Localizing Social and Behavior Change through Collaborative Learning in Nepal

In 2017, Nepal moved to a federal governance structure, shifting the centers of authority and leadership to local levels. The prior centralized structure meant that technical and management skills resided centrally, including for the health and social sectors. Since 2018, USAID’s Breakthrough ACTION project in Nepal has focused on transferring technical skills to strengthen local systems and on longer-term sustainable change that would help improve lives at the local levels.

The health and social sectors in Nepal tend to prioritize service delivery, paying little attention to their beneficiaries’ needs, aspirations, and skills, to access available services. This lack of attention leads to gaps in service access by the beneficiaries, especially those who are at the margins of society. To deeply strengthen the local systems, Breakthrough ACTION deliberately used a collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) approach in Nepal. This approach involved long-term continuous engagement, frequent consultations, and learning reflections with local stakeholders. Understanding the local needs, challenges, and systems was vital to better align skills transfers and ensure local stakeholder buy-in and use.

Breakthrough ACTION validated this CLA approach by triangulating the results of an endline capacity assessment, most significant change (MSC) exercises, and outcome harvesting. The results of the evaluation highlighted changes in improved social and behavior change (SBC) understanding, use of evidence in planning and designing programs, greater engagement with community members, and the integration of SBC in local planning and implementation processes.