Innovation Projects run by UN Entities

An RCT in Armenia, implemented by UNDP's SDG Innovation Lab, tested the impact of low-cost interventions of letters and reminders on the uptake of a national cervical cancer screening programme. Overall, 20,800 letters and 13,000 reminders were sent to a population of 36,508 women. The letters increased participation in the programme by about 350 percent compared to the control group. Letters were especially effective when reinforced by reminders, increasing participation by about 460 percent compared to the control group that received no letters.

An intervention in Pakistan replaced the mobile phone dial tone you hear when calling someone with a recorded behaviourally-informed health message on COVID-19, which appealed among other factors to people’s sense of responsibility towards their loved ones. Over 113 million people heard the message, making it the most effective communication medium adopted by the Government. Coronavirus Attitude Tracker Surveys indicate that the messages positively impacted knowledge, perceptions and most important behaviours related to COVID – for instance, people reported being 43 percent more likely to wear masks.

This intervention sought to improve waste collection at the Gorkhi-Terelj National Park in Mongolia. The project activities consisted of 3 phases: (1) conducting a baseline study of the target area, which included a detailed analysis of the waste generation rate and gave insight into the waste disposal behaviour of visitors; (2) designing the behavioural interventions with a detailed trial methodology targeting the visitors; (3) implementing the behavioural interventions and developing policy recommendations informed by behavioural insights. The project distributed bags and installed waste containers that were printed with messages informed by behavioural science. Waste collection increased by 86 percent.

In Ecuador, UNDP worked on BeSci experiments on waste management with a local recycling initiative. The ReciApp was used to connect citizens to their local waste picker to facilitate direct delivery of recyclable materials, without intermediaries. Personalised messages were sent to app users to test the effect of different cognitive biases such as loss aversion, social pressure, and environmental vs. social incentives to recycle. The tests achieved a 700 percent increase in the number of reported material delivered to waste pickers.

UNEP’s first publication focusing on the application of BeSci, is a quick guide to reducing the environmental impact of university campuses through behavioural change. The publication contains 40 ready-made suggested nudges and summarises the evidence around what nudges work best while seeking to encourage more sustainable practices among students and staff across several behavioural categories (incl. reducing waste, promoting green transport, encouraging recycling and sustainable food choices). The book provides simple guidance on how to implement and evaluate behavioural interventions, centred around techniques such as resetting default options, changing the framing of choices, and harnessing social influence.

The Wild for Life Campaign aims to motivate citizens worldwide to support an end to the illegal wildlife trade. Leveraging BeSci principles such as social proof, normative feedback and precommitment, the campaign seeks to encourage individual pledges to advocate against the illegal wildlife trade and to make consumption choices that do not threaten species (e.g. not buying products made from protected wildlife, supporting companies that demonstrate sustainable supply chains). The campaign is supported by an influencer-driven, social-first strategy, seeking to leverage UNEP’s online strengths and network of celebrity champions, who have helped Wild for Life reach over a billion people and engage at least ten million as measured through likes, shares and follows.

This campaign aims to reduce single-use plastics and phase out avoidable plastics, such as microbeads, within a five-year period. It works with governments to support urgent action, with the private sector to transform their business practices, and with citizens to call for action on this issue. The campaign seeks to galvanise action on marine litter and associated issues through demonstrating social proof of momentum for change through public commitments and demonstrations of action from individuals, government and the private sector. Individuals are encouraged to publicly commit to changing their plastic use behaviour in an effort to shift social norms.

Rich Baby, Healthy Family uses both a smart phone-based app and a physical device in the form of a coin to promote saving. Users will be enrolled on the Rich Baby, Healthy Family scheme when they visit a registered health facility for antenatal care or they can register through the Mobile Money platform. As users add money to their account they can watch their savings “grow” through an animation in the form of a pregnant woman’s belly. For users that do not own a smartphone, they will make a mark on their coin punch card to track their progress each time they make a deposit to their mobile money savings account. The users will also receive regular reminders to save so that they can reach their goal. Once the goal is reached, money will be transferred from their savings account to the health facility to cover the costs of receiving maternal healthcare.

