Social Norms Measurement Resources

These approaches seek to reshape social norms and influence individual attitudes by engaging multiple tactics – from community dialogue, supporting local campaigners and shifting narratives through media. They take on social issues, challenge norms, break taboos, imagine different futures and inspire reflection and discussion.

All of these resources are rooted in the concepts discussed in Applying Theory to Practice: CARE’s Journey Piloting Social Norms Measures for Gender Programming and CARE’s social norms programming principles.

Gender analysis: identifying and understanding social norms

In this section, you will find examples of tools, rooted in CARE’s SNAP framework, that programs have used to assess which social norms exist, how strong the norms are, and how they change over time.

Qualitative Tools

Qualitative Evaluation Tools

Feminist and Developmental Qualitative Tools

 

Social Norms Monitoring Tools

 

Formative Research toolkits

Quantitative Evaluation tools

Programmatic design guidance

These tools can be used to help program staff incorporate social norms change into their programs.

Social Norms Data Use Tool (Spanish, French, Arabic)

While diagnosing and assessing the strength of social norms is becoming increasingly popular within formative research and baseline evaluations for a wide range of projects, it can be difficult to then use the data gathered to design programs that lead to social norms change. This tool helps program staff utilize the social norms data and findings to design interventions.

Social Norms Design Checklist (Spanish, French, Arabic)

We created this checklist to support both program design and ongoing implementation of social norms-shifting interventions. Often programmers plan to challenge and shift harmful social norms but are not certain of where to begin and how to adapt their activities to include norms-shifting components, effectively moving beyond individual behavior change. Programs that do not understand how to shift harmful norms may inadvertently reinforce them, or simply be ineffective at challenging and shifting them. This checklist provides examples of questions to ask while designing activities, examples of how to fill in any gaps identified, and what norms-shifting interventions look like in action. The checklist should be used after the program identifies the harmful social norms that act as barriers to positive behaviors and outcomes and thus the context in which norms operate.

Social Analysis and Action Global Implementation Manual

This manual provides an in-depth description of SAA core tools and adaptation of those tools for each step of the SAA process and an introduction to monitoring, evaluation, and learning for SAA.

Monitoring, evaluation and learning

These briefs describe innovative feminist and developmental evaluation methods that can assess changes in social norms in a participatory and community-driven way.

Tipping Point MEL Methods Brief: Social Norms Measurement (French, Spanish)

The combined analysis of qualitative data from the FDGs, Photovoice and Sensemaker has proven to be an innovative way to measure Tipping Point’s role in shifting social norms in Bangladesh and Nepal. The SNAP framework is central to understanding social norms change by informing not only tool construction but also providing an analytical framework that ties research directly to program design. This brief reviews how Tipping Point combined these approaches to measure social norm.

Tipping Point MEL Methods Brief: Photovoice (French, Spanish)

During Phase 1, Tipping Point evaluation drew upon multiple methods for assessing the project’s contributions to changes at community and individual levels, including Photovoice, a highly participatory method of evaluation that simultaneously builds skills and amplifies the participant’s own voice. Tipping Point’s experience with Photovoice is described in this brief for practitioners and researchers who may wish to apply this methodology to another evaluation or learning process.

Tipping Point MEL Methods Brief: Sensemaker (French, Spanish)

SenseMaker®, a narrative-based approach that involves the collection of short stories from targeted participant groups in response to a common prompt, is one of the methodologies used during the Phase 1 evaluation to measure social norms change. In this brief, the Tipping Point’s experience with SenseMaker® is described, including the methodology for data collection and analysis and lessons learned in the process.

Tipping Point MEL Methods Brief: Outcome Mapping

The principal tool enlisted by Tipping Point in Phase 1 for monitoring, reflection, and learning was Outcome Mapping. This brief describes how Tipping Point used the outcome mapping approach to drive programmatic learning, with the aim of helping practitioners and researchers to adapt and apply this methodology to other evaluations.

