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Catalyzing Social and Behavior Change

Social and behavior change communication (SBCC) is an integral element in the delivery of high-impact nutrition interventions and the prevention of undernutrition, especially during the critical first 1,000 days. SPRING places a heightened focus on SBCC as a key and fundamental, cross-cutting strategy to address both stunting and anemia.

Human behavior is complex—an array of complex factors influence people's everyday decisions to test, adopt, and ultimately internalize and sustain new or modified behaviors. SPRING embraces a behavior-centered approach to promote adoption of high-impact, nutrition-related behaviors. The project supports countries, districts, groups, households, and individuals in adopting and sustaining high-impact nutrition practices by

  • Promoting specific individual and group behaviors—among mothers, fathers, caregivers, nutrition and health service providers, farmers, peer networks, and others;
  • Shifting social attitudes, structures, and norms regarding those behaviors; and
  • Ensuring an enabling environment that promotes and/or supports social change and positive change in nutrition behaviors.

News

Farmers from Mother to Mother Support Group of the Gbeozua Community, Bawku West District, Upper East Region, share their joy at the result of adopting SPRING’s program that introduced vitamin A enriched maize for cultivation in order to improve the diet of the 1,000 day households.
November 2016
From November 1 – 2, 2016, SPRING/Ghana hosted visitors from USAID/Ghana and USAID/DC for a visit to Karaga District in the Northern Region and Bawku West District in the Upper East Region. Rebecca Fertziger, deputy director of the USAID/Ghana Health...
Presenting on the 1,000 Day Window of Opportunity
October 2016
Starting on 15 September 2016, SPRING/Kyrgyz Republic hosted a two-day Media and Messenger Training in Bishkek for 32 members of national media in the Kyrgyz Republic. The event focused on malnutrition, which affects women and children throughout the...
Girls talking as they work.
June 2018
Participants call on the international community to continue to raise awareness, encourage a coordinated and collective response, and prioritize specific actions that will generate the knowledge and data needed to improve adolescent nutrition.