Human Rights Based Social and Behavior Change - An Intro Guide

Many organizations in the development and humanitarian arena have adopted the term “Social and Behavior Change” to describe their work, which in recent years has grown beyond communication and community engagement. Human rights-based approaches to Social and Behaviour Change position community members as part of the solutions, but not bearing the full responsibility, or accountability, for positive change. For social and/or behaviour change to happen, it may be necessary to invest in improving services, to increase their accessibility and acceptability. 

This resource shares several “classic” Communication for Development (C4D) approaches, including community engagement, digital engagement, and entertainment education. We have included some approaches that complement C4D and go beyond communication, like Human Centered Design and Behavioural Insights, among others. The added value of these “beyond communication” approaches is that they can help to “change the environment, not the person.”