Making social change happen: What inspires collective action for health and gender equality?

Whether to address violence against women, prevent newborns from dying, or hold clinic staff to account for low performance, research shows interventions engaging local people in developing countries in collective action for the common good can have enormous impact. However, results have varied widely. Sometimes, whole communities have rallied in protest and solidarity. At other times, interventions have been abandoned because nobody turned up. We cannot currently predict or explain what happens, because we do not have enough evidence. I aim to find out what inspires people to participate in collective action for their health. Taking as an example a community-based programme to mobilise residents to take action against violence against women in urban slums in Mumbai, India, I will test hypotheses informed by social science using qualitative, survey and experimental methods. My findings will help governments, NGOs and researchers design better programmes to improve people's health through community participation.