This document discusses using social network analysis to design and evaluate family planning programs. It begins by defining social network analysis and explaining why taking a social network approach is important when designing health programs. It then discusses different ways social networks can support the diffusion of family planning innovations through social learning and social influence. The document provides examples of how to incorporate social network analysis into program design, monitoring, and evaluation and discusses six common social network intervention approaches. It emphasizes the importance of understanding social networks and relationships within a community in order to design effective programs.

1. Harnessing the Potential of
Social Networks
The ABCs of using
social network
approaches to
design and
evaluate family
planning programs

2. Panel Overview
1. What is social network analysis (SNA)?
2. SNA and intervention design
3. SNA and monitoring & evaluation
4. SNA-based planning interventions

3. Social network analysis: What is it?
A theoretical perspective applied to research and
programs
• Recognizes that individuals interact with, learn from,
and get information from other people
• Focuses on relationships, not individuals
“Who delivers the message, and in what
interpersonal context, may be just as, if no
more important, than the message itself,
and may result in better, more relevant, and
perhaps more effective programs.”
- Valente & Fosados, 2006

4. Why a social network focus?
• Women and men make
decisions not as individuals but
as actors in a social system.
• Social structures are resources
to diffuse and support SOCIETY
innovations
COMMUNITY
RELATIONSHIPS
INDIVIDUAL

5. How do networks support FP diffusion?
Single
FP
User Social
Support
More FP Users
Social
Learning Social
Influence

6. Social networks influence diffusion
through….
Social learning Social influence
Network members Network members
exchange ideas and follow norms of
gatekeepers to gain
information; and
approval and avoid
evaluate the relative conflict.
benefits of innovation
6

7. Networks and FP Update
FP uptake higher when an
individual is:
- Highly interconnected
- Centrally located in their
network
- In a network with others
who support and use FP

8. What network research tells us
Women who were ambivalent about FP
supplement information with experiences of
women whose bodies and circumstances they
perceive to be similar to their own.
Women weigh reproductive decisions, not as
individuals, but as actors in a traditional social
system in which the needs of the extended
family outweigh the significance of individual
preferences.
8

9. Malawi: Differences between men and
women in social learning about FP
Men… Women…
“Know” what network “Know” what network
members do from members do from
observation conversation
Discuss pros and cons of FP Discuss details of FP
methods, sources, side
Hear about FP from radio or effects
health-drama groups
Hear about FP at hospital

10. 10
Key results: SN-based program review
• Combine elements of SN theory (i.e. social learning and social
influence) to give legitimacy to new ideas (social influence) while
allowing individuals to adopt a behavior change through social
learning.
• When working with informal groups, such as grins or tontines, involve
group members in identifying the “natural” leader of the group.
• Use radio to complement SN focused interventions and create a
supportive environment that encourages dialogue between friends,
family members and peers.
• Involve stakeholders in developing messages and encourage sharing
these ideas with their discussion networks to relay the message to a
larger network.

11. Using social networks for learning and
influence
1. Opinion Leaders / Leaders Influents
2. Strategically Targeted Groups / Groupes
Stratégiquement Ciblé
3. Leaders of Established Groups / Leaders des
groupes établis
4. Snowball Approach / Chacun invite trois
5. Bridges and Connectors / Liaison &
connecteurs
6. Rewiring linkages, ties / Reconfiguration de
liens

12. 1. Engaging Opinion Leaders

13. 1. Engaging Opinion Leaders
What it is:
• Working with individuals who have formal
power (religious leaders, clan leaders,
elected officials)
• Work with supporters or transform negative
opinions into positive ones
Considerations:
• Legitimizes innovation
• Role models
• Addressing norms leads to sustainable
change

14. 2. Working with strategically
selected groups

15. 2. Strategically Targeted Groups
What it is:
• Designing an intervention to be implemented
by or within the group
• Example: Field workers lead FP discussions
during water and sanitation committee
meetings
Considerations:
• Information travels easily throughout group
• Builds on existing connections
• Reinforce/support new behaviors
• Changing group norms reduces individual risk

16. 3. Working with Leaders of Established
Groups

17. 3. Leaders of Established Groups
What it is:
• Work with leader of group, who in turn,
coordinates/leads the group intervention
• Example: Leaders of women’s savings and
loans associations trained in FP and asked to
discuss during group meetings
Considerations:
• Depends on leader’s persuasiveness
• Leader may not wish to be “positive deviant”

18. 4. Snowball Approach

19. 4. Snowball Approach
What it is:
• One individual informs/influences/invites
two friends. Those two individuals reach
their friends and so on.
• Example: Chacun invite trois , peer educators
Considerations:
• Effective in reaching “hard-to-reach” groups
• Participants “own” intervention
• Model positive “deviant” behavior

20. 5. Activating & Supporting Bridges
and Connectors
What it is:
• Intervene through individuals who interact
with two or more unconnected groups
• Create or break bridge ties to strengthen or
weaken information diffusion
• Example: CBD workers bridges clinics and
clients, mothers-in-law bridge FP information
to daughter-in-law
Considerations:
• Can diffuse information between groups
• Bridge persons can be bottlenecks