Examples of Social Norms Research

These reports provide examples of research that assess social norms. Practitioners can use these to see how programs can change norms over time, and researchers can use these as part of a literature review for social norms-related research.

 

Tipping Point Phase 2 Baseline Social Norms Findings Brief

This brief presents the combined findings from baseline evaluation in Nepal and Bangladesh on the five social norms on which Tipping Point programming focuses. The findings from the social norms’ data suggest that as soon as girls hit puberty, they experience more restrictive norms and their own sensitivity to sanctions from families and community members leads to girls upholding these norms in their behavior. There are some signs of flexibility in repressive norms restricting girls’ lives and options, especially when it comes to flexibility in interactions, mobility and decision about marriage for girls in school settings or in order to pursue education. However, perceived threats to a girls’ virginity or reputation as “chaste” that affect her marriageability acts as a push factor towards child marriage. However, girls depicted confidence to come together for a common purpose. The Tipping Point Initiative seeks to tap this confidence to engage girls in movement building to demand their rights while facilitating a supportive environment of increasingly positive norms and a network of allies to shift harmful and restrictive norms.

 

Research report Investigating Gendered Social Norms Affecting Women's Economic Participation Related to Recruitment and Promotion in Vietnam

This report presents findings of CARE International in Vietnam’s research on gendered social norms and how they limit women’s economic participation as factory workers and office workers in Vietnam. The research employs CARE International’s Social Norms Analysis Plot Framework, which can be used to define the components and assess the strength of a norm and the ways norms may have shifted over time.

The CARE research was carried out through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with 485 respondents in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, Hau Giang and Thai Nguyen. These respondents were employees from the garment, food processing, banking, IT and electricity firms and the perceived reference groups of these employees. The research period was November 2019 to March 2020

CARE Norway Social Norms and Governance

This study aims to generate insights on the social norms and related practices that influence public authorities’ ability to develop inclusive governance. In this study, inclusive governance is measured through four elements: transparency, inclusivity, responsiveness, and accountability. From the perspective of public authorities, a systems approach is used to identify social norms related to inclusive governance development and service delivery to marginalized communities, especially women and youth. Four spheres of influence are researched to identify norms and practices that exist and interact within and across different levels of the system: chrono- (fragile and conflicted affected contexts), macro- (government system), meso- (local government/community), and micro (individual) levels. The study follows a multiple case study, qualitative research design. Key informant interviews and focus group discussions were conducted in three of CARE’s target countries (Burundi, Somalia, and a third anonymous country) with public authorities, country-experts, and CARE country offices, and CSO partners, as well as remotely with content-experts

 

TESFA Endline Survey Report

The CARE TESFA Project, leveraged group-based peer education on VSLA and discussions on SRH, gender and power and created social support systems for married girls through SAA. The evidence in this evaluation showed that due to TESFA, married girls using family planning methods increased by 12.7% among the 2015 cohort, girls' perceiving support from husbands and mother in laws to use family planning increased by 73% for the 2015 cohort and 22% for the 2016 cohort, married girls able to leave the house without permission increased by more than 95% in 2015 and 2016 cohorts, and there was a more than 2x increase in the girls who owned and controlled personal savings, with 4x increase among 2015 and 2017 cohorts.

“To Protect Her Honour” Child marriage in emergencies – the fatal confusion between protecting girls and sexual violence

Though evidence is still emerging on the CARE Information Volunteers Program, initial feedback indicates that girl child marriage has reduced within refugee communities. Evaluators found that attitudes and opinions amongst the Syrian refugee population had shifted, with both women and girls voicing stronger objections to girl child marriages.

Using Social Media and the Arts to Transform Gender Norms: Case study from the Young Men’s Initiative

Several individuals and groups offered feedback, confirming the website to be a useful tool for education of young people. The Young Men’s initiative website gained an average of 2,000 new visitors each month of which 78 % were new visitors and 22 %  returning visitors with more than 1,117 LIKES & FOLLOWS and over 1 650 000 Youtube viewers for the  RAP song. The Youth that participated in the project were open to challenging the social norms and their own engrained beliefs.