We know that quality social and behavior change (SBC) is crucial to achieving nutrition outcomes; however, high-quality nutrition SBC is challenging to put into practice. Nutrition is complex, often requiring multiple sectors and actors to align and harmonize efforts that are focused on behaviors that require multiple daily actions and change as a child ages. Nutrition SBC practitioners sometimes face a daunting set of obstacles tying these elements together.

As a practitioner, do you ever feel pressure to address too many behaviors, although this often leads to a dilution of effort, resources, and impact? Do you find that quality implementation gets less attention than quality design? Do you feel overwhelmed by capacity strengthening needs? USAID Advancing Nutrition is developing a suite of practical tools that will help programmers achieve high-quality nutrition SBC. Built on partner experiences and lessons learned, the tools include a list of standardized behaviors, an inventory of common factors that drive nutrition behaviors, and a tool that guides users through a simple process to prioritize the most important behaviors to strengthen given available resources and potential impact. We will also share a list of nutrition SBC competencies to aid program managers and practitioners as they shape capacity strengthening efforts

Watch and listen to the recording of this webinar to to learn about the tools presented. We will continue to refine and add to these tools and will share these resources during the webinar, and additional resources once developed.

Webinar Recording

Webinar Resources

• Access the slide deck (PDF, 4.4 MB)
• View webinar transcript (PDF, 230 KB)

Speakers

Mike Manske (moderator) is a Nutrition Advisor serving in the Public Health and Nutrition Division within the USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance. He has worked for over 15 years in public health nutrition with USAID and international organizations.

Laura Itzkowitz is a Nutrition Social and Behavior Change Advisor with the USAID Bureau for Global Health. Laura has spent over ten years working on social and behavior change, community health, and nutrition across three continents with USAID and various international organizations.

Kristen Devlin is a Capacity Strengthening Advisor with USAID Advancing Nutrition. Kristen is a public health professional with experience in capacity strengthening, social and behavior change, and health systems strengthening, with a focus on the community level in sub-Saharan Africa.

Kelsey Torres is a Project Officer with USAID Advancing Nutrition. Kelsey supports the project’s Social and Behavior Change and Nutrition and Health Systems teams. She leads activities related to improving quality SBC processes. Kelsey also supports the implementation of the project's Gender Equality Strategy.

Leonor Artur Victor is the Technical Director of Transform Nutrition, a five-year nutrition project funded by the USAID Mission in Mozambique. Leonor’s presentation will highlight Transform Nutrition's experiences using the behavior prioritization tool developed by USAID Advancing Nutrition.