New Year, Same Mission

Welcome to issue #51?of Changing Stories -?MAGENTA's monthly round-up of all that is interesting, inspiring and innovative from the world of Social and Behavioural Change?(SBC).

Read, think, share, and enjoy!

2024 at MAGENTA

2024 was another impactful and transformative year for us at MAGENTA, expanding our global reach and developing exciting new strategies for improving the lives of individuals and communities across the world. We’ve had the privilege of working alongside forward-thinking clients to design solutions that have not only influenced individual actions but also reshaped collective norms. In this year’s review, we’ll share some of our flagship successes and insights that will continue to inform our approach in the years to come.

Middle East and North Africa

2024 saw our portfolio of projects in MENA region grow, whilst continuing to work on existing projects?such as USAID's 5-year Water Efficiency and Conservation?Activity (WEC) in Jordan and USAID's 5-year Civil Society Strengthening project in Tunisia.?

One of our flagship successes this year was our project in Oman with Tetra Tech and Oman's Social Protection Fund (SPF). After?integrating?SBC approaches into this project and strengthening?the capacity of SPF staff, the project culminated in a 'graduation' for SBC trainees, and the?International Social Security Association’s (ISSA) prestigious Good Practice Award for Asia and the Pacific for the SPF!

Latin America and the Caribbean

2024 was the year of expansion for our LAC team, with new projects in Ecuador, Venezuela, and El Salvador, tackling a variety of issues such as gender-based violence, school nutrition, and child recruitment by?organised crime groups.

Our flagship project in the LAC region, countering?technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) with the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, reached new heights this year. Working with grassroots organisations - Asamblea Vecinal Nos Queremos Vivas Neza, Organización Feminista Lilas, and Hamable?- in Oaxaca and Estado de Mexico, we involved nearly 150 members of the community in mural painting,?detailing the harm that nonconsensual image sharing?can have. The project has also been expanded into Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and other Mexican states, an exciting expansion that our team are excited to work on!?

Read more about our research findings from this project here!

Africa

From Madagascar to Mali, our Africa team delivered over 10?projects across the continent in 2024.?Our work in Africa is diverse and constantly expanding, with our first project in Ethiopia this year and a new project in Burundi coming in 2025.

We landed in C?te d'Ivoire?to deliver the first co-creation workshop for our?flagship First Food Initiative?project with UNICEF WCARO, a key initiative aimed at improving food diversity for young children aged 6 to 23 months. We worked with local stakeholders to generate creative ideas for promoting foods that are not widely consumed by young children in the country.?

However, this was just the beginning of this work, with more workshops taking place next year across Central and West Africa.

Read more about our work in C?te d'Ivoire here!

New Year, Same Mission

As an impact-led organisation, we're always looking forward and want to share what's in store for MAGENTA in 2025.

2025 is shaping up to be MAGENTA's biggest year to date, with exciting new projects to implement, new technologies and approaches to explore, and expanding our quality work from previous years to exciting new places.

Just later this month we are travelling to Poland to kick off a new project working with Ukrainian refugees in Poland, and our Africa team is continuing their tour of Central and East Africa with workshops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritania, and Senegal.

2025 is a year for doubling down on our localisation agenda, making sure we are constantly?advancing our localisation efforts and continuing to shift power to local communities and strengthen local capacities, being solution agnostic and encouraging sustainable development.

As in every year since MAGENTA was founded, our mission in 2025 remains working towards a world where people are empowered and make choices for a safe, healthy, and prosperous life. Thank you for joining us in 2025, it's going to be an exciting year!

MAGENTA Impact Corner

In December, Mustafa Lami of our MENA team was invited to speak and take part in the MA'AN Learning Summit 2024 in Erbil, Iraq, hosted by Chemonics and funded by USAID.

Mustafa participated in a panel discussion about SBC and it's role in delivering services for communites and people across Iraq. Over the past 8 years, we've implemented many projects across Iraq and the wider Middle East region, focusing on issues such as gender-based violence, family planning, and good governance.?

In 2024, MAGENTA participated in 9?conferences, summits, and events across the globe, and we look forward to continuing to share our work as we head into 2025.

MAGENTA Resource Box

Each month we bring you inspiring, innovative, and practical resources from the world of SBC that you can apply to your own work, practice, or research.?

Why don't you just behave?

Don't worry, we're not telling you what to do,?that's the title of UNICEF's new publication,?the fantastic Change Magazine,?that offers new insights and projects in SBC.

If you're looking for examples of how SBC can be a successful intervention in a community, then look no further - the brilliantly presented case studies show how SBC has been working for social good across the globe over the past few years, especially in communities in Africa and the Middle East, two regions in which MAGENTA works extensively.

Read the article here!

MAGENTA Academy

Enrol in MAGENTA Academy

Are you and your team?interested in learning more about SBC and how to apply its principles to your projects? The MAGENTA Academy is our training and capacity-building institute where we up-skill our partners on SBC theory and practice.?Download our brochure?to learn more.?

Take a look at what people are saying:?

I am leaving the SBC in a Day course feeling thankful, and illuminated but mostly with a lot of knowledge! ?- SBC in a Day participant, Mexico

This is the first time l've been part of a comprehensive SBC training. Great that it goes through the building blocks, the theoretical concepts but also clear practical exercises that help to clarify and apply this to the real world. - UNICEF Asia Pacific Region?

SBC fun fact of the month!

SBC campaigns have even managed to get people to stop?saving?their grocery store coupons for 'a rainy day'—and start using them before they expire! In one study, targeted messages convinced consumers to redeem coupons immediately, proving that sometimes a little nudge can save both money and?mood!