21. 6. Rewiring Linkages or Ties

22. 6. Rewiring Linkages or Ties
What it is:
• Purposely connecting individuals who would
otherwise not interact with each other
• Example: creating elder learning groups to
connect women elders; connecting MOH staff
in different technical areas by rearranging
office space
Considerations:
• Strengthens communication flow
• Difficult to purposively change current
network

23. How do SN interventions differ from
conventional outreach approaches?
• Focused on changing flow of information and
social influence, rather than on individual
behavior
• Address social norms rather than practices
• Work through informal as well as formal leaders
to diffuse change through networks
• Use influencers/connectors to inform, facilitate
comparison, filter conflicting information and
model attitudes/behaviors

24. Project TJ Example:
Process for designing SN interventions
How will the community be
different as a result of this
program?
1. Formative research
identifies structure of What will you see and hear
social networks and FP as you walk through the
community in five years?
attitudes of network
members
2. Visioning exercise
3. Define intervention
goals and objectives

25. Design Process (cont.)
4. Develop criteria for selecting SN intervention
• Example: scalable, build on existing networks,
gender perspective, potential for sustained change
5. Brainstorm interventions (using resources such as
research results, selection criteria, taxonomy of SN
approaches)
• Identify problem to address (e.g. male opposition)
• Brainstorm SN intervention approaches
• Prioritize/select intervention(s)
6. Obtain input from broader group of stakeholders

26. Tool: Social Network Design Grid
Problem: FP use among newly married couples considered
unacceptable
Who will Who will be What activities? SN
influence? influenced? approach(es)
Mothers-in- • Daughters-in- Teas with mothers-in-laws Snowball
law law
• Sons Activity-based discussions
facilitated by animators
MILs talk with others
Grin • Grin Animators catalyze reflective Informal leaders
members via members dialogs with grin leaders of groups
social leader • Their wives
• Other male Request to talk with others Snowball
friends
MOH • Male social CHWs visit grins and give Reconfiguring
supervisors groups clinic tour networks
and CHWs

27. Monitoring and evaluation of social
network-based approaches

28. 28
Theoretical considerations for
measuring innovation diffusion
• Need to monitor implementation
and change at multiple levels
• Theory of change draws from:
• Individual behavior change models
(Health Belief Model, Trans-
theoretical)
• Ecological models

29. 29 Social network approaches to
monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring Methods
 Include process • Ego-centric mapping
indicators related to conducted with a
networks representative sample
generalizable to entire
population
• Measure changes in
network structure and
member attitudes

30. Socio-centric network mapping
MOST APPROPRIATE FOR
FORMATIVE RESEARCH
1. Explains how
information and
influence diffuse
through entire
network
2. Guides development
of interventions to
harness social learning
and influence

31. Ego-centered network mapping
MOST APPROPRIATE
FOR EVALUATION
1. Measures the effect
of interventions on
individual
knowledge, attitudes
and practices
2. Identifies changes in
the way information
and influence diffuse
3. representative
sample generalizable
to entire population

32. Illustrative Outcome Indicators
Community
Network Individual
Social factors catalyzing
properties changes
capacity
Flow of Perception that Ownership/
fertility/FP info husband and participation Use of FP
through network network partners among members services
partners support FP to interventions
Couple % of members
Mean/% of Men/women with
communication with favorable
network unmet need
(index score) attitudes
Size and Cohesive social Proportion of
Woman/couple
composition of network segments p/year
efficacy for FP
women’s supporting FP with met need
use
network use for effective FP
% who report
Method
network partners
continuation
use FP

33. Potential benefits of social network
approaches
Does the application of network approaches…
• Transform family planning programs?
• Focus attention on the social factors influencing
unmet need and FP?
• Increase the efficiency and effectiveness of
community mobilization efforts?

34. Scale up Indicators
• Level of seed team functioning
• Degree of stakeholder
involvement
Process
• Pace of scale up
• Cost of implementation
• Feasibility
• Use of LQAS or sentinel sites to
Outcomes
measure unmet need

35. How do we apply TJ social network
approach at scale?
• Identify connectors/influencers through PLA, RRA
and key informant interviews
• Apply intervention in communities with similar
social network structures
• Identify people who are “equivalent” in the
networks (similar social roles or positions in relation
to others such as mothers-in-law and daughters-in-
law, co-wives)
• SNA considers similarities in relationship patterns

36. http://tinyurl.com/terikunda-jekulu
Rebecka Lundgren: lundgrer@georgetown.edu
36

37. For our interpreters: Social network
types in English
1. Working with/through opinion leaders or key players
2. Working with/through groups located within the network
3. Working with/through leaders within groups
4. Snowball approach: Working with/ through individuals to
reach/ connect with others in their social networks
5. Bridges and Connectors
6. Rewiring linkages, ties

38. For our interpreters: Social Network
types in French
1. Travail avec ou via les leaders d’opinions ou les acteurs clés
2. Travail avec / via des groupes situés au sein du réseau
3. Travail avec / via des dirigeants dans des groupes, ou
combiner les dirigeants / les apprenants au sein des groupes
4. Approche « boule de neige » : Travail avec / via des
personnes pour atteindre / se connecter avec d’autres dans
leurs réseaux sociaux
5. Liaison & connecteurs
6. Reconfiguration de liens