How Change Happens A summary of a light touch study on the

theory of change

Kirsty Milward

September 2017

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This report has been funded by UK aid from the UK government. Opinions expressed in this report are those of the V4C Programme and do not necessarily reflect the UK government’s official policies.

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Introduction Voices for Change (V4C) was an innovative programme aiming to make changes in the ‘enabling environment’ to make it more supportive of the empowerment of young women in Nigeria. It operated in four states: Enugu, Kaduna, Kano and Lagos, over a four-year implementation period from 2014–17. From the outset, it was considered the first phase in a twenty-year vision of social change. It targeted young people – 16 to 25-year-old men and women – as the core carriers of the change process, and used a social norms approach as the basis for doing so. This acknowledges how social attitudes and behaviours – the ‘social norms’ underpinning gender relations and roles – represent significant barriers constraining the empowerment of women and girls. In line with established social norms approaches, a strong communications strategy included the development of the ‘Purple’ brand, and use of radio, internet, television and social media campaigns to deliver it. This was intended to scale up individual attitude and behaviour change to a society-wide level, alongside more intensive interventions with a smaller group of young women and men. Research was expected to raise debate about and promote adoption of new norms. To articulate and develop the strategy to be used, the programme used a Theory of Change (ToC). This was a tool guiding the design of the programme, as well as helping to organise and develop thinking throughout the programme team about what was expected to happen, and why specific interventions were expected to have the desired effects. Importantly, it was used as an adaptive learning tool. As understanding evolved of how interventions were beginning to work, two ‘thinkshops’ were held at different stages in the four-year period to reflect on how far the ToC correctly expressed what actually seemed to be happening from the perspective of different areas of intervention. In this way, it went through three iterations to reach its final form.

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The Theory of Change story V4C’s ToC originated from the Social Ecological model of change that has been used as a conceptual framework in gender work,1 particularly in projects working on gender-based violence. This model was developed to elaborate the factors contributing to gender-based violence and conceptualises violence as arising from an interplay between personal, situational, and sociocultural factors (Heise 1998).2 In V4C, the model was used to conceptualise not the occurrence of violence, but the occurrence of barriers to the empowerment of young women. Similar to previous uses of the model, it focuses thinking on three ‘domains’ in which an individual operates on a daily basis and the dimensions in which her disempowerment occurs: the domains of ‘Self’, ‘Society’, and ‘Formal Institutions’.

• The domain of the Self: This represents the personal barriers to a young woman’s empowerment at an individual level. It therefore focuses on socially acquired gender identity and related skills, including, for example, low expectations about women’s leadership and decision-making abilities. This refers to well-established insights of gender/feminist theory, in particular that gender identities are socially constructed and are therefore not fixed and can be changed (see e.g. Butler 1988).3 Importantly, young men’s gender identities – and how these can be changed – are also brought into focus in this domain.

• The domain of Society: This represents the social barriers to a young woman’s

empowerment, and reflects that social attitudes and behaviours or ‘social norms’ regulate individual experience, as an individual’s behaviour is shaped by behavioural expectations within a social group or ‘reference group’.

• The domain of Formal Institutions: This represents barriers to empowerment in

terms of law and policy, and reflects that how institutions function as well as their outputs tend to reproduce gender inequalities and the social (power) relations which maintain these (Goetz 1997; Kenny 2007).4

As a whole, the ToC draws attention in particular to the interactions and interplay between these domains. In this, it responds to a number of theoretical insights into processes of empowerment, notably that empowerment is often a complex and contradictory process involving change processes which reinforce each other at different levels; and that engagement with social and institutional structures is a necessary part of the journey (Cornwall and Edwards 2010;5 Kabeer 20056). 1 UNICEF (n.d.) MODULE 1: What are the Social Ecological Model (SEM), Communication for Development (C4D)? www.unicef.org/cbsc/files/Module_1_SEM-C4D.docx. 2 Heise, L. (1998) ‘Violence Against Women, An Integrated, Ecological Framework’. Violence Against Women, 4(4), 2622–90. 3 Butler, Judith (1988) ‘Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory’. Theatre Journal, 40(4) (Dec. 1988), 519–31. 4 Goetz, Anne-Marie (ed.) (1997) Getting Institutions Right for Women in Development. London: Zed Books; Kenny, Meryl (2007) ‘Gender, Institutions and Power: A Critical Review’. Politics, 27(2), 91–100. 5 Cornwall, Andrea and Jenny Edwards (2010) ‘Introduction: Negotiating Empowerment’. IDS Bulletin, 41(2), 1–9. 6 Kabeer, Naila (2005) ‘Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment: A Critical Analysis of the Third Millennium Development Goal’. Gender and Development, 13(1), 13–24.

