Integrating Gender into Social and Behavior Change Communication

Once you have gathered gender-specific information on the current situation, you should revisit your SBCC strategy or marketing plan to make sure you have a gender-focused understanding of the audience and are reaching the right people.

By critically examining and understanding who is affected by the health issue and to whom the communication efforts should reach, you may want to adjust how you design your communication efforts. This will allow you to better design and customize appropriate activities, messages and materials.  

When you identify your audience, it is important to remember that those most affected by the challenge may not always be the same group to whom communication efforts should be directed. For example, just because you are designing a program for women to access family planning does not necessarily mean your priority audience will be women. If your gender analysis found that gender norms are influencing household decision-making, women may not have the power to choose family planning. As a result, the communication effort may need to target women and their male partners together in order to address the gender dynamics around power and decision-making within the household.

The following activities will help you generate a better understanding of your priority and influencing audience(s). They will help your team to look beyond the common demographic characteristics to map the audience’s journey and develop their personas. As you work though the activities, be sure to consider the gender-related barriers and facilitators for each audience and at each level of the socio-ecological model and what may prevent or help them participate in the desired behavior.