CUSP 2018 Case Study Collection

The Community for Understanding Scale Up (CUSP) is a group of 9 organisations with experience in developing social norms change methodologies that are being scaled across many regions and contexts: the Center for Domestic Violence Prevention (CEDOVIP), Intervention with Microfinance for AIDS and Gender Equity (IMAGE), the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University, the Oxfam-initiated "We Can" campaign, Puntos de Encuentro, Raising Voices, Salamander Trust, Sonke Gender Justice, and Tostan. CUSP's 2017 brief (see Related Summaries, below) identified core collective principles for social norms change programming and addressed common pitfalls. Following its publication, CUSP received requests to share detailed, real-life examples - both positive and negative - of how their methodologies have gone to scale.

Designed for donors, practitioners, and activists, this case study collection includes an executive summary and 5 case studies that further explore what it means to scale social norms change interventions to prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG) and improve sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Featuring successful and challenging examples of scale, the collection summarises lessons for those interested in funding, planning, adapting, and scaling social norms programming in a way that maximises impact and prioritises safety for communities based on CUSP members' experiences.

Specific components of the collection include:

• Social Norms at Scale: CUSP's Collective Insights for Understanding Scale-Up [excecutive summary, 8 pages, PDF] - analyses commonalities across CUSP's collection of case studies, offering 6 interconnected insights for scaling social norms change:
  1. Prioritise accountability to communities.
  2. Fully understand the principles of, and align with, the values of the methodology.
  3. Ensure adequate time and funding for programming.
  4. Maintain fidelity to the elements of the original methodology.
  5. Involve originators.
  6. Re-examine the role of government and international organisations in effective and ethical scaling.
• Case Study 1: Insights from GREAT [6 pages, PDF] - The Gender Roles, Equality, and Transformation (GREAT) project centres around a set of participatory activities designed to support girls' and boys' growth into healthy adults and promote nonviolence and SRHR in northern Uganda. The element of the GREAT project with the most success at scale was Oteka, the serialised radio drama. Two factors contributed to scale-up success: (i) Low-cost, entertaining, and simple materials designed from the beginning with scale in mind facilitate adaptation and scale-up; (ii) in-person meetings and support.
• Case Study 2: Insights from IMAGE [6 pages, PDF] - The Intervention with Microfinance for AIDS and Gender Equity (IMAGE) is a combined microfinance, HIV, and gender-based violence (GBV) training and community organising intervention in South Africa. One takeaway: A donor's focus on numbers and desire to create the maximum impact with a minimum investment - and within the shortest time frame - is more likely to compromise ethical scale-up of social norms programming.
• Case Study 3: Insights from SASA! [6 pages, PDF] - Developed by Raising Voices, this holistic community mobilisation approach for preventing VAW and HIV is currently being implemented in over 25 countries in every region. Raising Voices maintains that scaling social change programmes is not linear or a single step; rather, it requires multiple, long-term strategies with substantial investment in developing local expertise.
• Case Study 4: Insights from Stepping Stones [7 pages, PDF] - Stepping Stones is a holistic, gendered, intergenerational, rights-based programme to address VAW, SRHR, and related complex attitudes and practices towards people with HIV. One recommendation is that scaling up an existing methodology should happen in collaboration with the programme originators, who typically have decades of experience with the programme's successful adaptation and use across many diverse contexts.
• Case Study 5: Insights from Tostan [6 pages, PDF] - This 3-year non-formal education programme is designed to empower African communities to create positive social transformation based on respect for human rights. Three lessons on what has made this case of scaling a success include: (i) Tostan engaged closely with community leaders who recognised the importance of a holistic, community-wide approach and the so-called structured scaffolding model; (ii) Tostan and communities allowed for adequate time and resources for organised diffusion; and (iii) Tostan provided accurate information, in non-judgmental terms, in local languages that could be comprehended by learners.
• Click here to download the entire Case Study Collection [39 pages, PDF].

Editor's note: Click here for a CUSP blog, published on December 5 2018, titled "On the CUSP: Global Learning for Sustained Social Norms Change".