The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) submits this report pursuant to Section 7019(e) of Division K of Public Law 117-328, the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2023, which incorporates by reference the requirements of House Report 117-401.
House Report 117-401: The Committee believes that better use of social and behavior change communication can improve results for foreign assistance programs. The Committee encourages greater integration of media and communication across global health and development programming, especially through locally relevant content and multimedia partnerships. The Committee directs the USAID Administrator to submit a report to the Committees on Appropriations, not later than 90 days after enactment of this Act, on the use of social and behavior change communications in recent programming and the best practices and evidence of effectiveness for integrating this approach for better health and development outcomes.
Introduction
USAID strongly believes that use of social and behavior change communication (SBCC) improves results for international development programs. A decade ago, USAID convened SBCC experts to explore how best to improve population-level health and development outcomes in developing countries. One conclusion was that mass media campaigns have the potential to reach a large audience at a relatively low cost, and as such, have an important role to play in SBCC to improve child survival in low-income and middle-income countries1. USAID’s recently established Behavioral and Social Science Working Group aims to increase the quantity and quality of behavior change programming in international development assistance programs through the sharing of evidence and best practices across the Agency.
Evolution of Behavior Change Programming at USAID
USAID has a long history in Social and Behavior Change programming, which has evolved over the last 40 years from basic health education or information, education and communication (IEC) through SBCC, to the current term Social and Behavior Change (SBC). SBC aims to affect key behaviors and social norms by addressing their individual, social, and structural factors. SBC is grounded in several disciplines, including strategic communication, marketing, psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, behavioral economics, and the behavioral sciences. Today, USAID supports SBC programs in the majority of countries in which it works, with SBCC, including mass media programming, being one of several strategies with evidence to recommend widespread implementation. International development programs frequently use SBCC as part of a package of interventions to influence behavior change. Communication-based behavior change interventions, such as mass media, are usually linked with other SBC approaches, such as structural interventions, including supportive policies and service delivery improvement for greater impact.
