This resource will walk you through the process of identifying effective behaviour change strategies most likely to be effective in support the adoption of desired behaviours based your identification of what needs to change in terms of COM-B. This resource has three parts that needs to be used step-by-step to identify the appropriate strategy and has been adapted and informed by the Behaviour Change Wheel: A Guide to Designing Interventions Book by Lou Atkins, Robert West, and Susan Michie [21]. The first part explores what you need to do after identifying your COM-B Community level behaviour diagnosis; and how to categorize/map the gathered information in a strategic manner to point you to the appropriate intervention function. Part 2 focuses on identifying the relevant behaviour change techniques to further sharpen the strategy and the activity designing. To use this resource, you will need to have completed steps 1-4 in your Behaviour Change Planning Table.
If the information contained in this facilitator resource is something you have not heard of before, please go to the Human Behaviour Change Learning Module.
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase:
Planning Phase, Implementation Phase
Approaches for Working with Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach, Societal Outreach and Campaigns Approach
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B):
Behaviour Change Diagnosis and Planning
Project Support: Facilitator Resources, Training, Documentation and Reporting
Part 1: Identifying Effective Behaviour Change Intervention Functions
The behaviours we observe people exhibiting occur because of three, often interacting conditions or drivers: 1) capability, 2) opportunity, 3) motivation, commonly referred to as COM-B. These three components of behaviour are defined below, along with their subcomponents:
Capability: individual’s psychological and physical ability to enact or engage in the behaviour, and includes having the necessary knowledge and skills
- 1. Physical capability (C-ph) – physical skill, strength, or stamina
- 2. Psychological capability (C-ps) – knowledge, cognitive and interpersonal skills, memory, attention, and decision processes, behavioural regulation
Opportunity: factors which fall outside the individual which make the behaviour possible or prompt it
- 3. Physical opportunity (O-ph) – physical environment and resources, opportunities afforded by the environment involving time, resources, locations, cues, physical ‘affordance’
- 4. Social opportunity (O-so) – social influences, opportunity afforded by interpersonal influences, social cues and cultural norms that influence the way that we think about things
- Motivation: reflective and automatic mechanisms/cognitive processes that activate or inhibit the behaviour including habitual processes, emotional responding, as well as analytical decision making
- 5. Reflective motivation (M-Re) – professional/social role and identity, optimism, goals, processes involving plans (self-conscious intentions) and evaluations (beliefs about what is good and bad, about capabilities)
- 6. Automatic motivation (M-Au) – processes involving emotional reactions, desires (wants and needs), impulses, inhibitions, habits, reinforcement, emotion
Through your consultations with communities, ideally through COM-B diagnosis which helps you to identify the barriers and motivators (e.g. Facilitator Resource No. 11 Behaviour Change/COM-B Diagnosis Community Guide Question), you should have some degree of understanding of factors related to the target actors’ capability, motivation, and opportunities causing the undesirable behaviours underlying observed animal welfare issues (Refer to completed Step 3 column of the Behaviour Change Planning Table.
You can then use the table below to identify the most effective type of intervention functions to consider implementing to promote adoption of the desired behaviour based on your COM-B Diagnosis of what needs to change for the desired behaviour to be adopted [25]. It is not uncommon for each behaviour to have numerous drivers, and each may therefore require numerous types of interventions be undertaken to effectively change the behaviour, as shown in the figure 13a below.
