Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Re: Community engagement for inclusive rural transformation and gender equality

Massimiliano Sani

UNICEF, Social and Behaviour Change Team

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), for example, has been a leader in Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) for over 35 years, positioning community engagement as one of the SBC’s programmatic approaches prioritized across the development and humanitarian nexus.[1] UNICEF, with over 500 SBC specialists across the world, is the lead agency to support national and subnational governments to develop and implement Risk Communication and Community Engagement approaches in the context of public health and humanitarian emergencies. In development, UNICEF partners with communities to foster community dialogues or other people-centred interventions to advance all programme priorities for children, from health and nutrition, to WASH, education and protection. For example, their Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) initiative[2] encourages communities to take a leadership role to improve sanitation and hygiene practices. UNICEF also focuses on scaling up community based health and nutrition programs, ensuring that interventions are tailored to local needs and contexts.[3] The recently published SBC Change Magazine: Why Don’t You Just Behave?[4] illustrates various case studies of successful interventions delivered across the world, as well as insightful reflections on the SBC field.

Sources:

  1. UNICEF. (2020). Foreword. In Vision for social and behavior change. Retrieved from https://www.sbcguidance.org/vision/foreword 
  2. UNICEF. (2018). Community approaches to total sanitation: Field note. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/mena/sites/unicef.org.mena/files/press-releases/mena-media-Field_Note_- _Community_Approaches_to_Total_Sanitation.pdf 
  3. UNICEF Ethiopia. (2018, May 31). In Ethiopia, Community-Based Approaches Help to Improve Nutrition among Women and Children. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/ethiopia/stories/community-based-approaches-help-improve-nutrition-amongwomen-and-children
  4. UNICEF. (2024). SBC Change Magazine: Why Don’t You Just Behave? https://www.sbcguidance.org/vision/change-magazine

 

Massimiliano Sani

  • Interim Coordinator of the HQ office in Nairobi
  • Senior Adviser, Social and Behaviour Change
  • UNICEF HQ – Programme Group – SBC section, outposted to Nairobi
  • United Nations Complex, Gigiri, Nairobi, Kenya
  • [email protected]