would benefit from a wider understanding of how social norms can influence different types of health-related behaviors. We hypothesize that four factors shape the strength of a norm over a practice: (1) whether the practice is dependent or interdependent; (2) whether it is more or less detectable; (3) whether it is under the influence of distal or proximal norms; and (4) whether noncompliance is likely to result in sanctions. We look at each of these four factors in detail, and suggest that different relations between norms and a practice might require different programmatic solutions. Future findings that will confirm or contradict our hypothesis will be critical for effective health promotion interventions that aim to change harmful social norms in LMIC.

How gender- and violence-related norms affect self-esteem among adolescent refugee girls living in Ethiopia

Background. Evidence suggests adolescent self-esteem is influenced by beliefs of how individuals in their reference group perceive them. However, few studies examine how gender- and violence-related social norms affect self-esteem among refugee populations. This paper explores relationships between gender inequitable and victim-blaming social norms, personal attitudes, and self-esteem among adolescent girls participating in a life skills program in three Ethiopian refugee camps. Methods. Ordinary least squares multivariable regression analysis was used to assess the associations between attitudes and social norms, and self-esteem. Key independent variables of interest included a scale measuring personal attitudes toward gender inequitable norms, a measure of perceived injunctive norms capturing how a girl believed her family and community would react if she was raped, and a peer-group measure of collective descriptive norms surrounding gender inequity. The key outcome variable, self-esteem, was measured using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale. Results. Girls personal attitudes toward gender inequitable norms were not significantly predictive of self-esteem at endline, when adjusting for other covariates. Collective peer norms surrounding the same gender inequitable statements were significantly predictive of self-esteem at endline (ß = −0.130; p = 0.024). Additionally, perceived injunctive norms surrounding family and community-based sanctions for victims of forced sex were associated with a decline in self-esteem at endline (ß = −0.103; p = 0.014). Significant findings for collective descriptive norms and injunctive norms remained when controlling for all three constructs simultaneously. Conclusions. Findings suggest shifting collective norms around gender inequity, particularly at the community and peer levels, may sustainably support the safety and well-being of adolescent girls in refugee settings.

The story of the "now-women": changing gender norms in rural West Africa

ABSTRACT This article offers a qualitative investigation of how human rights education sessions, embedded in a multi-faceted intervention, helped members of a rural community in West Africa challenge inequitable gender norms that hindered women’s political participation. Results show a change in women’s political participation and community members’ descriptions of women’s potential. Three features of the intervention contributed to this change: (1) its pedagogical approach; (2) its substantive content; and (3) the engagement of men and women together. The article calls for interventions that facilitate sustained dialogue between men and women to achieve greater gender equity.

Using social norms theory for health promotion in low-income countries

Summary Social norms can greatly influence people’s health-related choices and behaviours. In the last few years, scholars and practitioners working in low- and mid-income countries (LMIC) have increasingly been trying to harness the influence of social norms to improve people’s health globally. However, the literature informing social norm interventions in LMIC lacks a framework to understand how norms interact with other factors that sustain harmful practices and behaviours. This gap has led to short-sighted interventions that target social norms exclusively without a wider awareness of how other institutional, material, individual and social factors affect the harmful practice. Emphasizing norms to the exclusion of other factors might ultimately discredit norms-based strategies, not because they are flawed but because they alone are not sufficient to shift behaviour. In this paper, we share a framework (already adopted by some practitioners) that locates norm-based strategies within the wider array of factors that must be considered when designing prevention programmes in LMIC.

