A multitude of factors influences family planning (FP) uptake and maintenance. Social and behavior change (SBC) is uniquely placed to understand and address those factors. However, FP programs often underutilize and underfund SBC. Helping decision makers understand the social and behavioral drivers of FP use and how SBC can effectively address those drivers can lead to greater use and investment in SBC. Breakthrough ACTION designed the Social and Behavior Change for Family Planning User Journey Tool to encourage investment in SBC within FP programming. The tool helps SBC advocates communicate the need for social behavior change in an easy-to-grasp visual format.

The interactive tool follows the FP journey of Nala—a fictional young woman who represents the experiences of young women like her around the world—highlighting key social and behavioral determinants that influence her decision to learn about, use, and continue using FP. The tool also features examples of evidence-based SBC interventions that address those behavioral determinants and data about the positive impact of SBC in FP. It presents actions decision makers can take to support SBC in FP and offers practical tools to help them get started.

The tool has three sections:

1. Interactive webpage: Introduces the tool and presents data on the impact of SBC in FP.

2. User journey module: Presents Nala’s FP journey. Decision makers choose whether they want to explore a married or unmarried journey. Then, they choose which stage in Nala’s FP journey to explore: when she gets introduced to FP, starts using FP, or continues using FP. Finally, they review the emotions, barriers, needs, and people influencing that stage of the journey, as well as proven SBC interventions that address those factors.

3. Call to action module: Introduces three key actions decision makers can take to support SBC in FP.

Quick Tips Guide

SBC advocates can also reference the tool to help them navigate and prepare to use it with decision makers in their contexts. This Quick Tips Guide has three parts:

  1. Presentation: An overview of the tool’s structure and purpose
  2. Preparation: Checklists to help prepare for meetings with decision makers
  3. Facilitation tips: How to contextualize the tool and guide the conversation