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Figure 1 Voices for Change’s Theory of Change – visual depiction

Operationalising the Theory of Change The ToC model offers a way of conceptualising how disempowerment takes place, as well as focusing on pathways or sites for change. Interventions were adapted to each of these sites and drew on different models of causation at each site. These included:

• A stages of change model of change (Shell-Duncan and Herniund 2006)7 at individual level. In this, individuals go through different steps before sustained change is arrived at: Pre-Contemplation; Contemplation or Awareness Raising; Planning the Change/Persuasion; Action; and Maintenance.

• A diffusion model of change to depict how change at individual levels spreads

through society. In this,8 some people – ‘innovators’ and ‘early adopters’ – are quick to take up new ideas, and spread them. Diffusion relies upon ideas of social influence: a ‘critical mass’ of ‘opinion leaders’ spreads new ideas. Eventually, a

7 Shell-Duncan, Bettina and Yiva Herniund (2006) ‘Are There “Stages of Change” in the Practice of Female Genital Cutting? Qualitative Research Findings from Senegal and The Gambia’. African Journal of Reproductive Health, 10(2), 57–71. 8 Based in ideas about the uptake of technology.

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‘tipping point’ is reached when change rapidly accelerates, the new behaviour is widely adopted and becomes the new norm.9

• An advocacy model of change, in which a combination of collective pressure and individual action designed to strategically address public policy and legal change processes brings about change at institutional levels.

Different types of intervention were directed at each different domain: Table 1 Interventions and domains of the Theory of Change

Model of change

Objective Interventions

Self

Stages of change

! Personal transformation on attitudes to gender equality

! Building a cohort of gender advocates and key influencers

! Physical safe spaces in post-secondary institutions using transformational approaches based in constructivist and consciousness raising methodologies10

! Virtual/online safe spaces (Purple Academy)

! Training for men involved in men’s networks

! Training, seminars and workshops for key influencers (celebrities/radio presenters; religious and traditional leaders (RTLs) and brand ambassadors)

Society Diffusion ! Social norm change ! Shaping people for a

Purple movement

! Mass media communications on gender equality designed to depict new social norms

! Purple branding to ‘sell’ gender equality/new social norms

! Support to key influencers (celebrities/radio presenters; religious and traditional leaders (RTLs) and brand ambassadors)

Institutions Advocacy ! Bringing gender advocates together to build pressure – the Purple movement

! Focusing and building gender skills in the political arena

! Legal and policy change

! Support to social movement building

! Support to women in politics ! Building a gender skills caucus

across party lines

9 A term used in social norms theory – derived originally from observations on the uptake in society of new technologies – describing the point at which change rapidly accelerates and the new behaviour is widely and apparently spontaneously adopted. 10 See e.g. Piaget’s insights into how humans make meaning in relation to the interaction between their experiences and their ideas in ‘constructivist learning’; and Freire, Paulo (1967/2007) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.

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A final set of interventions aimed to build the evidence base for gender equality work in Nigeria, and to use this evidence iteratively to underpin and adapt interventions in the three domains, as well as to inform people involved in the programme.

Synergies across domains An important feature of the ToC is that it fundamentally suggests some ‘value added’ as a result of working simultaneously in all three domains. This implies that changes in each domain were expected to interact and magnify change of each type. Understanding of these implied synergies developed as the programme evolved. For synergies between ‘Self’ and ‘Society’, it was imagined that changes in each domain would reinforce each other:

• Actors involved in direct training for transformative change in the domain of Self would take part in reinforcing the gender equality messages and new social norms offered in the Society domain, and actively influence those around them. It was assumed that receiving similar and reinforcing information/messages from different sources increases the likelihood of attitude change among this group.

• Messaging and Purple brand development directed at generating a wider ‘rising tide’

of support for greater gender equality in the Society domain would also reach those experiencing direct training in the Self domain, and reinforce their commitment to working towards gender equality.

• Key influencers identified for transformative training would use their platforms of

social influence to create opportunities for discussion among the ‘rising tide’ and reinforce new social norms.

