Supporting Sexual and Reproductive Self-Care through Social and Behavior Change

Sexual and reproductive self-care is strongly influenced by the social, cultural, and structural context in which individuals and couples live. Social and behavioral determinants including health literacy, motivation, agency, social norms, laws, access, social policies, and provider training and attitudes all influence demand for and use of self-care products and behaviors. Social and behavior change (SBC) is uniquely placed to identify, understand, and address those factors.

Supporting Sexual and Reproductive Self-Care through Social and Behavior Change: A Conceptual Framework (also available in French) articulates how SBC can support sexual and reproductive self-care initiatives and contribute to improved health outcomes. The framework is designed for use by policymakers and government representatives, donors, and self-care program implementers. The framework helps these users understand what drives self-care behavior and make policy and programmatic decisions that use SBC to enable sexual and reproductive health self-care behaviors. Specifically, the framework:

• Illustrates the factors and groups that influence self-care behavior.
• Highlights the impact of using SBC within self-care.
• Provides guidance and examples of how SBC can be used at various levels of the system to encourage self-care practice.