AYSRH Social and Behavior Change

The communications group Well Told Story incorporated information about sexual & reproductive health (SRH) into its Shujaaz comic book to motivate young people to use contraception. Shujaaz linked financial success to good planning, particularly for marriage and parenthood. This SRH strategy is set within the authentic & trustworthy 360-degree media space, where Shujaaz fans engage with fictional characters and with each other to discuss difficult issues, share ideas, and provide support.

Several longitudinal studies showed the effectiveness of Shujaaz in creating large-scale positive changes among youth. These studies found that youth exposed to Shujaaz are significantly more likely than youth not exposed to delay sexual debut, use contraceptives, delay childbirth, have independent income and earn more than they spend. Shujaaz’s SRH strategy is successful because it offers solutions to youth’s immediate needs, transforming the perception of social norms through characters and fiction, and accelerating social change through curated collective conversations.

As with other service interventions, adolescents and youth should be deeply engaged in the development of SBC interventions to inform the content and the delivery mechanism. The geography health promotion or community strategist focal person should engage adolescents and youth throughout the design process and incorporate their feedback.

1. Adapt the MoH Promotion strategy for engaging adolescents and youth. The strategy will guide the promotion intervention, setting the tone and direction, so that all activities, messages and materials work together to achieve the desired change in utilization of SRH products and services.

2. Identify and engage with [simple_tooltip content='Intended audiences are divided into two types, primary audience who are the people whose behavior you want to change. And secondary audiences are people that interact with and influence the primary audience, either directly or indirectly.']intended audiences[/simple_tooltip] early in the design process to decide on the most appropriate content, mode for engagement and how best to use it. Segmenting the primary and secondary audiences into smaller, more-distinct groups that share similar interests, attitudes and needs relative to the SRH product or service being promoted leads to more successful targeting of messages and channels.

Build strong and consistent support systems around young people from community leaders, families and health workers. In order to increase demand for and use of SRH products and services. Promotional strategies and activities should strive to be gender transformative to address and change gender norms that create unequal access to and utilization of SRH products and service.

3. Reproduce or adapt information, education, and communication (IEC) material for use during activities such as outreaches.

4. Determine and select the best platform to reach the intended audiences for disseminating information, i.e., where and when they are most receptive to messages. Determining the right channel mix will be informed by the program objectives, the local context and the audience analysis. This will include a review of format (e.g., text or audio), language, and frequency and dose of messaging.

5. Capitalize on unique opportunities and approaches for addressing barriers and motivating adolescents and youth to take action. For example:

• Brand SRH products and services
• Allow youth to share their personal stories. With consent, document the testimonies for wider sharing
• Use peers for mobilization

6. Monitor and provide supportive supervision during implementation of the activities. Throughout design and implementation, routinely analyze and assess whether messages, approaches and activities are in the interest of getting adolescents and youth to use products and services and incorporate feedback.

• Monitor increase in the number of new adolescent and youth users of family planning
• Assess the knowledge of adolescent and youth users on availability of AYSRH services
• Monitor the effectiveness of engaging families, communities and health care providers in AYSRH
• Community/Promotion focal person at geography level should track activities
• Supervisors should participate in the activities regularly

• Positive SRH behaviors and contraception among adolescents and youth
• Increased use of AYSRH services among those who recall the SBC messages
• Message recall and intended behavior change

• Demand generation material (IEC) designing, pre-testing, printing/reprinting and distribution
• Training manual printing
• Broadcast cost
• Cost of community-based activities
• Supervision (transport and travel allowances)
• Printing monitoring and evaluation tools

• Incorporate these activities into geography health promotion strategies and budgets to ensure their continuation
• Advocate for support for resource from geography Management Team