Costing of Norms-Shifting Interventions: A Primer from the Passages Project

This costing primer is intended to be used as a resource to assist those who implement behavior and norms-shifting interventions (NSIs) to think through decisions that need to be made when assessing the cost of these interventions.  It is organized around a process that may be used to generate a cost estimate, and provides recommendations for key approaches to meet this objective.  The information in this primer is based upon personal experience, and discussions with other organizations that have worked on costing in general, as well as the costing of NSIs specifically. While no two costing analyses are implemented in exactly the same manner, the goals are often the same: to provide insight into the magnitude and type of investment that will be required to implement, sustain, and/or expand an NSI in a particular context.  This primer discusses the decisions that must be made when developing a cost estimate for an NSI, as well as pros and cons of different alternatives for developing the cost estimate.  The final sections will explore how this cost information can be used to support other types of analyses that may be relevant beyond the cost analysis of the NSI being examined. Two case studies of costing in Passages projects, the Growing Up GREAT!  and Masculinite, Famille et Foi, are included.