Far too often, I have seen formative research used as a tick-box exercise. The formative research report should be a document that accompanies the project team throughout the programme design and iteration phases. It helps the team ensure that they are responding to real needs and not design interventions that no-one asked for.

Khartoum, Sudan is my city of birth. War is not new to Sudan, but a war breaking out in Khartoum on 15 April 2023 was a huge shock to the world.
The Horn of Africa (comprising of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia and Somaliland) along with Sudan and South Sudan, are notorious for being turbulent and violent. Peacebuilding efforts in this region have spanned over decades, and building peace in the region is a specialisation of hundreds of scholars and institutes. Yet, whatever progress is made never lasts.

Over the years that I have been working with organisations on designing and implementing social and behaviour change (SBC) projects, I have seen many variations of how to put together a team that will design an impactful SBC project. When I zoomed into the ways in which successful projects are similar, I found the common denominator to be a well put-together core design and implementation team. These teams contain seven key functions.

The application of an SBCC approach to the design of information campaigns for Afghan migrants travelling through irregular routes was a novel approach. We would like to offer some reflections and lessons learnt that may help in growing the field of integrating a behavioural science lens to the design of
information campaigns.

I attended the long-awaited International Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Summit in Marrakesh from 5-9 December. It was so good to finally meet so many clients and collaborators in person, and to make connections with like-minded behavioural science fanatics!

For most projects, I recommend conducting or commissioning a literature review before anything else. It’s an efficient and cost-effective way to help you focus your intervention design, or plan further formative research if it turns out that that is necessary.

The challenge though is what to do once that 50-page report is ready!