For synergies between the domains of Institutions and Self and Society respectively, activities linking some young women with mentors in the political arena were undertaken to increase their opportunities for future leadership. The ‘synergy thinking’ really crystallised during the course of the programme and resulted in new activities designed explicitly to bring people touched by different parts of the programme together on a platform for collective action. This implied that:

• Gender advocates developed through direct intervention would come together with other Purple supporters mobilised through interventions in the Society domain to create a Purple movement.

• This platform for collective action would amplify pressure for change in the domain of

Formal Institutions.

The ‘How Change Happens’ study In the closing stages of the programme, V4C designed a qualitative study to seek evidence on how far the ToC had played out in practice through V4C’s implementation process. It aimed to explore how far results and experience in V4C reflect and validate the causal process as expressed by the ToC. The study collected detailed information on the causal processes that people touched by V4C had been experiencing:

• What had changed?

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• Through what processes had this change come about? • What had happened as a result of the changes? • What remained challenging and what was missing?

In part, the study aimed to add to understanding of V4C’s contribution to changes in gender equality in Nigeria: documenting and understanding a causal process in detail is one way of creating robust evidence of how and to what degree a particular event or intervention is connected to an outcome or a ‘change’. In other words, if there is sufficient evidence of the details of the causal pathway from A to B, this permits high confidence levels of what the contribution of a particular input X was on this pathway. The study was conducted in two of V4Cs four implementation states: Enugu and Kano and among respondents associated with three locations:11

• The Purple Club established among safe spaces alumni in the Enugu State University of Technology (ESUT);

• The Enugu state platform, known as the Gender Equality Movement (GEM); • The Kano state platform, known as the Platform for Women’s Leadership.

Since the study set out to reveal details of both where and why the ToC had worked, and where and why it had not – and particularly where and why synergies had emerged – it sought out three types of informants:

1. People who had directly engaged with V4C through learning activities and had remained engaged with the Purple movement;

2. People who had directly engaged with V4C through learning activities but had not remained (strongly) engaged with the Purple movement;

3. People who had been engaged with V4C only indirectly, either as recipients of Purple brand messaging through the communications strategy and/or as friends/relations of directly engaged respondents.

The first two groups represent people targeted in the Self domain and included young women and men, RTLs, and radio presenters and producers. The third group represents people targeted in the Society domain, and included people who had been ‘touched’ or influenced by key influencers, and/or by ‘Purple people’ in their reference groups, as well as people with different levels of exposure to Purple messaging and media communications. In total, 144 informants were consulted in a mixture of focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews (IDIs).

Study findings In the domain of the Self: transformational personal change

• A good proportion of respondents directly trained with V4C have experienced profound change and virtually all (96 per cent) of those directly trained and still engaged report being able to take action, influence others, or both.

11 For reasons of efficiency and time schedules, the How Change Happens study was calibrated with another study, the Social Movements study, which explored the movement building work. Study location selection, and methods for selecting respondent types, were framed by the requirements of this composite task.

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• A smaller number have become convincing gender advocates, prepared to take their influence further, and a few have already established platforms to do this – by leading Purple Clubs or men’s groups, for example.

• Types of changes experienced include improvements in confidence, an enhanced ability to speak out, better skills and knowledge, and attitude changes on women’s leadership and decision-making. The majority also describe behaviour change taken on the basis of these changes.

• Levels or depth of change are broadly consistent with the density and variety of V4C

inputs. In other words, the greater the variety of change drivers, the more profound and sustainable the change appears.

• Attitude and behaviour change on violence against women and girls (VAWG) is not

strong because almost all respondents claim to have been anti-VAWG prior to V4C. V4C’s baseline also revealed high levels of public disapproval for VAWG despite high levels of its occurrence. This suggests that social disapproval of violence may not strongly affect the prevalence of violent behaviours towards women. However, many respondents do claim to have influenced others to change their approval of VAWG.

In the domain of Society: change by diffusion

• Some respondents have experienced profound change with only indirect exposure to V4C: via some degree of exposure to the Purple brand and its products and/or through a friend or family member who is directly involved.

• Around 40 per cent of this group also describe being able to take action on the basis

of the change.

• Some respondents in this group are less articulate about the change; less certain about how meaningful the change is for them; and/or are less convincing in their understanding of gender equality. A small number of this group mention that they have not been able to act on the basis of the changes.

• A small number do not attribute their attitudes on gender equality to V4C but rather to

prior influences, including experiences in the family, inspiring female public figures, and broader processes taking place in Nigeria of change supporting gender equality.

