Sightsavers’ approach to stigma reduction

Stigma within Sightsavers’ strategies

Sightsavers has five thematic strategies that all refer to stigma as a significant barrier to disability inclusion, access to services and human rights.

Within its social inclusion strategy, Sightsavers commits to reducing stigma and discrimination that inhibits people with disabilities from participating in public life, being involved in employment, governance and politics, and accessing and choosing health services.

Stigma reduction and social behaviour change

Reducing stigma is about changing people’s behaviours and the disability norms that surround them, which is why this guidance is informed by social behaviour change (SBC) science and approaches.

Social behaviour change (SBC) is a systematic approach to collecting evidence about social norms and behaviours, to help make the best decisions about interventions, materials and messages that will most effectively influence these behaviours.

At Sightsavers we use inclusive SBC, which puts people with disabilities at the centre of discussions and decisions. This ensures the interventions for people with disabilities, and their community, are more acceptable, accessible and are delivered more effectively.

This guidance uses a systematic, evidence-based approach to understand stigma, then suggests ways to co-design activities and materials that help to reduce stigma in a given context. Using behavioural and social science provides focus and rigour to our understanding of stigma, and can help to guide the strongest decisions on how to reduce it.

Busting myths about behaviour change

Think of a time when you’ve wanted to change your own behaviour: maybe you wanted to do more exercise, for example. Consider these statements and decide whether you think they are true or false, and use the arrows to reveal the answers.

If a person knows what they should do, they will do it.

Answer: False

Knowledge is insufficient on its own to change behaviour. Telling people what they should do doesn’t work in the long term.

Just because a person wants to adopt a behaviour does not mean they can or will.

Answer: True

There may be factors in the environment, such as community, family or friends, that affect people’s ability to change their behaviour.

If a person fears a consequence, it means they will take action to prevent it.

Answer: False

There may be factors in the environment, such as family or poverty, that affect a person’s ability to change.

Many actions people take are not done for the reasons we promote.

Answer: True

A person’s level of motivation or aspirations, or the social norms that surround them, also play a role in our decision-making.

Summary

We often place emphasis on increasing knowledge in projects, but we also know that knowledge is insufficient for changing behaviour. It’s crucial for us to understand societal expectations that drive behaviour (such as fear of ‘catching’ a disability) and environmental factors (such as poverty). This understanding enables us to develop combined approaches to change behaviour around stigma.

In this guidance, we adopt a socio-ecological model. This means we look at the different levels of society – individual, family, community, society, services and systems – and the interactions between them. We then select from a wide range of approaches to influence knowledge, attitudes, social norms and behaviours at these levels.

For more information about social behaviour change, see the additional resources at the end of this section.