Water for Women (2022) Shifting Social Norms for Transformative WASH: Guidance for WASH Actors

This guidance note refers to social norm change in, and through, WASH programs. The checklists provide guiding questions and practical examples that can be used to increase understanding of how to implement a social norms initiative as a component of WASH programs. This guidance primarily draws from the literature on shifting social norms that sustain gender-related harmful and exclusionary practices; there is less documented experience on shifting social norms that perpetuate the exclusion of people with disabilities and people with diverse gender identities and sexual orientations. Examples from projects supported by Water for Women in Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Indonesia, Nepal, Bhutan and Vanuatu are presented. They describe interventions that employ different approaches to engaging on social norms and the projects’ successes and challenges.