Social and behaviour change

Millions of children who suffer abuse, exploitation and violence do so at the hands of adults meant to protect them. In some places, extreme forms of discipline at home or in school are considered acceptable. In others, harmful practices like child marriage and female genital mutilation are seen as a way to safeguard a girl’s future. UNICEF uses various SBC methods to strengthen its child protection programming, especially by supporting people to better understand and change behaviours that cause harm to children.

Identifying the individual, social and economic determinants of child protection violations is key to transforming harmful behaviours. It’s also key to promoting positive behaviours that can prevent or reduce harm – for example, the uptake of birth registration or positive parenting techniques.

UNICEF uses a range of SBC approaches to design, implement and evaluate our child protection programming, like formative research, community engagement, social movements, community-based psychosocial support, empowerment programmes, edutainment, social listening and user-focused system strengthening. This often means working with communities – especially children, parents and civil society leaders – to identify their own solutions and co-develop tools to embrace positive alternatives.

Climate change already impacts the life of every child alive today. 

Environmental degradation – cutting children off from nutritious food and safe water. Air and water pollution – poisoning their growing bodies. Intensifying natural disasters – destroying their homes, schools and hospitals.

UNICEF estimates that roughly 1 billion children are at extremely high risk from the effects of a changing climate. Every carbon-intensive action we take today – burning coal and oil, choosing to drive instead of walk, eating too much meat instead of plant-based alternatives – will have consequences for our planet long into the future.

Children have contributed least to this crisis, yet they are hit the hardest.

While we can’t entirely avoid the effects of climate change, we can minimize its impact through a profound shift in the way we live. What we choose to buy, eat – even aspire to. Where we live, how we move. Technology alone can’t solve the issue, but our individual actions can make a meaningful difference for the years to come.

At UNICEF, we rely heavily on community engagement and behavioural analysis to shape climate-friendly programmes that protect children’s rights and foster norms that benefit this planet we all call home. SBC approaches to climate change provide us with an understanding of how people think about climate-related challenges and the policies in place to mitigate them. And they help to ensure the interventions we create are contextually relevant, culturally sensitive and effective for individuals, and entire societies.

Education transforms societies.  

It gives children the knowledge and skills they need to shape their future. It provides stability, structure and – especially for children growing up through conflict and violence – a sense of protection. Education plays a critical role in challenging harmful social and gender norms.

But worldwide, millions of children are denied these rights. Some aren’t able to enrol in school or attend regularly due to economic constraints. Others face discrimination, inequitable treatment and even violence in school.  

UNICEF estimates that by 2030, hundreds of millions of children will not have learned basic literacy and numeracy skills. Millions more will be subjected to some form of violence in and around the classroom – many in countries where the legal system does not fully protect them from corporal punishment.

Experiences of violence, discrimination and exclusion lead children to skip class or drop out of school entirely. This often happens in places where learning poverty is already high. And it happens because education systems inadvertently reproduce the harmful norms, behaviours and stereotypes that thwart social equity.

But when policymakers understand how children, parents and school managers experience the education system, they can design more effective policies and programmes.

UNICEF’s SBC approach to education examines every level of the system to identify and address social, behavioural and intersectional barriers to learning. We help decision-makers better understand why children are out of school, or left behind in learning, by looking beyond resource constraints to create safe, inclusive learning environments for every child.

Millions of women and children die every year from preventable causes. Many don’t have access to quality healthcare, including for their mental health and psychosocial well-being. Others may not know the risk or severity of diseases they face, leading them to prioritize other needs.

UNICEF works worldwide to support the delivery of quality health services to underserved communities. Our SBC programme identifies the structural, social, cognitive and behavioural factors that affect health outcomes, to help put people at the centre of the system.

This means connecting policymakers to data and insights (especially in applied behavioural science) that improve the development, implementation and evaluation of public health policies and programmes. It means connecting service providers with tools to enhance quality and access. And it means connecting families with information and resources on health services and practices.

We focus on interventions that help end preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths – like strengthening primary healthcare and prioritizing “last mile” communities who have traditionally been deprived of services. We also help ensure that, when humanitarian emergencies strike, those most vulnerable are the first to be protected with care.

