Behavioural and cultural insights for health

Behavioural and cultural insights for health / WHO

Many factors that affect our health and well-being are not medical, but rather social, cultural, political, psychological or economic. Behavioural and cultural insights for health refers to knowledge derived from the social sciences and health humanities that helps us to better understand the drivers and barriers to achieving the highest attainable standard of health. These insights are often context dependent, and can be used in the design, implementation and evaluation of health policies to ensure that they are effective, acceptable and equitable.

WHO provides technical guidance and expertise to countries on best practices for leveraging behavioural and cultural insights in health policy and planning. In April 2020, WHO established the Insights Unit as a flagship initiative to coordinate and lead these efforts.

Collaborating with a broad range of partners and across sectors, this initiative seeks new approaches to complex health challenges. It is guided by 4 principles:

·         evidence: draw on evidence, test and evaluate it, and disseminate good practice;

·         context: generate socially nuanced, culturally sensitive, people-centred health insights;

·         scale: support the scale-up of interventions with proven impact; and

·         partnership: work with experts, transformers, colleagues and critics.