Communication for Development (C4D): Supplement to the Global Annual Results Reports 2018

One of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)'s core change strategies for contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is Communication for Development (C4D), also referred to as social and behaviour change communication (SBCC). UNICEF defines C4D as "an evidence-based and participatory process that facilitates the engagement of children, families, communities, the public and decision makers for positive Strategic context social and behavioural change in both development and humanitarian contexts through a mix of available communication platforms and tools." This report illustrates the wide scope of C4D strategies that UNICEF and its partners implemented in 2018 to address behavioural and sociocultural barriers and challenges at individual, collective, and institutional levels, and to leverage the assets and agency of communities, including young people, to identify and address these challenges.

As illustrated in the theory-of-change diagram on page 8 of the report, C4D strategies support the following 4 specific social and behavioural outcomes:

1. Demand for and use of quality and inclusive services;
2. Adoption of key parenting and community practices;
3. Abandonment of harmful social norms and behaviours, or adoption of positive ones; and
4. Engagement and empowerment of communities, adolescents and children, particularly the most marginalised, for them to become agents of change and to hold duty bearers to account.

To achieve these 4 behavioural outcomes, C4D uses a wide range of service-based, community-based, and media and digital platforms to influence social and behaviour change within country programmes. Examples of C4D application at the country level provided throughout the report illustrate that C4D supports multi-platform social and behaviour change at large scale in both development and humanitarian programming, across all 4 behavioural outcomes of the theory of change.

For instance, in Lebanon, through a "behavioural calendar", a pilot initiative used "nudges" to introduce Syrian refugee families accustomed to different vaccination schedules to the vaccination calendar in Lebanon. Parents were also prompted to act by highlighting the number of their neighbours whose children benefited from this service. Results to date indicate improved uptake of immunisation services and a 50% increase in the likelihood of vaccination according to schedule. The polio outbreak response in Syria also included a strong C4D component, addressing misconceptions and vaccine hesitancy and focusing on engaging communities, especially in the north-east of the country.

In addition to the application of new C4D approaches as highlighted in those examples, some of UNICEF's key C4D global achievements for 2018 include:

• Development of UNICEF C4D corporate programme guidance and the roll-out of organisational C4D benchmarks aimed at strengthening the quality, consistency, scale, and sustainability of C4D strategies.
• Development of an inter-agency set of community engagement standards and indicators for improved focus and approaches to community engagement.
• Evidence-based country-level plans in more than 20 countries in Europe and Central Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean regions through the development and application of a C4D and violence against children (VAC) road map planning tool to address harmful practices (a tool that has also been adapted to address child marriage).
• New and strengthened partnerships for field programming at large scale, community system strengthening, and support to humanitarian action and emergency response, including the global Faith for Social and Behaviour Change initiative and the Social Science in Humanitarian Action platform.
• Strengthened community of practice within the C4D field through UNICEF co-led partnerships, including the Global Alliance for Social and Behavior Change - which brings together more than 20 international and national donors, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), professional networks, and academic partners - and through biannual SBCC Summits and an annual event in 2018. These have reportedly increased advocacy, networking, learning, and exchange.

"In 2019 and beyond, the C4D teams will continue to work on a[n]...agenda that includes the increased use of communication platforms and networks such as U-Report and social media, big data analysis and social data, recent approaches such as human-centred design, behavioural economics and behavioural insights, and lessons from applied anthropology and emerging fields such as artificial intelligence to strengthen C4D strategies. Non-traditional partners and those less prominent in the routine C4D programming field - particularly within the private and media sector but also from civil society organizations, faith-based organizations and government - will be brought more systematically into the UNICEF programming processes."

The following are 3 strategic priorities for C4D during the remainder of the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2018-2021, which is anchored in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and charts a course toward attainment of the SDGs:

1. Lead the community engagement components in cross-sectoral and life-cycle programming strategies - with areas of focus including: Strengthening the framing of community system strengthening, strengthening C4D as a cross-cutting platform for humanitarian action, developing and implementing parenting models and resources across the life cycle, engaging in social norms and gender-responsive programming, and providing systematic support for the engagement of children, adolescents, and youth in programming using digital and mobile technologies, face-to-face C4D platforms, and participatory planning and monitoring.
2. Strengthen C4D capacities.
3. Optimise the C4D leadership agenda through senior management leadership and advocacy.