The ACT Framework Package: Measuring Social Norms Around Female Genital Mutilation

"Concrete data on the operationalization and testing of the effectiveness of social norms approaches, especially those using communication approaches, is limited."

Since 2008, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have implemented the Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation: Accelerating Change. The Joint Programme's efforts to eliminate FGM by 2030 recognise the crucial role that social norms play in upholding FGM. Despite different approaches having been tested in various countries, there had been no commonly tested methodology to monitor and track change towards FGM elimination that could be scaled up in all the Joint Programme countries. To fill that void, UNICEF joined with the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University to create the ACT Framework, which is a social norms monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework that is designed to measure changes in FGM-related social norms. This Framework is at the core component of the multi-document ACT Framework Package described herein.

At the heart of the ACT Framework is a set of 10 questions that can be used to create a social norms index. These questions are supported by indicators from which the implementing organisation (IO) and local research partner (LRP) can choose from to measure other factors associated with social norms, including individual- and social-level change, social networks, and gender norms.

The acronym ACT stands for the three components that make up the ACT Framework:

• The 'A' stands for: (i) assessing what people know, feel, and do - with indicators measuring such things as knowledge, attitudes, and reported behaviour; and (ii) ascertaining normative factors, which includes descriptive norms, injunctive norms and outcome expectancies.
• The 'C' stands for: (i) considering context - specifically, gender and power - with indicators measuring things like self-efficacy, decision making, and gender roles; and (ii) collecting information on social support network, which allows for identification of reference groups, the information flow across social networks, and social support relative to abandonment of the practice.
• The 'T' stands for: (i) tracking individual and social change over time, with indicators measuring outputs, short-term outcomes, and exposure to social and behaviour change interventions; and (ii) triangulating all data and analysis, which uses multiple data sources to measure individual indicators through quantitative, qualitative, and participatory tools to help validate findings.

The mechanisms by which FGM operates as a social norm are likely to vary from context to context, underscoring the importance of tailoring programmatic thinking and efforts to the local realities.

In addition to the Framework itself, the ACT Framework Package supporting tools that are designed to allow IOs and LRPs to:

• Select from a menu of indicators to design research instruments tailored to a programme's theory of change and implementation status;
• Choose as many or as few indicators from the menu as needed to design research that is as complex or as simple as the scale and resources of a programme call for; and
• Find detailed guides, tip sheets, and templates to help programme staff engage and manage stakeholders who will be involved in the study.

Specifically, the ACT Framework Package includes:

• The ACT Framework (93 pages, PDF download) - presents the conceptual framework, the compendium of indicators, and guidance on how to implement the ACT Framework.
• The ACT Instruments (138 pages, PDF download) - provides the quantitative and qualitative data collection tools: the structured interview questionnaire, focus group discussion (FGD) guides, and in-depth interview (IDI) guides. These instruments have been pilot tested in Ethiopia and Guinea and also contain instructions on how to use each question and code the answers, including tips for tailoring, training, and pretesting.
• The ACT Implementation Templates (86 pages, PDF download) - details the 9-step process involved in implementation of the ACT Framework:
  1. Plan the implementation (includes sample budget and budget line items, etc.).
  2. Choose the indicators.
  3. Select an LRP (includes sample terms of reference, etc.).
  4. Finalise the study design.
  5. Adapt the instruments (includes a sample multilingual glossary, etc.).
  6. Perform an ethical review (includes consent forms, etc.).
  7. Conduct field work (includes quality control checklists, etc.).
  8. Clean and analyse data.
  9. Disseminate results.
• The ACT 2X2 Training Tables Guide (20 pages, PDF download) - provides guidance on how to facilitate the 2X2 activity, which is a participatory research method for collecting qualitative data on descriptive and injunctive norms in relation to one's reference group. There are three parts to this activity:
  • FGD participants as a group complete Activity 2: Social Network Mapping, to identify the participants' reference group and social network - the people in their immediate and extended families, among their peers and friends, and in their broader communities whose opinions matter to them and with whom they would discuss the subject (in this case, FGM).
  • With the completed social network map visible to all participants, the 2×2 table activity begins with respondents giving answers to a series of questions, which the facilitator uses to fill out two tables - one regarding approval of FGM, and one regarding the actual practice of the behaviour (in this case, FGM).
  • Respondents are asked several probing questions to facilitate discussion on the answers provided and to obtain further data on the participants' reasons for choosing those answers.

Also available is this Social Norms Desk Review (30 pages, PDF download), which outlines information on social norms and the measurement of FGM. It was the first step towards informing the development and design of the core documents making up the ACT Framework Package. It was written by Suruchi Sood, Sarah Stevens, Carmen Cronin, and Michelle Gordon.