In the domain of Institutions: change by advocacy This study did not explore changes resulting from the achievements of advocacy directed at legal change because, except for the passing of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) (VAPP) Act at national level in 2015, the progress made in passing this Act and the Gender and Equal Opportunity (GEO) Bill at federal level has been in steps towards legislation rather than final legal change. This was anticipated by the programme and expressed in outcome expectations. However, it did explore the experience of emerging collective advocacy which links the Self and Society domains with action in the Institutions domain.

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Are synergies working? Between Self and Society

• A high proportion of those directly engaged with V4C – overall, 60 per cent of this group – describe an ability to influence others in the ‘rising tide’ population. A smaller proportion – around 25 per cent – of indirectly reached respondents also describe situations in which they have influenced others.

• Key Influencers interviewed – RTLs and radio presenters – have been particularly

active in using their institutional roles to influence others.

Figure 2 Issues on which respondents have influenced others

• Types of actions and influence pathways include household-level and personal

actions, as well as a few institutional or public actions. Public actions also include individual actions taken in public places/among strangers, such as intervening in violence between unknown people. A few young people, and most religious leaders and media personalities exert their influence in the public space; for example, by young women standing in student council elections, and young men supporting them, by speaking out in support of gender equality in congregations, and by dedicating radio time to discuss gender issues.

• The group of ‘directly engaged’ respondents frequently acknowledge the role of

Purple products, events and the brand in general in supporting their change, confirming that synergies also work from the Society domain to the Self domain.

FRIENDSRENEGOTIATEABUSIVERELATIONSHIPSSUPPORTINGWOMENINTOLEADERSHIPLEADCOMMUNITYACTIVITIESONGEINTRODUCEFRIENDTOPURPLEMENTORINGOTHERS

MENTREATWOMENBETTER

USEMYSOCIALMEDIAFRIENDS/FAMILYTOSUPPORTGEFRIENDSTOHAVEWORKAMBITIONSFRIENDSTOSTANDUPFORGEATHOMEMOREEQUALITYINCHORESATHOMECOMMUNITYMEMBERSONGIRLS’EDUCATION

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Figure 3 Pathways of change: how have respondents not directly involved in V4C been brought to attitude and behaviour change on gender equality issues?

Are synergies working? Between Self and Society and Institutions Opportunities for collective action and group advocacy are the main vehicle to establish synergies between the domain of Institutions and those of Self and Society, as individuals from both domains target Formal Institutions with actions calling for change.

• Through the Purple Clubs built from safe spaces alumni in the post secondary institutions (PSIs), and the state platforms observed in Enugu and Kano, it is clear that many directly engaged respondents and a number of indirectly reached respondents have sustained their engagement in Purple and found new ways to amplify their voice.

• Actions at platform level and among the sub-platform ‘clusters’ include a focus on

gender justice in particular as well as justice in general. Actions have taken place on women’s leadership – especially in the PSIs but also in village-level institutions; on individual cases of VAWG; on general human rights issues; and on electricity tariff policy.

• There is clear recognition among some respondents of the increased negotiating

power when operating collectively, and thus the increased likelihood of influencing institutions: ‘United, we bargain. Divided we beg’.12

• Respondents also recognise the strategic advantage of bringing different types of

people together in an organisation, and thus being able to play to the strengths of

12 HCH full report Kano 01 focus group discussion.

THROUGHINFORMATIONONEVENTSMOTHER

CONCEPTS OTHER FAMILY POLICY DEBATES PURPLECLUB EVENTS PERSONAL STRUGGLE AN RTLACADEMICDISCUSSIONADMIREDPUBLICFIGURESOBSERVINGINEQUALITY SEVERAL FRIENDS ACTIVE CENSORSHIP BYDISCUSSION PROVIDING PRACTICAL HELP

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each type, with a more efficient use of human resources than when operating individually or in small groups.

• Increased visibility for gender equality issues is an important result of this synergy. Respondents see public actions as a method, by virtue of their visibility, for further diffusion.

• However, state platforms in particular are at early stages; some respondents were

new members; others did not yet know they could be members.

