Social Norms and Girls’ Well-Being: Linking Theory and Practice

This report reviews the landscape around social norms theory and investigates two projects that have facilitated change around norms and practices of female genital cutting (FGC) and child marriage. Improving girls’ well-being requires not only working with girls, but also with boys, women, and men, by creating safe spaces where communities can question existing norms. Programmes are therefore most effective when they are integrated and address factors other than social norms that result in gender inequality, including the economic and legal circumstances that sustain these norms.