Shifting social norms for inclusive, resilient and sustainable (WASH) behaviour change
Delivered by: Water for Women, Institute for Sustainable Futures, CBM Consulting, WaterAid Australia
Access to safe, affordable, and reliable water and sanitation is critical to everyone’s health and wellbeing. There is increasing awareness across the water and WASH sectors of how social and gender norms influence people’s behaviours, which in turn impacts WASH system outcomes.
Social norms (i.e.. what people believe to be ‘normal’ in their community) can be positive, but some perpetuate harmful behaviours, especially those affecting women, girls, people with disabilities and people from other marginalised groups. Water and WASH programs can unintentionally reinforce negative social norms by sustaining behaviours and roles that further embed unequal power dynamics.
To ensure positive and sustainable behaviour change in water management and WASH practices and organisations, we need to focus on addressing social norms that drive people’s behaviours. Without this deeper systemic approach, water and WASH services will be less effective, resilient, or sustainable.
Through meaningful, reciprocal, and respectful engagement with rights holder organisations (RHOs), Water and WASH programs can effectively tackle harmful norms that drive inequitable behaviours; and strengthen positive norms that benefit everyone. This has been a key approach of Water for Women’s GEDSI transformative practice. A guidance on engagement with RHOs has also been developed by Water for Women partners, led by UTS-ISF, which highlights the key drivers, benefits and challenges relating to partnerships between WASH and RHOs. Both guidance documents, and the literature and practice review will form the basis of this workshop, so that all learning activities are grounded in research and collaborative sector wide thought leadership.
Learning or other Objectives:
In this workshop, facilitators will share evidence and lessons from the recently published social norms and RHO partnering guidance developed as part of the Water for Women Fund’s GEDSI transformative journey.
Participants will:
- Deepen awareness and understanding of social norms and how they impact WASH and equality outcomes.
- Learn how to practically address norms in programs across different contexts.
- Reflect and share learning and insights, as well as test tools.
- Hear perspectives from RHOs and their critical contributions to systems change.