Theory and practice of social norms interventions: eight common pitfalls

BackgroundRecently, Global Health practitioners, scholars, and donors have expressed increased interest in “changing social norms” as a strategy to promote health and well-being in low and mid-income countries (LMIC). Despite this burgeoning interest, the ability of practitioners to use social norm theory to inform health interventions varies widely.Main bodyHere, we identify eight pitfalls that practitioners must avoid as they plan to integrate a social norms perspective in their interventions, as well as eight learnings. These learnings are: 1) Social norms and attitudes are different; 2) Social norms and attitudes can coincide; 3) Protective norms can offer important resources for achieving effective social improvement in people’s health-related practices; 4) Harmful practices are sustained by a matrix of factors that need to be understood in their interactions; 5) The prevalence of a norm is not necessarily a sign of its strength; 6) Social norms can exert both direct and indirect influence; 7) Publicising the prevalence of a harmful practice can make things worse; 8) People-led social norm change is both the right and the smart thing to do.ConclusionsAs the understanding of how norms evolve in LMIC advances, practitioners will develop greater understanding of what works to help people lead change in harmful norms within their contexts. Awareness of these pitfalls has helped several of them increase the effectiveness of their interventions addressing social norms in the field. We are confident that others will benefit from these reflections as well.

Practice-based insights in developing and implementing a sport-based programme for girls

ABSTRACT Parivartan Plus is a structured sports mentoring programme for girls, implemented in a Mumbai slum where social expectations around gender-appropriate behaviour and good parenting restricts girls’ mobility and visibility in public spaces. This article presents practice-based learning from developing and implementing programme theory to empower girls in achieving changes in their everyday social interactions at home and beyond. Gender and social norms theory were combined with local practical wisdom to turn main implementation challenges into opportunities. The article reflects on the strategies that gave visibility to, and achieved community endorsement for, the erosion of restrictive gender norms while ensuring community safety.

Technical brief: Measuring social norms

Social norms are unspoken behavioural rules shared by people in a given society or group; they define what is considered ‘normal’ and appropriate behaviour for that group. There is substantial evidence that social norms can influence a variety of health-related behaviours, including those related to HIV. Research on HIV and social norms has mostly focussed on four aspects of the norms/HIV nexus. These are (from the most to the least studied): condom use and sexual risk behaviour, drug injection and needle sharing, willingness to seek HIV testing, access to and response of health services. However, norms can also influence upstream factors that affect individuals’ vulnerability to HIV, including factors such as: women’s ability and willingness to leave abusive relationships, the ability of young people to resist alcohol advertising and promotion the degree to which girls receive parental support to complete secondary school, the impact of stigma on individual’s willingness to disclose their status. This brief offers guidance to researchers who are not experts on social norms but want to capture information on norms as they relate to HIV and other health and development outcomes. Here, members of the STRIVE consortium provide techniques for collecting information on social norms in the context of studies designed to explore the structural drivers of HIV.

Community Values and Aspirations as the CEP Arrives

This chapter describes the social and personal values of respondents at the outset of Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP). Several themes or categories emerge from the interviews gathered after the first session and from recollections expressed later in the Democracy and Human Rights Sessions (DHRS). The themes and subthemes (italicized below) provide a baseline from which changes are tracked over time. Participants’ hopes (Beyond the Individual) are for increased well-being of their families, finding the right path and desiring honesty and forgiveness in relationships. Their Commonly Shared Personal Values include working to achieve one’s goals (Working Hard), fulfilling gender roles (Being Men and Women), and raising children (Caring about Children). Their Commonly Shared Aspirations are Education, a Better Future, Better Health, Working Together, and Being in Public.

Learning and Values Deliberations During the Democracy and Human Rights Sessions (DHRS), 2010

The chapter summarizes how respondents’ values and aspirations developed as the Democracy and Human Rights (DHR) deliberations progressed, and how those changes created new intentions to act for the benefit of all. From participants’ discourse, the authors trace the process of change and the key topics that animated deliberation and sparked re-assessment of practices. Respondents learned to deliberate publicly; engage in organized diffusion, from class members to a broader public; imagine a better future; develop new self-understandings; and work together to realize a better future. Justice and rights, equality, and peace are now salient values needed to create enhanced community well-being. New practices in healthcare, education, gender relations and child protection are needed to end what they call bad habits and take up good habits.