One of the most effective ways to do this is by strengthening communities from within.

Community engagement drives UNICEF’s SBC approach to healthcare. Building on trust, accountability and social justice, our programme embraces the role every member holds in creating progress – whether parent, nurse, teacher, student or religious leader.

Every year, UNICEF responds to more humanitarian emergencies than nearly any organization on the planet. When conflict or disaster strikes, UNICEF staff are on the ground, delivering life-saving aid to children and their families. There’s nothing more crucial to humanitarian operations than being prepared.

UNICEF uses evidence from social and interdisciplinary science to develop swift, effective action plans for responding to armed conflict, public health emergencies and natural disasters. We prioritize the knowledge and experiences of the communities we seek to serve, engaging them directly in preparedness efforts to help ensure humanitarian action leads to intended results without inflicting unintended consequences.

This means localizing all aspects of preparedness and response, from needs assessment and resource mobilization to implementation and evaluation. Even before an emergency happens, UNICEF works to strengthen local institutions and coordination mechanisms, building the resilience of communities at risk while preparing them to participate in relief efforts. During the emergency response, we take actions to ensure communities in crisis get immediate, life-saving information – and a say in how their needs are met.

SBC approaches to humanitarian action allow UNICEF to create rapid, clear and essential lines of communication among aid workers, government officials and affected communities. They also allow us to collect community feedback and behavioural data that our teams use to swiftly coordinate multisectoral interventions, improving service delivery for children and their families.

In all these ways and more, SBC can help children living through humanitarian emergencies receive aid that protects their lives and their dignity.

>Learn more in UNICEF’s Advanced e-Course

Vaccines are among the greatest advances in global health and development. For more than two hundred years, they’ve safely reduced the scourge of diseases like polio, measles and smallpox, helping children grow up healthy and happy.

Despite longstanding benefits, immunization levels continue to be too low. Millions of children miss out on life-saving vaccines annually. The most poor and marginalized – often most in need of vaccines – remain the least likely to get them. Many live in places affected by conflict, displacement or, increasingly, vaccine misinformation.

That’s why UNICEF focuses not only on vaccine supply and delivery, but also on demand. Our SBC programme aims to reduce the spread of misinformation and ensure that families have access to accurate data on immunization so they can make the best decisions for their children.

We engage communities in designing, delivering and assessing vaccination efforts, starting by listening. Our teams work directly with parents to understand their fears and concerns. We also know that local health workers are better positioned than anyone to address them. As one of the most trusted sources of information on health and vaccines, health workers play a key role in building vaccine confidence.

UNICEF’s SBC approach to immunization includes strengthening the quality of interactions between health workers and communities. We partner with frontline workers and other trusted community leaders, like faith leaders, to help them combat misinformation and ease caregivers’ concerns.

At the national level, we also strengthen the capacity of countries to apply behavioural insights through implementation research, social listening and infodemic management.

Good nutrition is a fundamental human right. But nearly a third of the world’s children under 5 are affected by malnutrition in its most visible forms: They’re undernourished (resulting in “stunting” or “wasting”) or overweight. Less visible forms of malnutrition, such as hidden hunger, occur when children become deficient in vitamins and other essential micronutrients. These micronutrient deficiencies can cause delayed physical growth, weakened immune systems and impaired brain development.

UNICEF works to prevent all forms of malnutrition by improving children’s access to nutritious, affordable and sustainable diets. We also work to improve demand for these diets and create healthier food environments.

Our SBC approach to child nutrition programming identifies social and behavioural factors that influence the diets of mothers and children. We help families make healthier food decisions by providing services, products and messages related to what they value and what they can change – from selecting and handling food, to preparing meals, to forming healthy eating habits. Behavioural insights also allow us to support the development of policies that promote healthier food environments, and conduct advocacy to encourage community support for these policies.

Across the food system, SBC initiatives engage suppliers and consumers to co-create effective interventions. For example, programmes that provide nutrition counselling to caregivers, or that tackle food taboos for pregnant and breastfeeding women, or empower young people to advocate for policy changes – all play a role in improving nutrition outcomes for children.

Together, behavioural insights help countries develop better food and nutrition policies and build greater resilience within communities.