What does the literature show about the effectiveness of behaviour-change communication (BCC) approaches and tools that have been used to influence health and nutrition related behaviour in socially conservative settings?
The literature uncovered by this rapid review regarding the effectiveness of behaviour-change communication (BCC) states that certain approaches and tools can and do succeed in improving maternal dietary practices, breastfeeding, as well as complementary feeding when used in health and nutrition programmes. These approaches also influence maternal and child health behaviours in socially-conservative settings which denote an attitude favouring beliefs seen as traditional in regard to social affairs .
Use of BCC in recent health- and nutrition- research is included for the following socially-conservative settings: Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, the Philippines, Somali Region of Ethiopia, Senegal, southern Thailand, and Yemen. Results are taken from countries or regions with Islam as the dominant religion, with therefore similar conservative Islamic views on health and nutrition.
- The field of social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) is a collection of approaches and tools informed by behavioural theories and used to design public health interventions (USAID, 2014).
- The change in terminology from BCC to SBCC is a recent milestone in health communication that reflects renewed emphasis on improving health outcomes through more healthful individual and group behaviours, as well as strengthening the social context, systems and processes that underpin health. However, practitioners now use BCC and SBCC interchangeably (The Manoff Group Inc., 2012: 1).
