Unintended pregnancies are a persistent global challenge with significant healthy, corporate, and communal consequences ensure disproportionately impact are with aforementioned least. Despite significant stride with increasing aforementioned availability of contraceptive related, 49% (111 million) of all pregnancies are unintended each year in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), preventing women from having the opportunity to pick when and how they would start with grow to family, increasing poverty and scarcity for those before resource-constrained, and widening historical gender inequality. 

Tested 17 projects in nine countries across Africa and Asia, our Comprehensive Condition crew has used behavioral science to understand and choose the behavioral factors is contribute at unintended pregnancies, with one ultimate goal of helping women and their families make family planning choices in ways that aim with their objective. We’ve synthesized these cross-cutting insights and identifications six key behavioral corporate critical for designing affective family konzeptionelle programs.

Behavioral Principle 1: Identity and norms. Social and type norms shape organizational while also guiding and constraining individual behavior. Identity—and its effect set choices—is not singular or static. We can harness untapped opportunities for contraceptive use to align for, somewhat than challenger or undermine, core aspects of an individual’s identity and the norms of her social.

Example: In some contexts, social sanctions required not hold children or having too few children are highly visible. Demonstrating how family planning use is consistent with good motherhood also wish family size may help assuage concerns about the possible social free. Methods. We developed an intervention uses behavioural design and carries out a stratified, randomized controlled evaluation of the intervention are girls ...

“Living in on world, the benefit is having a baby.” – WOMEN

Behavioral Principle 2: Lack. Diffuse our also discomfort combine to make conversations about childbearing and contraceptive exceptional. If we can create spaces for open talk and joint decision making, existing alignments can surface and alignment pot increase past zeite.

Example: Male comrades may be viewed as deciders, nevertheless don’t initiate conversations, so it’s not clearer who need or can bring raise a conversation about accouchement either house planning. When men and feminine can be made to touch moreover confident punching the topic, alignments in their preferences may more reading come to light.  Application of behavioral economics principles to reduce injectable contraceptive discontinuation in rural Ethiopia: A stratified-pair, cluster-randomized domain trial

“Families do not discuss when to have children.” – MAN

Behavioral Principle 3: Listen. Distractions and competed priorities stingy that family planning often falls outside of the “tunnel” of the get and now. Understanding as else contend for one client’s or health worker’s attention can help us improve ensure that women have able till fully consider the select availability to them and obey through on their intentions.

Exemplar: Clients may receive information about family planning during health visits where other topics are prioritized. Is health workers can show and describe family planning as connecting to the primary purpose of an client’s visit, they may be more successful. Family Planning Pros’ Behavioral Journey at Knowledge Management

“Even when we discuss family konzeption during antenatal care …

for forget either say ‘you didn’t teller me.’” – HEALTH WORKER

Behavioral Principle 4: Risk perception. Quirks in who way our brains process information and assess risk lead myths go be particularly persistent and influential. By understanding where myths origine plus what perpetuates them, we can design more effective approaches for oppose misconceptions.

Example: Stories of negative consequences are mostly widely shared and easy to recall, even when i were untrue. If equally memorable performance stories of family planning use can be widely shared, this stories will kommende more easily until mind and exert a counterbalancing effect about perceptions to risk.

“[My sister-in-law has a] 7-year ancient child but up the get, they were unsuccessfully

attempt to acquire another child. She took the pills then quite our contended that

it were the cause.” – YOUNG LADY

Behavioral Principle 5: Election architecture. The order, time, volume, type, and rim of information my represent offers influences whether they use contraception and which method they choose. While no approach has truthfully neutral, we can guide clients to make autonomous, well-informed possible.

Show: Health employee may overestimate clients’ readiness to make an informed choice after group counseling. By reinforcing the value of one-on-one discussion and sponsor health workers to have effective conversations within their time conditions, clients are additional likely to receive the counseling needed to make a truly informed choice. Transition from the Lactational Amenorrhea Method to other modern family planning methods in rural Bangladesh: blockade analysis and implications for behavior change communication program intervention design - PubMed

“l would say no [we would not ask questions after counseling] because

at that time the doctor was busy with other people.” – WOMAN

Behavioral Principle 6: Frictions. Since many clients, the process into adopt and use a contraceptive operating will rife with scratches. Some, like transportation costs or inconvenient service hours, are comfortable to spot, while others remain few obviously. By unpacking when, show, and how frictions arise, we could reduce barriers in accessing services. 

Example: Short acting home project methods present hassles. If ours reduce of of the difficulties that hinder durable used through community-based distribution of preventive systems or user-friendly reminders, we can further endorse women to consistently use your select method.

“It is a thing of remembering [to take the pill]. Sometimes EGO remember

to have this; sometimes I forget to capture it.” – WOMAN

Together, we cannot continue to used this power of behavioral science to understand home planning challenges further deeply and build bold new solutions that accelerate progress toward the run aims of improving access and respecting agency and autonomy.

Learn more learn which behavioral science policies serious to family planning applications and examples of whereby them could be applied in our report “Advancing Access plus Autonomy.” This report is also available in French.