What happens when storytelling moves beyond awareness and actually changes behaviour?

For 15 years, Shuga has helped young people navigate conversations around sex, HIV, gender-based violence, stigma, shame and choice through stories designed to entertain first, and educate without preaching.

But its impact is not only cultural.

A World Bank evaluation of Shuga found that young people exposed to the programme were more likely to test for HIV, less likely to contract chlamydia and reported reductions in gender-based violence. A subsequent cost-benefit analysis estimated that every $1 invested could generate as much as $150 in benefits.

In this episode of Sex, Soap & Alcohol, Professor Myriam Sidibé speaks with Wame Jallow, Executive Director of Shuga Global, and Victor Orozco, Senior Economist at the World Bank, about what Shuga can teach us about trust, behaviour change and the value of storytelling.

Together, they explore why seeing yourself in a story can influence behaviour, why health services and commodities still need demand generation, why storytelling remains vulnerable when development budgets are cut, and what new partnerships between governments, donors, researchers, media and the private sector could make possible.

At the centre of the conversation is a bigger question:

If a story can earn enough trust to change what people do, why are we still treating storytelling as the soft option?

In this episode

• How Shuga became a trusted youth brand
• Why character identification and immersion matter
• What randomized controlled trials can tell us about entertainment and behaviour change
• How the estimated $150 return for every $1 invested was calculated
• Why awareness is not enough without action
• Why services and commodities still depend on trust and demand
• What funding cuts mean for social and behaviour change
• How public, philanthropic and private-sector partners could finance this work differently
• Why authentic storytelling requires creative risk
• Why sometimes you have to let the writers have their “sex and rock and roll”

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