Enabling Girls to Advance Gender Equity (ENGAGE) Report on the Midline Evaluation Results August 2019
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The ENGAGE program illustrates that social norms—particularly those around adolescent sexuality, contraception use, child marriage, and girls’ roles in decision-making—are deeply embedded in community beliefs and practices in Southern Malawi. While norms supporting child marriage are weakening, entrenched stigma remains around girls’ sexual activity and contraceptive use, especially among unmarried girls. […]
Preventing violence against refugee adolescent girls: findings from a cluster randomized controlled trial in Ethiopia
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The COMPASS intervention in Ethiopian refugee camps influenced social norms around gender, education, marriage, and social support, even though it did not significantly reduce violence within the 12-month evaluation period. Girls in the intervention reported more gender-equitable beliefs regarding education, marriage age, and childbearing, and had stronger social networks. These shifts […]
C’est la Vie!: Mixed Impacts of an Edutainment Television Series in West Africa
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The study finds that edutainment programming like C’est La Vie! (CLV) can shift social norms around contraception and gender equity, particularly when exposure is sustained and integrated across media. It highlights that norms are more likely to shift when multiple layers of influence—media messages, interpersonal discussions, and community attitudes—align. Social norms […]
Breakthrough Generation Initiative Mixed-Methods Final Evaluation Report July
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The Breakthrough Generation Initiative demonstrated that systemic shifts in social norms—especially around gender roles, harmful practices, and community collaboration—can emerge from community-led, values-based education. The participatory approach of Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP) created safe spaces for challenging entrenched beliefs and introduced a process of organized diffusion, enabling widespread norm change […]
Can Media Campaigns Change Attitudes and Spark Actions to Reduce Early Child Marriage? Impact Evaluation of Breakthrough’s Early Marriage Campaign in Jharkhand and Bihar States of India. Grantee Final Report
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The study reveals that norms supporting early marriage and rigid gender roles can shift through media-driven and community-based engagement. Breakthrough’s mass media campaigns challenged the normalization of child marriage, while training and community mobilization helped reinforce critical reflection on gender norms. The intervention encouraged more equitable attitudes among adolescents and adults, […]
Qualitative research on Breakthrough ACTION’s Advocacy Core Group Model for integrated social behavior change programming in Nigeria
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Adolescent childbearing in northern Nigeria is shaped by social norms around early marriage, gender roles, and family honor. These norms position marriage and motherhood as expected milestones for girls, often reinforced by community and family members. Premarital pregnancy is highly stigmatized, especially for girls, while boys face fewer consequences. Changing these […]
ADOLESCENT TRANSITION IN WEST AFRICA (ATWA) OUTCOME EVALUATION 2022-2023 Endline Report
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The ATWA program demonstrates that comprehensive, school- and community-based life skills education can lead to early shifts in social norms around gender and adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights. Although short-term changes in community-level norms were modest, significant improvements in adolescents’ knowledge, attitudes, and gender-equitable beliefs suggest that norms around […]
Community Gender Norms Change as a Part of a Multilevel Approach to Sexual Health Among Married Women in Mumbai, India
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study highlights that key to successful change was aligning gender-equity messages with respected religious doctrine and delivering them through credible sources. Men’s attitudes shifted more rapidly, suggesting the value of engaging male authority figures. In contrast, women’s slower adoption may reflect caution due to possible negative consequences in a patriarchal […]
Transforming gender norms through life-skills programming in rural Ethiopia: short-term impacts and emerging lessons for adaptive programming: Oromia case study
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The Act With Her-Ethiopia program in Oromia demonstrated that gender-transformative life skills education can improve girls’ voice and agency, parent–adolescent communication, and knowledge around menstruation and violence. However, the program revealed limited or even negative short-term impacts on attitudes toward gender equality, indicating that shifting entrenched norms—particularly among boys and communities—requires […]
The Role of Gender Norms on Intimate Partner Violence Among Newly Married Adolescent Girls and Young Women in India: A Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study reveals a counterintuitive association between community-level gender norms and intimate partner violence (IPV) among newly married adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in India. Researchers used two proxy measures of social norms: (1) a community-level equitable gender attitudes index—based on AGYW’s agreement with five statements about gender roles (e.g., […]