In Nigeria, TCI helps local governments establish or strengthen State Social Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) Committee. The SBCC committee consists of people from the State Ministry of Health, State Primary Health Care Development Agency, local government health promotion units, journalists, young people, community influencers, and other relevant agencies. It is responsible for coordinating all demand generation activities, including social mobilization, and is setting the path for the work to continue in a sustainable manner.

As a result, TCI provides an orientation to the SBCC Committee as well as a training of trainers (ToT) workshop for selected Committee members who will conduct the cascade trainings. Each State adapts the social mobilization approach and materials to suit its context and recruits social mobilizers who will work with and are supervised by the LGA Health Educators.

In an effort to further institutionalize the approach, TCI is working closely with government to strengthen the capacity of the Community Health Influencers, Promoters, and Services (CHIPS) program. The federal government of Nigeria, through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, created the CHIPS program to improve access and equitable coverage to essential health services, especially those relating to maternal, newborn, and child survival. The CHIPS program is also meant to serve as a means of coordinating all social mobilization/demand generation activities at the community level.

Finally, TCI along with other stakeholders is working to develop a national social mobilization guideline and capacity building program for National Orientation Agency of Nigeria (NOA) based on integrated social mobilization, including FP/RH issues.

Ideally, you should develop a social mobilization strategy in a community participatory workshop-type setting. The social mobilization strategy will include a description of the overall implementation plan including:

• How the social mobilizers will be selected
• What roles and responsibilities they will assume
• What activities will be conducted and why
• How social mobilizers will be trained and supervised
• What materials and equipment they may need
• How the strategy will be monitored and, eventually, evaluated

Social mobilization materials may be developed within a workshop setting that includes program staff, stakeholders and, possibly, graphic designers or artists. In Nigeria, participants of the media and materials development workshop:

• Identified local languages and phrases or words that would best communicate the program’s goal
• Identified equipment needs
• Determined what materials should be developed (for example, referral cards and branded badges, pins, bags, shirts, jackets, hijabs and pens)
• Designed and pretested material prototypes

After the workshop, additional materials may be developed, such as tools or implementation kits, pamphlets or checklists for facilitators and social mobilizers.

Under TCI a similar approach has been taken to designing and pretesting materials and FP messages, as outlined in the Adapt & Air Media Spots approach.

Potential social mobilizers must meet specific criteria in order to be selected. This often includes that potential mobilizers must:

• Be willing to volunteer
• Be between the ages of 18 and 35
• Live in urban slums
• Be an artisan (barber/hair stylist, driver, mechanic or tailor)

TCI uses the NURHI developed orientation guide for social mobilizers along with the Social Mobilizer’s Training Curriculum on Life Planning for Adolescent and Youth.

Each of the LGAs develop a monthly workplan/schedule of social mobilization activities which they plan to implement. The SBCC Committee develops a social mobilization work plan with the social mobilizers to ensure that activities are implemented in a timely manner. They also use a social mobilization coordination chart to enable better planning. These tools help the SBCC Committee to monitor activities as well. By measuring progress, programs and activities can make decisions and adjust plans based on evidence. TCI-supported States implements four types of social mobilization activities:

1. Neighborhood campaigns – During neighborhood campaigns, mobilizers move from door to door talking about the benefits of FP and referring people to access FP services at nearby facilities.
2. Indigenous events and festivals – Obtain permission to man a booth/table with materials on family planning
3. Engagement with community associations, like market women, hairdressers, barbers, tailors and motorcycle drivers – Share information on family planning in an association meeting, for example
4. Key life events – Mobilizers will identify key life events (weddings, naming and graduations) in their communities, where a mobilizer can have a slot to talk with guests about the benefits of modern FP

The neigborhood campaigns are planned by LGA health educators with the SMAs. They work with and also supervise the mobilizers during this activity. The engagement with community associations as well as key life events are led by social mobilizers after which they provide feedback to the on the outcome to the LGA health educators and SMAs. In addition, the social mobilizers utilize other avenues to generate demand for FP services. They support the SBCC Committee workplan implementation by leveraging on indigenous events to conduct referrals and also utilize community theater performances to conduct referrals.

The social mobilization approach also supports key service delivery interventions such as the 72-Hour Clinic Makeover and the training on LARC for service providers. These activities provided the opportunity to increase service visibility, facilitate knowledge exchange and refer prospective clients using branded referral cards.

Monitoring of these activities included measuring mobilization meeting attendance, supervisor checklists and family planning uptake—through the number of referrals provided compared with the number of completed referrals.