Social and Behavioral Change Communication

Next to food availability, accessibility and affordability, consumer food choices are largely influenced by social factors such as knowledge, culture, traditions, norms and attitudes. Food choices are often an outcome of individual experiences and context-specific. Hence, the adoption of new practices for healthier and sustainable food choices requires a change of behavior. Social and Behavioural Change Communication (SBCC) motivates behavioral change by knowledge transfer and nudging consumers to adopt healthier and more sustainable diets. Since the benefits of choosing healthy and nutritious food options are often outweighed by more convenient, short-term options, the SBCC is designed to have an emotive influence to give consumers an emotional benefit of healthy and sustainable food options. SBCC combines interpersonal (counselling, community conversations) and media approaches adapted to different contexts in order to appeal to the consumer’s intrinsic cultural values. This approach establishes improved nutrition practices and behavior in consumers, which could improve diets, food safety and food waste management. The innovation could also be developed in close collaboration with local communities where it is implemented.