Changing Social Norms: the Importance of Organized Diffusion for Scaling Up Community Health Promotion and Women Empowerment Interventions
Our latest research paper demonstrates how " organized diffusion"—the sharing of knowledge encouraged by practitioners and led by program participants—can help interventions achieve effective social norms change while being cost-effective.
A Project of —
Nepal, Championing Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment, Research & Learning
by Beniamino Cislaghi, Elaine K. Denny, Mady Cissé, Penda Gueye, Binita Shrestha, Prabin Nanicha Shrestha, Gemma Ferguson, Claire Hughes, Cari Jo Clark
In our latest research paper, we provide quantitative evidence from three case studies—Community Empowerment Program in Mali, Change Starts at Home in Nepal, and Voices for Change in Nigeria – to demonstrate how “organized diffusion”—the sharing of knowledge encouraged by practitioners and led by program participants—can be a fruitful strategy to increase the reach of community discussions, ultimately helping interventions achieve effective social norms change while being cost-effective.
Future community-based interventions intending to achieve social norms change would benefit from integrating ways to help participants engage others in their network in transformative conversations. Doing so has the potential to generate additional impact with little additional investment.