Background
Religion inclination play major roles in the socio-cultural norms, belief system, decision making, value system and health behaviours of the Nigerian populace. Hence the religious leaders (RLs) play significant roles as major influencers of contraceptive health behaviour for men and women of reproductive age who are greatly influenced by teachings of these leaders.
Intervention
A total of 40 RLs were recruited. The capacity of the RLs was built in advocacy, family planning messaging and delivery, and referral linkages. The RLs were equipped with resource materials developed from the Bible for the Christian faith and Quran for the Islamic faith. The religious leaders were also linked to resource materials on The Challenge Initiative University (TCI-U) which further strengthen their capacity in family planning programming.
Results
Within a period of 12 months, social norms and open dialogue on family planning and contraceptive uptake for sexually active young persons improved. A total of 62 media slots were aired which addressed socio-religious myths and misconceptions on contraception; 336, 876 members of the congregation were reached with messages on benefit, safety and religious support for use of contraception, a total of 184 voices of RLs were captured speaking in favor of FP during public events.
Implications for field practice
Involvement of religious leaders in the design, implementation and evaluation of social behaviour change (SBC) interventions is essential. This would address social cultural and religious barriers to behaviour change, strengthen positive behaviour, and improve credibility of sources of SBC information in many developing countries.

During South Africa's COVID-19 waves, community-based providers of HIV prevention services were challenged to engage clients. To cut through other public health messaging and motivate clients to access services, Shout-It-Now (Shout) developed a demand creation campaign that tapped into young women's desire to move forward in their lives and relationships after feeling stalled by COVID-19 lockdowns. Using human-centered design principles, Shout engaged clients, staff and a media partner to provide input on vocabulary, tone, messages and service journey mapping. Informed by this input, Shout's Mo'ghel, Get Your Life Pack! campaign spoke to young women in their own language and featured an aspirational value proposition: come get a free pack of youth-friendly services that can improve your life and relationships. The campaign was implemented August 12-October 8, 2021 in five districts. During the six-week campaign period, 3,499 clients were served and 2,854 (82%) reported they heard of the campaign. Of those aware of the campaign, 2,697 (94%) were females and 1,368 (51%) were aged 20-24, the campaign's target demographic. There was a 668% increase in HIV testing and a 44% increase in PrEP initiations among females aged 20-24 years during the campaign period compared to the preceding six weeks. These results strongly suggest that promoting empowerment and normalizing sexual health conversations can lead to HIV prevention seeking behaviors among a highly vulnerable population. This approach is now used to design all Shout communications and is easily replicable.

Engaging end-users is critical to designing and testing interventions that address the specific barriers women and girls face in voluntarily accessing and using contraceptives. One size does not fit all, even within subpopulations such as adolescent girls and young women. The (re)solve project in Burkina Faso used behavioral science and engaged girls to design and test scalable solutions for schoolgirls in grades 9 and 10, with the objective of improving their sexual and reproductive health (SRH) intention and attitudes. The objective of the evaluation was to evaluate the effectiveness of the (re)solve intervention in Burkina Faso.
We conducted an impact evaluation using a mixed-methods cluster randomized control trial. The intervention had a positive effect on girls' intention to use contraception, though this did not reach statistical significance. Girls receiving the intervention had statistically significant attitudes related to contraception at endline compared to girls at control schools. We also found a significant increase in the percentage of intervention-school girls reporting they went to a health facility for SRH information or services. Qualitative findings demonstrate that the intervention was well received and that misconceptions related to contraceptive use persisted in this mostly young, sexually naïve population.
The (re)solve intervention showed promise for supporting adolescent schoolgirls to use contraception and potentially avoid pregnancies in Burkina Faso. Multi-component interventions with activities that address deep-seated norms and beliefs are still needed; however, there is also a need for focused, innovative, interventions that are easily scalable in low-resource settings.