Whose knowledge counts? Participatory approaches

In Iraq, the reintegration of returnees from Al-Hol camp in northeast Syria is not only a logistical challenge-it is a social rupture. Addressing this requires more than communication; it demands connection. In response, the Government of Iraq, supported by UNDP and MAGENTA, developed and implemented a national SBCC strategy grounded in collaborative design, traditional knowledge, and lived community experience.
This strategy reframes reintegration as a relational process: one built not through top-down messaging, but through shared presence and mutual storytelling. Co-designed with returnees, community members, tribal leaders, and security actors, the strategy paired behavioral science with real-world scenarios-sport, food, and dialogue-to rebuild social trust.


Two flagship community events embodied this approach. A football tournament in Anbar united youth from returnee and host communities, while a communal iftar and storytelling circle in Nineveh brought together families once divided by violence and fear. A documentary film captured these experiences, allowing personal narratives to travel across geographies and challenge dominant stigmas.
The results show that healing relationships through culturally grounded co-creation can shift community perceptions, restore dignity, and build bridges where formal policy cannot. This presentation shares the strategy's design, implementation, and outcomes, offering a replicable framework for SBCC practitioners working in fragile and post-conflict contexts.

Maternal, and child health (MCH) outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remain suboptimal, with persistent gaps in family planning, immunization, antenatal and postnatal care, and disease prevention behaviors. Yet within such challenging contexts, some women and communities adopt multiple recommended practices, offering a unique opportunity to learn from success. Positive deviance (PD) is a social and behavior change (SBC) approach that identifies and analyzes these individuals who, despite facing the same resource constraints as their peers, consistently achieve better outcomes.
This study applied a PD framework using Demographic Health Survey data (2018–2024) from 18 SSA countries, focusing on 33,002 recent mothers of children under one year. Thirteen MCH behaviors were assessed, spanning pregnancy, delivery, postnatal, and prevention domains. PD was defined as a vulnerable woman (low education and poorest households) engaging in all behaviors across respective domains. On average, 9% of vulnerable women practiced all pregnancy and postnatal care behaviors, and 13% practiced all  prevention behaviors. Empowered women, those who reported decision-making autonomy in reproductive health,  were significantly more likely to be PDs overall (AOR: 2.45; 95% CI: 1.10–5.43).
Findings underscore the role of empowerment and agency as drivers of health-promoting practices, even among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. For the SBC field, this research demonstrates how PD potentially informs actionable, context-specific strategies such as peer education, social mobilization, and empowerment initiatives. By learning from women who succeed against the odds, SBC programs can design scalable, community-driven solutions to accelerate MNCH outcomes in SSA.

What happens when communication becomes the bridge between knowledge and justice?
Share-Net Bangladesh answers this question by showing how a Southern-led platform can transform who creates, owns, and acts on evidence in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
As part of the global Share-Net International network, Bangladesh has grown from one of several country hubs into the most dynamic knowledge ecosystem-now set to become the network's International Secretariat. This transition signals more than institutional success; it marks a global shift in power, redefining whose knowledge matters.
Using a hybrid Knowledge Management and Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) model, Share-Net Bangladesh turns research into movement. Its "5-for-1" approach ensures each evidence product generates five outcomes-communication tools, advocacy actions, youth-led campaigns, digital dialogues, and policy influence. Through ten Communities of Practice, a digital platform reaching 150,000+ users annually, and the Annual Knowledge Fair, the platform has shaped national policies on infertility, comprehensive sexuality education, and climate-linked SRHR.
By embedding participation, equity, and storytelling into every stage of evidence use, Share-Net Bangladesh demonstrates that decolonizing evidence is not an academic theory-it is communication in action. When communities become narrators, not subjects, knowledge transforms into collective power for policy, practice, and social change.

"Since using Oky, I have started to be more open, I have dared to ask questions like, 'Is menstruation like this normal?' So now my friends are also sharing more openly, because they realize that we can communicate well." Oky user, Philippines, 17 
This voice captures the essence of whose knowledge matters. In 2024–25, UNICEF commissioned an impact assessment of Oky, a girl-centered digital menstruation education and period tracking app. BBC Media Action applied the Qualitative Impact Protocol (QuIP) in Indonesia and the Philippines to assess Oky's impact with girls. Unlike traditional evaluations, QuIP uses a "blindfolded" approach, girls were not told the research was about the app. When they credited changes in knowledge, confidence, or practices to Oky, their voices carried unprompted weight.
QuIP findings show that Oky strengthened menstrual health knowledge, challenged taboos, and boosted confidence among adolescent girls, with one in three reporting changes in daily practices like hygiene or preparedness. Teachers and health workers confirmed these shifts, while peer sharing revealed ripple effects across communities.
This work aligns with the theme Whose Knowledge Matters by centering adolescent girls' lived experiences as evidence. It reflects Participatory Evidence Generation through local female researchers conducting interviews in girls' own languages. It illustrates Innovations in Evidence by adapting QuIP, a novel methodology in the adolescent health field, to capture nuanced, causal pathways of change in digital interventions.
The case demonstrates how elevating girls' voices transforms not only what we know, but how we decide what counts as evidence in digital SBC interventions.