Community-Based SBC Interventions to Enhance Health and Nutrition Outcomes

Guatemala presenta indicadores alarmantes de malnutrición que persisten desde hace décadas con pocos avances significativos. Las condiciones estructurales y precarias que aquejan a una amplia población, especialmente a mujeres y pueblos indígenas, limitan la adopción plena de prácticas de alimentación nutritiva, diversa y saludable. No obstante, un componente de SBC basado en evidencia y co‑diseñado con las comunidades, incorporando un enfoque de género, puede fortalecer proyectos orientados a garantizar la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional y a empoderar a personas y comunidades. 
Dentro de este contexto surge, Generación Chispuda, un movimiento para el cambio social y de comportamiento enfocado en la alimentación y nutrición. Esta nace en las comunidades rurales guatemaltecas, donde el WFP implementa acciones y proyectos orientados a la construcción de resiliencia integrada sensible a nutrición. Desde propuestas creativas y estrategias participativas, que fomentan el desarrollo y fortalecimiento de distintas habilidades, este enfoque se aleja de la educación alimentaria y nutricional, de modelos verticales y tradicionales.
Durante el pilotaje en 4 departamentos de Guatemala (Zacapa, El Progreso, Huehuetenango y Alta Verapaz), Generación Chispuda ha tenido un alcance de hasta 5 millones de personas en redes sociales, así como la formación de 888 personas en consejería comunitaria, la participación de aproximadamente 17,500 personas en actividades de movilización comunitaria y de 1,760 jóvenes en actividades lúdicas y artísticas.

Cambodia's rapid economic growth has transformed its food environment, increasing access to unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks. A recent survey found 87% of primary school children consumed at least one unhealthy snack the previous day, while intake of nutrient-rich foods remains low. These patterns pose long-term health risks, making early interventions essential.
To help address this, WFP supported the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) to develop and pilot the "Battle for Healthy Diets," a three-month, classroom-based social behaviour change activity. Using gamification and incentives rather than knowledge transfer, the intervention encouraged children to regularly eat five colours of fruit, vegetables, and eggs as part of monthly "missions". Students tracked their food consumption, earned collectible stickers, and worked collectively to defeat unhealthy snack "monsters".
Implemented in 86 schools in early 2024, the activity reached 18,000 students. 80% completed all missions, representing 14,000 children regularly consuming diverse foods. 85% of schools reported increased healthy food intake among students and 49% reported reduced unhealthy snack consumption. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with nearly 90% of schools eager to repeat the activity. Cost-effectiveness ($1.12 per student) suggests strong scale-up potential.
Challenges included economic constraints and persistent availability of unhealthy snacks outside schools, highlighting the need for integrated strategies combining demand generation with food environment improvements. Next steps include rigorous impact evaluation, government-led expansion, enhanced caregiver engagement, teacher training, and digital content. This approach offers lessons for similar contexts, positioning schools as key platforms for shaping lifelong healthy eating habits.

Nutrition challenges in Tanzania, linked to lifestyle drivers, food environment structures and socio-economic inequalities, limit people's ability to access and consume healthy and affordable foods. Many citizens, particularly marginalized communities, lack information, knowledge and space to voice their needs. To address these challenges, BBC Media Action aims to generate evidence on the effectiveness of different Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) platforms and formats in empowering consumers to advocate for healthier food.
Mixed-methods baseline research conducted between March and June 2024 revealed that people's food choices are influenced by income, culture, and limited knowledge of healthy eating. Consumers, especially women lack confidence to speak to their local leaders, due to entrenched patriarchal system. Also, 78% of participants accessed radio and preferred it as source of health and nutrition information.
Using these local insights, five audience segments were identified based on food security, food variety consumption and actions taken to improve food environment. The project is using the data on two audience segments, the 'left behind' and the 'indifferent', to inform and test radio and digital content to increase awareness, confidence, and behavior changes such as choosing balanced meals using affordable local available foods, speaking up in community meetings, and engaging local leaders on food safety and affordability. Working with four community radio stations, we co-produce radio dramas, magazines, PSAs, and digital content that reflect local stories, people's food experiences and voices. This locally driven approach ensures the content is shaped by the needs of each segment.  

The evidence review synthesizes a decade of Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) interventions across Asia and the Pacific (APAC) to understand their contributions to nutrition outcomes and to provide a practical foundation for strengthening SBC integration across World Food Programme (WFP) programmes. The review demonstrates that well-designed SBC interventions consistently improve breastfeeding, complementary feeding, maternal nutrition, and dietary diversity for children and adolescents. Evidence also highlights that SBC is most effective when grounded in a deep understanding of local context, when it influences intermediate determinants such as knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, social norms, and gender dynamics, and combined with interventions that expand access to affordable nutritious diets. The review underscores the need to pair demand-side behaviour change with supply-side improvements in healthy food availability, food environments, and social protection systems.
The review identifies strategic directions to enhance real-world program impact by integration of SBC in WFP. Prioritising high-quality, context-tailored SBC from the outset of programme design, integrating SBC across nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive platforms, embedding multi-channel and multi-audience approaches, and strengthening partnerships across government, civil society, and food system actors to create enabling environments for healthy diets is outlined through this evidence. The evidence further points to the importance of closing the affordability–accessibility gap, advancing gender-responsive approaches, and embedding SBC within emergency preparedness and response. By operationalizing these principles, WFP can contribute to sustainable nutrition outcomes while contributing to stronger food systems and progress toward the SDGs in APAC.