Reflections on the Theory of Change What does this study tell us about V4C’s Theory of Change? The study suggests that the ToC largely holds with regard to Self–Society interactions, but that the role of Formal Institutions did not have time in the life of the programme to fully evolve and therefore is not yet clear. Changes are taking place at individual, society-wide and institutional levels through different types of intervention, but institutional-level changes are in the early stages. Evidence that synergies between these domains are being established and showing results supports the theory that operating simultaneously in these domains has a value-added effect: individuals experiencing personal change are taking action to diffuse gender equality messages in both private and public spaces. These messages are reinforced by the Purple brand, and the mass media communications which have delivered it. These both diffuse messaging at scale and support the personal change of gender advocates, sometimes providing the platform for further diffusion, and for others providing an identity which has a collective dimension. The branded mass media messaging, along with personal contact with directly involved individuals, reaches a broad group of young men and women, many of whom experience changed attitudes and are able to act on these changes, further diffusing the messages. Personal transformation of some individuals is leading to the start of institutional changes within village-level institutions and PSIs, particularly on issues of women’s leadership. Some people from both groups have started to come together in collective action which both amplifies pressure for change on institutions, as well as further diffusing new gender equality norms by increasing their visibility. The study suggests that the programme process has not yet achieved its full potential, which is in keeping with the original twenty-year vision of change. At the Self/Society interface, there are a number of newly articulate gender advocates who have not yet found a platform from which to act and influence at institutional scale. While linkages are quite well developed at personal levels between Self and Society processes, these have not always found a public voice. Opportunities for this created by the programme are relatively newly established, such that creating influence pathways between the Institutions domain and the others is in the early stages. Nevertheless, participants in these collective spaces are aware of their potential for driving change. In the light of this, there are perhaps two modifications to be made. The current ToC does not explicitly refer to social movement building or the role of collective action in bringing the domains together, and operationalising this dimension was added to the programme as strategies were refined. In practice, the V4C-supported state platforms and Purple clubs are operating as an interface between the Institutions domain and the others. They offer spaces in which to realise the full potential of personal transformation and the creation of Purple. Though they remain at a relatively early stage of development, they are well positioned to advocate for policy and legal change, support women political leaders, galvanise social action for gender equality and inspire others to support gender equality.

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This move towards formalised collective action would benefit from further consideration and explicit reflection in V4C’s Theory of Change. Secondly, the current ToC does not depict any strong sense of sequencing of actions. Programme experience now suggests that there are two basic sequencing issues that would benefit this conceptualisation of change:

• While spaces for collective action can act as the interface between Self/Society and Institutions, it was first necessary to at least begin to create advocates in the domain of Self and Purple people in the domain of Society before these collective spaces could be filled.

• Changes in the Institutions domain – such as legal and policy reform – have a slower

pace of change which takes place at several stages. However, benefits of these changes in wider society are not felt until the final stage – adoption of a new law or policy – is reached. These benefits can then be significant and widespread and should be pursued, but a better sense of chronology in the ToC would more clearly bring out expectations of the causal process. The added linkage – that the creation of Purple prior to legal change establishes a broad cohort of people ‘ready’ to implement new laws – could also be included in the conceptualisation of change.

Study conclusions This study concludes – alongside other studies tracking change in this programme13 – that there are clear signs of widespread change in social norms concerning gender equality. These have been achieved through working with different approaches in each of the three domains. While the process is not complete and no ‘tipping point’ has yet been reached, this is consistent with the original longer-term vision of change. Pathways of influence in pursuit of the tipping point have been established, and the study indicates that pathways of influence are forged at three levels:

• Actions in personal and private spaces;

• Individual actions involving a more public engagement with strangers in public spaces;

• Platforms for collective action and influence, from which institutions can be addressed, together with the personal transformation of some individuals, is leading to the start of institutional changes within radio stations, traditional institutions and PSIs.

Scaling up change through diffusion happened in this programme both from the bottom up and from the top down. The bottom-up process involved creating a cohort of influencers and supporting these to access platforms from which to address different constituencies – whether radio listeners, religious congregations or college students participating in the Purple Club. The top-down process involved creating messaging and branded mass media communications to work on the widespread dissemination of new norms translating into 13 V4C Media Tracking and Communications Survey, August 2017; Attitudes, Practices and Social Norms Survey, 2017; Radio Stations Case Study, Religious Leaders Case Study, Purple E-Spaces Case Study; Purple Brand Tracking Research, Wave 2.

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observable changes in attitudes and behaviours. The study documents many examples of the interactions of these processes and suggests that the ‘layering’ of both directions of interventions so that these interactions come about is a key factor of achieving change at scale. V4C Consortia Funded by