Social Norms and Contraceptive R&D

On November 10, 2021 the Contraceptive Technology Innovation (CTI) Exchange hosted a discussion with social norms experts and contraceptive developers. This panel shed light on how and why social norms research can be important and useful for those working in contraceptive R&D, especially in ensuring that products are acceptable and accessible for the populations we are trying to reach.

The panel was moderated by Betsy Constenbader, senior scientist at FHI 360, and speakers included Gustavo Doncel, Scientific and Executive Director, CONRAD; Ben Cislaghi, Associate Professor, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; and Dagmawit Tewahido, Research Associate, Addis Continental Institute of Public Health. Watch the full video below.

Want to learn more about social norms research? Here is a list of resources from the the Social Norms Learning Collaborative's Align Platform organized by program phase:

Phase 1: Orientation to social norms

• Social Norms Background Reader

• The Flower For Sustained Health: An Integrated Socio-ecological Framework For Normative Influence And Change

• Top 20 Resources On Social Norms

Phase 2: Social norms diagnosis

• Overview Of Experiences Diagnosing Social Norms

• Social Norms Exploration Tool

Phase 3: Norms-shifting intervention design

• Identifying And Describing Approaches And Attributes Of Norms-shifting Interventions: Background Paper

• Social Norms And AYSRH: Building A Bridge From Theory To Program Design

Phase 4: Implementation, monitoring, and evaluation; and expanding norms-shifting programs

• EMERGE - (Evidence-based Measures of Empowerment for Research on Gender Equality)

• Resources for Measuring Social Norms

• Quantitative Measurement of gendered social norms

• Map of social norms-focused interventions and research

Have thoughts on this topic or the Beginning with the End in Mind series overall? Post your ideas on Twitter and LinkedIn, tag @ctiexchange, and use the hashtag #NextGenFP.