Make Me a Change Agent: A Multisectoral SBC Resource for Community Workers and Field Staff

This publication offers a curriculum that is designed to build the skills of community-level workers, such as community development agents, community health workers, and agriculture extension agents, to be more effective behaviour change promoters in their communities. According to the guide, "the lessons are not sector specific, but are tried and true generic skills, such as communication and storytelling, that can help a development worker in any sector become more effective as an agent of behavior change."

The guide was developed drawing on the experiences of social and behavioural change (SBC) specialists from multiple non-governmental organisations (NGOs), most of whom are active members of the CORE Group Social And Behavioral Change Working Group and the Food Security And Nutrition Network Social & Behavioral Change Task Force. The specialists collaborated to identify the necessary skills related to behaviour change, establish a lesson plan format and preferred training methodology, design the lessons, develop the handouts and visual aids, and review and field test the materials.

The curriculum is divided into the following lessons, each accompanied by lesson handouts:

• Lesson 1: Behaviour change through effective communication
• Lesson 2: Empathy: Understanding the perspective of another
• Lesson 3: Negotiated behaviour change
• Lesson 4: Home visits/individual counseling
• Lesson 5: Behaviour change through guided testimonials
• Lesson 6: Storytelling for behaviour change
• Lesson 7: Learning through cross-site visits
• Advanced lesson 1: Quality improvement and verification checklist
• Advanced lesson 2: Motivating conversation: conversation for change
• Advanced lesson 3: Story editing

The publication was produced as part of the Technical and Operational Performance Support (TOPS) Program, which is the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Food for Peace-funded initiative that generates, captures, disseminates, and applies the information, knowledge, and promising practices in development food assistance programming.