Voices for Change (V4C) — DFID-Funded Social-Norms Campaign Against Gender-Based Violence in Nigeria

Voices for Change (V4C) was a UK Department for International Development (DFID) flagship programme (2013–2017) that worked to shift discriminatory gender norms among young women and men aged 16–25 across four Nigerian states spanning both predominantly Muslim northern states (Kaduna, Kano) and predominantly Christian southern states (Enugu, Lagos). It was delivered by Palladium with the Women's Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA) and Social Development Direct, using integrated social marketing — including a youth-oriented 'Purple' campaign brand across music, fashion and media — alongside direct engagement work, to target three normative areas: women's voice and leadership, women's role in decision-making, and violence against women and girls.
Independent evaluator Itad ran a longitudinal, population-representative panel survey alongside qualitative 'how change happens' research. The final Attitudes, Practice and Social Norms survey (2017) found that 89% of young people in the four target states — an estimated 2.4 million people — showed improved attitudes or behaviour in at least one of the three normative areas. Around 48% of young people (roughly 1.14 million) recognised the Purple campaign brand, and over 70% of those correctly associated it with gender equality; youth exposed to Purple showed larger positive shifts in gender attitudes and practices than unexposed peers, indicating a plausible programme effect rather than background social change alone.
Evidence gaps: as a non-randomised, population-level social-marketing programme, the panel-survey design cannot fully rule out other concurrent influences on attitude change, and no independent replication of V4C exists outside Nigeria. No public cost-effectiveness or continuation-after-2017 data were found.

Read the full analysis: https://itad.com/changing-gender-norms-at-scale-results-and-evidence-of-what-works-from-voices-for-change-in-nigeria/