Each of the types of intervention function are further defined in the table below [25]:
| Intervention Functions | Definitions | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Education | Increasing knowledge or understanding | • Providing information to promote better care for equids and create understanding about consequences. • Raise awareness of animal husbandry practices that support positive welfare states |
| Persuasion | Using communication to induce positive or negative feelings or stimulate action | • Using imagery and/or respected messengers to motivate increase in the feeling of how important your equid is. |
| Incentivisation | Creating expectation of reward | • Having a system that rewards practising the desired behaviour, such as being celebrated as the owner of the healthiest equid. |
| Coercion | Creating expectation of punishment or cost | • An animal owning community-based organization adopt bylaws that include financial consequences for members who mistreat their animals • Working with law enforcement officers to punish those who mistreat or do not take good care of their equids. |
| Training | Impacting skills | • Providing trainings on how to communicate with the equids without whipping. • Provide training on handling or farriery techniques |
| Restriction | Using rules to reduce the opportunity to engage in the target behaviour (or to increase the target behaviour by reducing the opportunity to engage in competing behaviours) | • Prohibiting using equids to carry loads over a certain weight, in relation to the equid weight to avoid overloading, or not using the equid without equid-friendly harness. |
| Environmental restructuring | Changing the physical or social context | • Printing posters (even billboard) and pinning them in the environment as a reminder for the need to practice the desired behaviour. • Encouraging equid owners’ associations or local administration to create/facilitate animal shelters at marketplaces to allow animals to rest comfortably after transporting goods to market |
| Modelling | Providing an example for people to aspire or imitate | • Identifying and using leaders or community change agents, who already practice the desired behaviour for others to copy them. |
| Enablement | Increasing means/reducing barriers to increase capability or opportunity. | • Providing social support groups, for people to feel part of similar group doing the same action or behaviour. • Supporting animal owning groups to form groups to do bulk purchase of feed for their animals. |
Part 2: Identifying Complementary Policy Categories
Once you have identified the intervention function, the next step will be to explore if there are relevant Policy Categories that you can use to sharpen your strategy to help you embed the desired behaviour. The policy category can be used as part of your asks in the message you will craft when you are using this approach to identify gaps or to anchor your interventions direction even if you are not going to directly engage in policy advocacy work.
Part 3: Identifying Behaviour Change Techniques Relevant to Selected Intervention Functions
Once you have identified the appropriate intervention functions and policy categories for each behaviour, create a table like the example below, and refer to the table of behaviour change techniques (BCTs) related to each intervention function provided below, and select the behaviour change techniques most likely to be appropriate to the community context in which you are working.
You can download the free Behaviour Change Techniques Taxonomy v1 application (BCTTv1) to support your identification of the most used behaviour change techniques relevant to each intervention function, or refer to the table below which provides definitions and examples behaviour change categories with examples.
| S.N. | Intervention Functions Definition | Behaviour Change Techniques* *All BCTs could potentially be considered for any intervention type, however the BCT’s listed here are those which have been most used and evidenced as effective for each type of intervention function within the behaviour change science literature. |
| Education: Increase knowledge or understanding | · Information about social and environmental consequences · Information about consequences of inaction/not adopting desired behaviour e.g., to animals and/or their owners Feedback on behaviour · Feedback on outcome(s) of behaviour · Prompts/cues · Self-monitoring of behaviour | |
| Persuasion: Use communication to induce positive or negative feelings to stimulate action | · Credible source · Information about social and environmental consequences · Information about consequences of inaction/not adopting desired behaviour e.g., to animals and/or their owners · Feedback on behaviour · Feedback on outcome(s) of behaviour | |
| Incentivization: Create an expectation of reward | · Feedback on behaviour · Feedback on outcome(s) of behaviour. · Monitoring of behaviour by others without feedback. · Monitoring of outcome(s) of behaviour without feedback. · Self-monitoring of behaviour. | |
| Coercion: Create and expectation of punishment or cost | · Feedback on behaviour. · Feedback on outcome(s) of behaviour. · Monitoring of behaviour by others without feedback. · Monitoring of outcome(s) of behaviour without feedback. · Self-monitoring of behaviour. | |
Training: Impart skills | · Demonstration of the behaviour. · Instruction on how to perform the behaviour. · Feedback on behaviour. · Feedback on outcome(s) of behaviour. · Monitoring of behaviour by others without feedback. · Monitoring of outcome(s) of behaviour without feedback. · Self-monitoring of behaviour. · Behavioural practice and rehearsal · Instructions on how to perform the behaviour | |
| Restrictions: Use of rules to reduce the opportunity to engage in the behavior | There are no BCTs identified as ‘most frequently used’ for Restriction because BCTs are focused on changing the way people think, feel, and react rather than the way external environments limit their behaviour. | |
| Environmental Restructuring: change the physical environment | · Adding objects to the environment. · Prompts/cues. · Restructuring the physical environment. | |
| Modelling: Provide an example for people to aspire to or emulate | · Demonstration of the behaviour | |
| Enablement: Increase means or reduce barriers to increase capability (beyond education or training) or opportunity (beyond environmental restructuring) | · Demonstration of the behaviour. · Social support (unspecified). · Social support (practical). · Goal setting (behaviour). · Goal setting (outcome). · Adding objects to the environment. · Problem solving. · Action planning. · Self-monitoring of behaviour. · Restructuring the physical environment. · Review behaviour goal(s). · Review outcome goal(s). |
Next, use the APEASE criteria also provided in a table below to help you narrow your selection of behaviour change techniques. Although the APEASE criteria provides a structured way of narrowing appropriate BCTs, it is important to draw on local knowledge and your own expertise when selecting the most appropriate intervention functions and BCTs to be implemented in each context. When narrowing your selection, it is also helpful to consider the BCTs used most frequently before considering those used less frequently [21].
