WHO’s New Behavioural Sciences Course Brings Human Behaviour Into Public Health Focus

Human behaviour plays a central role in challenges ranging from vaccine uptake and antimicrobial resistance to physical activity, maternal and child health, and climate-related health risks.

A health programme can offer strong scientific evidence and clear advice, but its success depends on what people are able and willing to do in their everyday lives. The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched Behavioural Sciences for Better Health: An Interactive Course for Public Health Practitioners to help people working in public health understand those decisions and build programmes that respond to the circumstances shaping them. Available through the WHO Academy, the self-paced online course offers practical knowledge and skills for identifying what influences health-related behaviours and using that understanding to develop more effective interventions, programmes and policies.

Understanding the people behind public health decisions

Human behaviour plays a central role in challenges ranging from vaccine uptake and antimicrobial resistance to physical activity, maternal and child health, and climate-related health risks. Having an effective intervention available does not automatically mean people can adopt or sustain the behaviours needed to benefit from it, particularly when their choices are shaped by pressures or barriers that a programme has not addressed. For practitioners, understanding those conditions is an essential part of turning scientific evidence into better health outcomes.

Behavioural sciences provide systematic ways to examine the psychological, cognitive, social, cultural and environmental influences behind people's actions, giving practitioners a fuller picture than health information alone can offer. Looking closely at people's lived experiences and the contexts in which they make decisions can help explain why a recommended behaviour feels manageable to one person and difficult to another. The course brings this perspective into public health practice, encouraging learners to identify barriers and enablers before deciding what support or intervention is needed.

A practical route from understanding to action

Interactive exercises, case studies and guided learning activities introduce key behavioural sciences concepts and show how behavioural insights can inform programme design, implementation and evaluation. Learners explore ways to identify behavioural challenges and use behavioural data and evidence to develop responses grounded in the factors influencing people's actions. This practical approach connects the study of behaviour with the decisions practitioners make when planning services, delivering programmes or assessing whether an intervention is working.

At the centre of the course is WHO's DDDIE framework, which stands for define, diagnose, design, implement and evaluate, and provides a structured process for generating and applying behavioural insights. Practitioners work through defining a behavioural challenge, diagnosing the influences behind it, designing an informed response, putting it into practice and evaluating the results. The framework gives learners a way to move from recognising a problem to developing and assessing interventions supported by behavioural evidence.

Five hours of learning with a wider public health purpose

The course includes nine modules and a final assessment, takes approximately five hours to complete online and requires no previous expertise in behavioural sciences. Participants who complete the assessment receive a WHO Academy award of completion. Its broad audience includes public health practitioners, ministry of health staff, WHO personnel at national, regional and global levels, United Nations partners, non-governmental organizations, humanitarian actors, programme managers and policy advisers.

The learning programme supports implementation of World Health Assembly resolution WHA76.7 on Behavioural Sciences for Better Health and forms part of WHO's wider work to strengthen capacity within public health institutions. It complements resources including Mainstreaming behavioural sciences into institutions responsible for public health: monitoring framework and indicators, the Decision support tool for establishing a behavioural insights function, and the Behavioural insights glossary for public health practitioners. Building foundational knowledge across sectors and disciplines can help practitioners make better-informed decisions about how programmes are designed and delivered, with people's everyday experiences forming a clearer part of public health action.