Social and Behavior Change (SBC) Adaptive Management Framework Toolkit

"Inform strategy design and evaluation, including understanding and documenting pathways to change..."

This resource is a step-by-step guide for social and behaviour change (SBC) practitioners to apply a systematic adaptive management approach throughout an SBC project's life cycle. Specifically, it was developed to support SBC practitioners in applying FHI 360's SBC Adaptive Management Framework within their programming. FHI 360 uses a socioecological lens to view the complex interplay between the individual, social, and structural factors that affect behaviours. Their SBC programming uses integrated, multi-sectoral, and participatory strategies to achieve social change and behaviour change. FHI 360's SBC Adaptive Management Framework was developed to respond to the particular needs and complexities of SBC programming that often seek to achieve a multitude of change objectives through implementation of multi-level strategies.

The toolkit begins with a description of FHI 360's SBC Adaptive Management Framework, which can support strategic and routine collection and use of data and learning to inform continuous programme refinement and improvement. Each of the 5 steps of the framework describes when and how data should be collected and used to inform the adaptive management needs of SBC programmes. In brief, the steps include:

1. Identify barriers, facilitators, and rates of behavioural adoption.
2. Analyse data to describe SBC progress and gaps.
3. Interpret data and make decisions to improve SBC programmes at multiple levels.
4. Adapt SBC programmes based on recommendations, and document changes.
5. Apply a quality assurance (QA) framework to ensure SBC programmes apply recommendations with quality and address needs.

Each step of the framework provides the following:

• An overview of the step and why it is important;
• Key actions or sub-tasks that should take place during that step; and
• Tools and templates that can be used or adapted to support the above actions.

Importantly, each step is designed to purposefully engage a wide array of stakeholders and all project staff to maximise inclusion in learning and adaptation activities.

The toolkit offers practical guidance to support application of the framework from project design through evaluation and scale-up, as well as examples that may be contextualised to facilitate adaptive management activities. In particular, the toolkit provides a case study that showcases use of the described tools and approaches within one of FHI 360's SBC programmes, USAID Tulonge Afya in Tanzania. (See Related Summaries, below.)