Behavior Change

Tools and Approaches

BEHAVE Framework for Program Planning

The BEHAVE Framework is a strategic planning tool for managers of programs that have major behavior change components. It includes various tools to assist managers in reaching key program decisions, to decide what data are needed at each step, and to focus on the audience's point of view. BEHAVE integrates principles of behavioral science and social marketing to help managers address four core questions:

• Who is my primary audience?
• What action do I want them to take?
• Which factors ( psycho-social, structural, or other) make the most difference in their choice to act?
• What tactics would most effectively address those factors?

Planners are encouraged to use research data to help answer these four questions.

A common pitfall for planners is to leap directly from selecting a target audience to designing program tactics. Many activities do not change behaviors because the key factors associated with a new practice have not been analyzed. AED designed the BEHAVE Framework as a way for helping local counterparts to focus on behavioral issues. Initially, AED staff used BEHAVE to train community-based organizations in planning prevention strategies for HIV.

The framework is available in English and Spanish. The framework was first tested in the United States and then modified and pilot-tested in an MCH program in Bolivia. AED has used the BEHAVE Framework with many NGOs in Central America, the Dominican Republic and Bolivia; with community-based HIV prevention organizations in the USA; and with a number of U.S. state health departments.

>> Download BEHAVE Framework (English)

>> Download BEHAVE Framework (Spanish)