In Nepal, gendered norms around dominance, aggression, and the sexual rights of husbands over their wives are entrenched, with over half of young married women reporting intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime. In these communities, Nepali women bear responsibility for domestic tasks, have limited agency, and are expected to tolerate violence for the sake of family unity and honor, while Nepali men are seen as natural aggressors, and hold the majority of decision-making power in a household. We will be presenting baseline data collected from 1130 couples (both wives and husbands interviewed separately) as part of an SBC program to test an IPV prevention strategy aimed at transforming negative gender norms and diffusing new norms and behaviors through movement building across rural communities in Nepal. Survey questions include measures around social norms, attitudes, and behaviors specific to IPV, plus a social network module. We found that women who reported IPV nominated more social network partners and that the composition of their networks was different than those of women who reported no violence. Women who reported violence were more likely to nominate those outside their homes than those who did not. There were also significant community level differences, suggesting strong normative influences by community.

Addressing social norms is increasingly recognized as key to sustained and transformative social and behavioral change in many development areas. However, social norms interventions are frequently criticized for being high-cost, intensive and difficult to scale. Evidence supporting the best strategies to measure and track norms change at the community level is also minimal, leaving researchers and practitioners without effective tools and processes to both determine and deepen the impact of and pathways to larger-scale norms change. 
In this presentation we will highlight how we were able to integrate learnings and adapt an SBCC intervention focused on the prevention of intimate partner violence in Nepal to more intentionally focus on organized diffusion. Our methods included using quantitative analysis to identify changes and patterns that more traditional sampling methods miss, developing a social network analysis tool to more effectively target and trace the impact of social norms-oriented SBCC programming, and integrating "diffusion-focused" sessions in an IPV prevention program curriculum
Overall, the presentation will highlight different techniques used to both measure and accelerate the spread of gender equitable norms through a community in rural Nepal - resulting (in one trial) in the declaration of Nepal's first violence free community.

In response to the well-recognized burden of intimate partner violence (IPV), there has been a growth in primary prevention strategies with an emphasis on norms change as an approach to widespread and sustained prevention. Norms and diffusion theorists believe only a small group of "trendsetters" may be needed to reject a standing norm and to effect change. However, research into how norms change, particularly diffusion from a group to a community, is limited. We address this gap by examining the diffusion effects of an existing norms change intervention, the Change Starts at Home project (Change) to provide novel insights into the pathways of change that will be of immediate use to the field. In this study, we use data from the Change trial to examine the community and programmatic characteristics associated with social norms change with a special focus on diffusion as a lynchpin of social norms interventions.