UNHCR’s Innovation Service is testing a new communications framework to understand and shift behaviours within the organisation and to better align with innovation competencies. This framework is helping UNHCR move beyond thinking about innovation from the Innovation Service’s point of view and to dig into some of the beliefs and behaviours the organisation desires to change. UNHCR focused on using social, behavioural, and cognitive science to gain insight to: - Ensure work aligns with the science behind how people form beliefs and adopt new behaviours; - Build support for innovation within the organisation; - More quickly transmit promising practices and “bright spots” to those who will benefit the most from them; and - Embed skills and qualities associated with innovation throughout UNHCR and the humanitarian sector.

UNHCR is piloting anticipatory governance in policy making for the development of a new National Migration Policy. By developing capabilities and mechanisms within government and civil society, the aim is to transition to more forward looking planning and policy making. This includes changing worldviews and norms on planning for the future of the UN, government and work at the operational level. The approach focuses on how human (in) action influences different possible futures and what needs to be done to reach a desired future.

After running an initial orientation and learning session with UNICEF's polio staff, a BeSci webinar was delivered worldwide. Building on this, UNICEF is now scoping two studies. The first tests which messengers are most effective at encouraging positive engagement on social media in support of polio eradication. The second uses BeSci to support and encourage frontline polio workers' engagement with the community.

The E4J initiative leverages an understanding of behavioural science in seeking to prevent crime and promote a culture of lawfulness through education activities. Behavioural interventions are at the core of the initiative as children and youth are empowered to facilitate change and to stand up when seeing crime, including corruption. This initiative includes for example discussion of behaviour change at the individual level and explores “rationalisation” of unethical behaviour and dishonesty to limit bad behaviour. 93 academics in 50 countries have used these resources to teach approximately 15,000 students and support behavioural change by showcasing how individual actions can make a difference. E4J has also contributed to a behavioural change and impact study to assess how learning about ethics and integrity in the classroom has contributed to behavioural change in students.

This sport-based life skills training aims to prevent violence and crime among youth. Each session of the curriculum, which combines sports activities with a guided discussion, aims to strengthen specific cognitive, social and emotional skills, increase understanding of risks related to violence and crime, and address harmful normative stereotypes to increase pro-social behaviour. An external assessment of the programme concluded that in the short and medium term youth had strengthened key life skills, improved some attitudes towards crime, violence and drug use. While long-term behavioural change was challenging to measure so far, additional impact assessments are currently ongoing.

The Network, which aims to strengthen judicial integrity and prevent corruption, uses methods aimed at connecting judges, exposing existing and emerging challenges, and fostering a sense of belonging to be part of a global movement. The key example of the Network providing behavioural support is its practical package of the Judicial Ethics Training Tools, which sensitises judges to the wide spectrum of situations that may arise and aims to improve the behaviour of judges in the future, including through education on cognitive biases. To date, judges in over 60 jurisdictions have committed to using the initiative’s Judicial Ethics Training tools, with more than 6,800 members of judiciaries involved.

In December 2019, UNOCT established the International Hub on Behavioural Insights to Counter Terrorism as a UNOCT Programme Office in Doha, the State of Qatar. The Doha Hub was formally launched in December 2020 and will become fully operational in 2021. The Hub will perform three core functions: - Conduct and advance research in BeSci to better understand the drivers and factors contributing to radicalisation leading to violent extremism and terrorism; - Provide capacity-building assistance to Member States, regional organisations and civil society partners to develop and implement programmes, projects and initiatives that integrate behavioural insights to counter terrorism; and - Promote communication, outreach and partnerships to share knowledge, expertise, experiences and lessons learned on behaviourally informed counter-terrorism interventions. The Hub will leverage the expertise of local, regional and international counter-terrorism actors, and coordinate with the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact entities operating in the field for impactful and ‘all-of-UN’ programme delivery.

In Haiti, low rates of prenatal and postnatal care, and institutional births, are contributing factors to high maternal and neonatal mortality rates. In an effort to provide actionable ideas to reduce mortality rates, eMBeD sought to identify structural and behavioural barriers preventing women from attending prenatal care visits, and from delivering at a health institution. The next phase of the project will encourage pregnant women to be screened and monitored with behaviourally informed pregnancy risk messages.