Once you have completed the activity, use the identified BCT’s which meet the APEASE criteria to inform the development of effective community engagement activities to address the barriers and motivators identified as needing to change. List community engagement project activities within the Step 5 column of the Behaviour Change Planning Table provided within the facilitator resources.
| Criteria | Description |
|---|---|
| Affordability | Acceptable in terms of project budget. It does not matter how effective or even cost effective it may be if it cannot be afforded. An intervention is affordable if within an acceptable budget it can be delivered to, or accessed by, all for whom it could be relevant or of benefit. |
| Practicability | Extent to which it can be delivered and designed through the means intended to the target population and ease of adoption by the community given the means available to them. You know, or have great cause to believe, that the barriers to adoption of behaviours hoped to be addressed by the intervention are not beyond the scope of project to address |
| Effectiveness and cost effectiveness | Effectiveness refers to the effect size of the intervention in relation to the desired objectives within the local context. It is important when weighing intervention strategy options to the extent to which the intervention will have a direct, significant impact on solving/reducing the severity of observed animal welfare issues and promote the adoption of desired behaviours, and whether it has potential to affect change in many welfare issues/behaviours, and/or have spill over/generalizability to other behaviours and people. Cost Effectiveness refers to the ratio of cost to effect. If two interventions are equally effective it is always recommended to pursue the more cost-efficient strategy. If one option is more effective but less cost effective, then other criteria such as affordability should be considered. |
| Acceptability | Acceptability refers to the extent to which an intervention strategy will be judged as appropriate by relevant stakeholders. Acceptability may be different for different stakeholders. |
| Side effects/safety | Side effects/safety refers to the extent a particular intervention may have unwanted side-effects or unintended consequences. Consider whether interventions may cause harm to animals, people, or the environment before deciding whether to proceed. |
| Equity | An important consideration is the extent to which an intervention strategy may reduce or increase disparities in standard of living, health, or well-being for different sectors of society. |
The table below provides an example of a completed behaviour change intervention functions and behaviour change techniques identified based on COM-B diagnosis findings for changing whipping behaviour in Kenya. Consider creating a similar table to support your own behaviour change intervention planning using the human behaviour change intervention planning approach outlined in this resource.
| Behaviour Change Statement: Guiding donkeys using verbal and body communication whenever donkeys are required to move. | |||
| Intervention Function | COM-B Component addressed by Intervention Function (Refer step 3 column of the Behaviour Change Planning Table | Most Relevant/Recently Used Behaviour Change Techniques (BCT) | Does BCT meet the APEASE Criteria in the context of the desired behaviour? |
| Education | Psychological capability | Providing information about the consequences of whipping. | Yes, it is affordable, practical, acceptable, with positive side effects on improving and knowing what is needed to improve the health of the donkey |
| Persuasion | Reflective Motivation | Using dram/skits to highlight the benefits of guiding a donkey without whipping to elicit emotional response. | Acceptable, practical, not so costly and can reach a wide audience of people depending on the delivery mode. |
| Environmental Restructure | Social Opportunity | Putting cues/leaflets in visible places to remind the donkey users and the community on how to treat their animals | Yes, affordable, acceptable and may lead to other additional benefits such as awareness on donkeys health and how to guide them |
| Training | Physical Capability | Teaching the owners how to guide without whip, by using body language | Acceptable, practical, socially acceptable but may not be affordable as it requires one on one training of an individual |
Facilitator's Note:
It should be noted that this guidance focuses on identifying intervention functions from the behaviour change wheel, however the behaviour change wheel can also be used to identify policy categories to support the intervention. However, if barriers to the adoption of desired behaviours are identified amongst communities that may require policy level change, you may wish to consider conducting this activity using the behaviour change wheel’s policy categories as well, to identify those which best support delivery of the intervention functions [21].
Consider downloading the BCTTv1app from iTunes or google play to further help you.
