Key Resources: Learning Collaborative to Advance Normative Change

Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Collaborative envisions a world where the powerful influence of social norms in shaping adolescents' lives is widely understood, and where projects and programs improve adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health by applying normative science at scale. Social norms, the often unspoken rules that govern behavior, shape the life trajectories of young people. Harmful social norms, such as expectations related to gender-based violence, early marriage, and early parenthood, have a significant impact on adolescents' lives. To foster norms that support healthy behaviors, there is an opportunity to advance understanding of social norms: what they are, how to measure them, how they influence behavior, and how to scale up promising norms-shifting interventions. The Learning Collaborative has developed practical tools to advance social norms practice for each phase of the program cycle. These tools include a Social Norms Background Reader, The Flower for Sustained Health: An integrated socio-ecological framework for normative influence and change, and Top 20 Resources on Social Norms. Additionally, the Collaborative has developed an Overview of Experiences Diagnosing Social Norms, a Social Norms Exploration Tool, and Identifying and Describing Approaches and Attributes of Norms-Shifting Interventions: Background Paper. The Collaborative's resources are available online at WWW.ALIGNPLATFORM.ORG/LEARNING-COLLABORATIVE. The fruit of this labor is also available in a Special Supplement in the Journal of Adolescent Health, "Advancing Social Norms Practice for Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health: The Why and the How." The Collaborative's resources include a Map of Social Norms-focused Projects and their Measurement Approaches: Who is doing What and Where, Costing of Norms-Shifting Interventions: A Primer from the Passages Project, and Considerations for Scaling Up Norms-Shifting Interventions for Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health. The Learning Collaborative's ultimate goal is to enhance collective efforts, build knowledge, and develop shared tools to promote effective social norm theory, measurement, and practice at scale. By advancing understanding of social norms and developing practical tools for each phase of the program cycle, the Collaborative aims to improve adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health by applying normative science at scale.