Effects of Social and Gender Norms on Adolescent Health and Livelihood Outcomes in LMICs (SNA)

Situation
The behaviors and trajectories of adolescents and youth aged 10-24 are strongly influenced by social and gender norms. Within global health programming, norms-shifting interventions aim to shift harmful norms or foster new norms to promote health and wellbeing. However, empirical knowledge of the effectiveness of norms-shifting programmatic approaches is nascent.

What We’re Doing
We aim to conduct three scoping reviews to synthesize social norms evidence related to the health and livelihood outcomes of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, make the evidence more widely available, and identify research and program
recommendations based on the findings.

Our Approach
Using peer-reviewed and grey literature published since January 2014, we will identify evidence on 1) the relationship between social norms and AGYW outcomes related to sexual and reproductive health, women’s economic empowerment, gender-based violence, and child early and forced marriage; 2) norms-shifting approaches using entertainment media targeting outcomes of interest; and 3) norms-shifting approaches using faith/cultural champions. Sensemaking workshops will be held as part of the analysis with global researchers, implementers, and media and faith/cultural champion experts to interpret results, identify learnings, and propose recommendations for knowledge products and country-specific deep dives in India, Kenya, and Nigeria.

Our Impact and What We’re Learning
The findings of these reviews will highlight evidence gaps in the extant literature and identify opportunities for funding norm change interventions or layering such interventions into existing or planned platforms. We will also create a microsite hosting the generated evidence to support social norms or behavior change researchers and implementers globally.