In 2010, Colombia's defense minister contacted an ad agency to create an idea to demobilize FARC members, the oldest guerrilla army in Latin America. The agency, after spending over a year talking to nearly 100 of its members, learned two main things (1). -First, guerrilla members are ordinary men and women and not only guerrillas, a fact which is often forgotten after 60 years at war. -Secondly, they are more likely to demobilize during Christmas as it is a sensitive and emotional period. Based on these insights, they had a clever idea to put a Christmas tree in strategic walking paths in the middle of the jungle that would light up when someone passed by with a message promoting demobilization. The results? Three hundred thirty-one people who demobilized named this idea as one of the reasons to do so. Over the years, several campaigns from the same agency were quite successful, and overall, they were named in over 800 demobilizations. Causality, of course, cannot be established. Nevertheless, any measurable, non-violent efforts like this one are praised. Next time you think you have a difficult-to-reach customer, maybe think again!

This group of papers on the use of mobile phones in India for social and behaviour change is the product of research and a two-day multi-stakeholder consultation in May 2013 sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), leading to the formation of the organisation Mobile Social & Behavioural Change (MSBC). The white paper and the working paper present key areas where mobiles are contributing to social and behavioural changes and the limitations, as well as the scope, for expanding the social space for mobiles. The case studies paper is based upon examples of "mobile’s power to trigger new form[s] of social identity, including cultural, political and economic identities."

Supporting USAID's “renewed emphasis on the application of research and evaluation to inform strategic thinking about development for low- and middle-income countries with a focus on “achieving the social and behavior changes needed to end preventable child deaths and improve under five development“. All 1,313 papers identified can be accessed, searched and filtered to your interests