Leveraging Cultural Strengths for Effective Interventions: Insights from WI-HER’s Team in Tanzania
By Shana Abraham, WI-HER Communications Intern
Understanding and respecting local cultures is fundamental to implementing effective health and conservation interventions. In Tanzania, our team builds connections with hard-to-reach communities and leverages their capacity and agency to improve development outcomes through behavior change, and community engagement and mobilization while incorporating a gender equity and social inclusion (GESI) approach. This approach ensures that interventions—whether in conservation activities or neglected tropical disease (NTD) service delivery and healthcare access—resonate with the communities we serve.
While many global development programs focus on addressing harmful norms that perpetuate inequalities, WI-HER leverages positive cultural norms too, which is just as critical to success. By amplifying a community’s strengths—such as working with community influencers and leaders—we co-create solutions that are more culturally relevant and sustainable. Additionally, by engaging women, youth, and other marginalized groups in biodiversity preservation and natural resource management, we expand our impact beyond health outcomes to address other challenges like environmental sustainability as well.
Recently, our team in Tanzania—Ua Kassim, Dr. Ramadhan Ali, and Dr. Stella Kasindi Mwita—shared their experiences working in diverse cultural contexts to improve both health and conservation outcomes. Their approach to leveraging a culture and community’s strengths ensures that our work is deeply embedded in the communities we support, creating lasting change in multiple sectors.
Understanding the Power of Local Leadership and Community Structures
Ua Kassim emphasizes the transformative impact of leveraging the cultural strengths of local leadership in Maasai communities, demonstrating how the norms in a community can be harnessed to increase participation in health interventions: “Working with local leaders like the laiguanan in the Maasai community is a game-changer. When they endorse the intervention, we immediately see an increase in participation without having to invest additional resources.” This highlights the critical role local leadership plays in the acceptance and success of health interventions.
Moreover, Dr. Ramadhan Ali elaborates on the importance of understanding the challenges posed by family dynamics and how those dynamics can be leveraged in behavior change activities.
“In many communities, the decision to participate in health interventions often depends on the family structure. For example, in the Maasai community, men typically have the final say over whether women and children can receive treatment. Understanding this dynamic is crucial for designing effective interventions.” – Dr. Ramadhan Ali, WI-HER GESI Behavior Change Specialist.
To address these challenges, WI-HER’s strategy includes forming multidisciplinary community teams that involve both male and female local leaders. “These teams help educate the community on the importance of taking preventive medications, ultimately fostering a positive behavioral change,” Dr. Ali adds.
Cultural Beliefs as Barriers and Opportunities for Change
While cultural beliefs sometimes hinder health interventions, they can also be powerful assets. By shifting away from harmful practices, such as misconceptions about modern medicine, and amplifying positive cultural values—like community-driven leadership and caregiving—we create interventions that communities can embrace and sustain. Dr. Stella Kasindi Mwita discusses the barriers posed by misconceptions about modern medicine, stating, “We learn that it’s not enough to just provide general information. We need to understand what the community already knows and address specific gaps and misconceptions.”
In Pangani, a coastal district with strong cultural ties, initial resistance to health interventions stemmed from fears that modern medicines could cause infertility or other health complications. “We help them understand the link between mosquito bites and diseases like lymphatic filariasis and demonstrate how preventive medication can protect their health,” Dr. Mwita explains, demonstrating the importance of meeting a community where they are in their understanding of the issues that impact their community. “As a result, there is a gradual shift in community attitudes, with many individuals expressing regret that they had not known this information earlier.”
Recognizing Cultural Rituals and Addressing Misconceptions
At times, traditional Maasai rituals, such as consuming herbs believed to provide disease protection, may hinder the uptake of modern treatment, but these same rituals can be viewed as a strength. WI-HER focuses on showing how traditional practices can coexist with modern medicine, emphasizing that both approaches can work together to enhance health outcomes. “After these rituals, many Maasai believe they are already protected from diseases for the whole year and see no need to take modern medication,” Ua explains. To counter these misconceptions, WI-HER often integrates education about both traditional and modern medicine.
“We work to dispel myths and emphasize that the two [ritual and modern medicine] can complement each other in promoting health and preventing diseases.” Ua Kassim – WI-HER GESI Behavior Change Specialist
Navigating Religious and Spiritual Beliefs
Cultural and religious beliefs also play a significant role in the acceptance of an intervention. In coastal areas like Kiwa, many people believe that diseases such as lymphatic filariasis are a form of divine punishment. “We have to find ways to respect their spiritual beliefs while still promoting preventive health measures,” Dr. Ali highlights. This often means involving religious leaders in efforts to bridge the gap between spiritual beliefs and health practices.
Addressing Economic and Cultural Factors
Economic challenges, rather than purely cultural beliefs, can create resistance to health interventions. However, WI-HER also leverages the entrepreneurial spirit found in many communities. For neglected tropical disease behavior change activities, by framing healthcare access as a means to ensure continued productivity and long-term economic stability, we tap into the community’s drive for economic resilience.
“We realize that some resistance is due to economic reasons rather than cultural beliefs. For instance, in communities where daily survival depends on their economic activities, we have to balance our health goals with their economic needs.” – Dr. Stella Mwita, WI-HER Regional Technical Advisor for Africa,
For conservation efforts, demonstrating how women can establish income-generating businesses to build their family’s income while promoting biodiversity can also help overcome resistance to change and bolster economic empowerment.
Building Partnerships and Scaling Efforts
The success of interventions is also significantly influenced by strong partnerships with other organizations. “Partnering with organizations and local NGOs allows us to bring in diverse expertise and resources. We hold regular meetings to share insights, which help us create a more cohesive strategy,” Dr. Mwita says. These collaborations with local partners are key to developing a more effective intervention strategy and facilitate efforts to scale the model to other areas.
Expanding Beyond Borders
The success of our projects in Tanzania is just an example of how WI-HER leverages a culture’s strengths to create culturally responsive approaches. “The lessons we’ve learned here provide a strong foundation for scaling these culturally responsive approaches,” Ua shares.
WI-HER’s work in Tanzania underscores the importance of cultural sensitivity and community engagement in designing and implementing effective interventions. By acknowledging the challenges posed by harmful norms and actively leveraging cultural strengths—such as the influence of local leaders, community caregiving, and traditional practices—WI-HER co-creates culturally relevant, sustainable solutions. This approach fosters meaningful, lasting change across health, conservation, and economic outcomes, illustrating how positive cultural norms can be powerful tools for transformation if we take the time to understand and respect cultural contexts in our work.