Social & Behavior Change
As a psychologist, I’ve spent six years of extensive study on human functioning and development, focusing on individual and group drivers, cognitions, stereotypes, attitudes, and behaviors. Over the past six years, I have applied this technical knowledge to developmental and humanitarian programs, primarily through my work with UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund). As part of the largest SBC institutional workforce, operating in over 190 countries, I served as an SBC officer in UNICEF Lebanon and later as an SBC specialist consultant at headquarters in New York.
Thematic Areas
What is Social and Behavior Change?
SBC is a systematic, planned and evidence-based strategic process to promote positive and measurable individual behavior and social change. It is an integral and fundamental part of development and humanitarian programming and leverages on behavioral sciences such as psychology, sociology and anthropology. In this area of work, we answer integral questions such as:
How do we change gender norms in a society?
How do we safeguard youth from risky behaviors?
How do we create social cohesion between different groups?
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice - in practice there is”
— Yogi Berra
Top areas of interest and achievements
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS THEORIES OF CHANGE AND STRATEGY DESIGN
Answering the “why” is essential to program the “how”.
I lead processes from developing conceptual frameworks, theories of changes, and strategy design.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN
&
PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES
The people best fit to identify and solve their problems are those who are living them. This encompasses everyone—vulnerable populations, refugees, children, individuals with disabilities, and more.
I facilitate processes that enable people to identify and articulate problems and solutions they want to see. This material would be the basis of strategy and intervention design.
MONITORING
I work on creating extensive monitoring frameworks as well as simple on-the-ground filed monitoring tools to measure different SBC constructs.
SBC TOOLS
I develop and roll-out different behaviorally-informed SBC tools.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Having been an on-the-field SBC practitioner, I’ve led the program management cycle all the way from fundraising for funds, selecting partners, providing capacity building for these partners, implementing and monitoring the partners, and reporting back to donors.
CAPACITY BUILDING AND TRAINING
The trainings and courses I give include but are not limited to:
Trainings:
Social and Behavior Change
Community Engagement
Learning Through Play
Social and Behavior Change for Disability Inclusion
Education-Entertainment for Social and Behavior Change
University CoursesFoundations of Psychology
Adolescent Development