Case Studies
India
Understanding behaviours and attitudes around unpaid caregiving in India
In coordination with UNDP's regional Transforming the Future of Work for Gender Equality Initiative, the UNDP India Accelerator Lab and Inclusive Growth Team has designed an experiment to shift the online behaviour of men and boys in select districts of Karnataka on perspectives linked to women and work, with an emphasis on the value of unpaid caregiving. The digital nudge will reach 50,000 Facebook and Instagram users with three personas in mind: those with traditional and progressive attitudes and those who are uninformed or with changing perceptions. Three types of messages will be put out: informational, entertaining, as well as messages that function as commitment devices.
Pakistan
Using ringtone messages for outreach on Covid-19 in Pakistan
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 by far the most effective communication medium adopted by the Government. Coronavirus Attitude Tracker Surveys carried out by Gallup Pakistan seem to indicate that the ringtone messages positively impacted knowledge, perceptions and behaviours related to COVID – for instance, people reported being 43% more likely to wear masks.
Kosovo
Shifting transportation behavior in Kosovo
Poor air quality threatens the health and quality of life in Pristina, Kosovo. This problem is exacerbated by an increasing reliance on cars for commuting. We worked with the United Nations Kosovo Development Programme and local government officials to understand why Pristina residents use public transit so little. We piloted a campaign that aimed at shifting commuting behavior toward more sustainable practices.
Global
Innovative operations: Applying behavioral science to planning and reporting processes
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) sought innovative ways to support its teams in planning for and executing on their mission to combat hunger and improve nutrition around the globe. New behaviorally informed work planning and reporting tools helped team members better understand and execute on their own work planning and reporting tasks.
Global
Promoting healthy food Choices in the FAO office with behavioral design
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) sought help to promote healthier food choices among their staff. Adapting the layout, presentation, and communication of food options increased the proportion of healthy foods sold in the office cafeteria by 17% after six weeks.
Rome
Improving office recycling at the FAO
Recycling is critical for resource efficiency, but many struggle to make it a habit. Complex sorting guidelines and mixed materials lead to frequent instances of sorting items wrong. We partnered with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to improve recycling rates of everyday items at FAO’s Rome headquarters. An online test of redesigned waste bin signage found a 78 percent increase in correctly sorted items in the office.
Libya
Behavioural Insights for Youth Entrepreneurship
Behavioural science can strengthen entrepreneurship development efforts by evidencing how enablers and barriers in the entrepreneurship system shape decision-making and therefore behavioural outcomes. In 2020-22, UNDP's Regional Innovation Team in the Arab States and 10 Country Offices in the region set out to explore these enablers and barriers and to experiment with behavioural solutions. UNDP Libya focused on increasing the quantity and quality of applications to business incubator programmes from rural areas.
China
Behavioural insights on Universal Basic Income in China
UNDP China piloted an intiative to generate behavioral insights about regular people and their opinions on Universal Basic Income (UBI), job security and the future of work. The intention was not to advocate for or against UBI, but to glean culturally focused foresight.The research married behavioral insights and gamification, using behavioral insight to analyze UBI, and gamification as a tool to gather behavioral insights. The team developed a simulation game to understand whether players would alter their decision-making and behaviours after receiving UBI allotments. The study found that players were more or less likely to alter their behaviour depending on factors such as their educational background, income level, working hours, and care burdens; but that overall, if UBI were implemented, people would tend to continue working and save UBI benefits, reflective of traditional Chinese culture. https://www.cn.undp.org/content/china/en/home/ourperspective/ourperspectivearticles/2019/an-economist--a-development-practitioner-and-an-innovator-walk-i.html
Egypt
Behavioural insights to combat violence against women in Egypt
30 participants from UNDP Egypt and the National Council for Women received theoretical and practical training on applying behavioural insights and designing low-cost evaluations to combat violence against women. The aim was to explore the behavioural barriers that keep women from taking advantage of services offered by the NCW, and to design solutions. Proposed pilots included placing messages on electricity bills and on public transport and addressing GBV issues as part of economic empowerment programs.
Egypt
Behaviourally informed SMS messages on Covid-19 in Egypt
UNDP Egypt designed a BI communications campaign with telecommunications operators across the country, to send out targeted SMS messages addressing several behavioural biases that would nudge citizens to practice 4 positive behaviors in particular: 1. Remaining home, 2. Practicing physical distancing, 3. Washing hands and using PPE in public, 4. Stopping the spread of fake news.
