- Playbook
Who knows whom, who do people trust, and why it matters: A playbook for mapping community networks
Jaesica Chandan, Cynthia Mbabazi, and Brenda Ogutu
- August 18, 2026
- 12:22 pm
SECTOR
PROJECT TYPE
Location
BEHAVIORAL THEME
OVERVIEW
This Busara playbook provides a practical, step-by-step guide for using social network mapping to understand how information, trust, and influence move through communities. Designed for civil society organizations (CSOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), and development practitioners, it demonstrates how participatory mapping can uncover informal leaders, trusted messengers, excluded groups, and communication pathways to design more effective and inclusive interventions.This Busara playbook provides a practical, step-by-step guide for using social network mapping to understand how information, trust, and influence move through communities. Designed for civil society organizations (CSOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), and development practitioners, it demonstrates how participatory mapping can uncover informal leaders, trusted messengers, excluded groups, and communication pathways to design more effective and inclusive interventions.
Research Questions
- How can practitioners identify trusted individuals and informal influencers within a community?
- How does information travel through community networks, and who is left out of these information flows?
- How can social network mapping improve the design, implementation, and evaluation of community-based interventions?
- How can practitioners use network insights to strengthen participation, communication, and collaboration?
Methods
The playbook presents a participatory six-step social network mapping methodology that guides practitioners through defining the scope of the exercise, identifying actors, mapping relationships, validating network patterns, and translating findings into action. It combines facilitated community discussions, visual mapping techniques, reflection exercises, and practical templates that can be applied before, during, or after programme implementation.
THEMATIC AREAS
Key Findings
- Community decisions are strongly influenced by informal networks of trust rather than formal communication channels alone.
- Social network mapping helps identify trusted community members, influential connectors, isolated individuals, and potential information bottlenecks.
- Participatory mapping improves programme design by revealing how information, resources, and support actually flow within communities.
- The approach helps practitioners identify marginalized groups that may otherwise be excluded from interventions.
- Repeating the mapping exercise over time enables organizations to monitor changes in relationships, trust, participation, and collaboration.
Implications for Policy or Development
- Development programmes should incorporate social network mapping during programme design to better understand local information ecosystems.
- Communication strategies should leverage trusted community actors rather than relying solely on formal dissemination channels.
- Participatory mapping can strengthen community engagement, improve inclusion, and increase the effectiveness of behaviour change interventions.
- Governments, CSOs, and development organizations can use social network mapping to identify underserved populations, strengthen collaboration, and design interventions that reflect community realities.