Colombia
BeSci in Colombia's 2020+ Strategy
With the arrival of the Accelerator Lab in the Colombia Country Office, a strategic agenda was designed in order for the Lab to deliver value to UNDP's 500 staff present across the country and to inform UNDP Colombia's Country Programme Document over the next 4 years. Behavioural Science was integrated into the strategy, as a way of informing internal working methods as well as the design of projects. The Lab is organising training sessions to build capabilities, and is integrating BeSci perspectives in specific projects.
Bhutan
BI experiment on household waste segregation at source in Bhutan
The National Environment Commission of Bhutan, the lead agency for the Waste Management flagship, approached UNDP to support a communications plan to help people segregate waste at source. Instead of looking at bandaid solutions, UNDP proposed an experimental approach to understand the underlying issues as to why households are not segregating waste at source. A Randomised Control Trial was conducted in one of the communities in the capital city with 600 households, under three different arms. 200 hhs were the control group, 200 in the treatment group were provided with three colored bins and information (in the form of bin stickers), while another 200 hhs were provided with three colored bins, information and feedback messages. The trial was conducted over a period of four weeks. Both treatments statistically significantly improved the proportion of correctly segregated dry waste. Households that were assigned the "bins plus information" intervention increased quality of their dry waste segregation by between 6.3 and 8.4 percentage points, compared to households that received no intervention. Households that were assigned "bins plus information plus feedback messages" increased quality of their dry waste segregation by between 7.2 and 10.7 percentage points. Based on the results, several recommendations were put forward for scaling the provision of waste bins and messaging to households.
Ecuador
Boosting recycling at neighbourhood level in Ecuador
The Accelerator Lab in Ecuador worked on a series of behavioural insights experiments on waste management with a local citizen-led recycling initiative in Quito. The initiative made us of an existing mobile app ("ReciApp") that connects citizens to their local neighborhood waste picker to facilitate direct delivery of recyclable materials, without intermediaries. Personalized messages were sent to app users to test the effect of different cognitive biases such as: loss aversion, social pressure and the environmental vs. social incentives to recycle. The tests achieved an increase in downloads of the recycling app (over 5.000 users vs 2.000 users before the experiments) as well as an increase in the number of reported recyclable material delivered to waste pickers (51 average deliveries reported in the app before the experiments vs. 450 monthly reports during the experiments = 700% increase).
Colombia
Building empathy and closing mind gaps through augmented reality and other media in Colombia
In 2019, UNDP Colombia carried out a study, under the theoretical and empirical assumption that people are left behind when there is a lack of options and opportunities to participate and benefit from development progress; and that certain segments of society suffer disadvantages or deprivations that limit their options and opportunities in relation to other citizens. With a focus on individual prejudices, the initiative used measurement tools and information analysis strategies to surface these attitudes. In general, the evidence shows that being aware of the biases behind a lack of empathy towards an external group is the first step in fostering recognition and support (Falk, 2015; Walton, 2014; Bruneau and Saxe, 2012; Paluck & Green, 2009; Galinsky et al, 2008). Therefore, the measurement accounted for various ways to capture empathy and other associated prosocial attitudes and behaviours. The findings were used in an attempt to build empathy among visitors to a multimedia and augmented reality exhibition showcasing UNDP's work in Colombia.
Morocco
Dreamlifecatcher
Dreamlifecatcher, an app created by UNDP Morocco, plays the role of a choice architect by using gamification to nudge the career-related behaviour of NEETs (those note in Employment, Education, or Training). For instance, reminders and prompts are used to encourage users to attend trainings and other opportunities relevant to their aspirations. Allowing users to "play" with multiple scenarios in their life choices is believed to enhance self-efficacy and confidence and can be a cost-effective complement to public job placement programmes.
Colombia
Evaluating local and rural justice models in Colombia
Local and rural justice models in Colombia enable the system to respond to the territories' real justice needs, thus guaranteeing adequate access to justice. UNDP Colombia has set out to evaluate the results of local and rural justice models using behavioral science approaches. The initiative will work with several target groups: communities, public officials, grassroots organizations, and justice operators who participate in training and capacity building sessions. It has four main components, and within each component, various experiments will be run to test behaviours: 1. Formal justice services: Transforming imaginary, victimizing and tolerant practices towards GBV. 2. Conflict resolution methods: Generating the capacities required for peaceful conflict resolution. 3. Restorative juvenile justice: Mending social relationships and trust damaged by crime, and inducing lasting changes in the behaviour of offenders, based on the authentic recognition of their responsibility. 4. Appropriation of justice: Appropriate justice, peace, and legality as a constant practice in the daily environment, and understand and resolve conflicts.