The SBC Blueprint serves as a guide and toolkit for countries to improve health and development outcomes by strengthening the systems that support healthy behaviors and social change.
WASHINGTON — FHI 360, the African Society for Social and Behavior Change (AS-SBC), the Health Promotion Division (HPD) of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) School of Public Health have launched a Blueprint for More Sustainable Social and Behavior Change (SBC) Systems. The SBC Blueprint is a guide for governments, donors, SBC implementers, researchers and others to understand and strengthen country-level SBC systems.
SBC strategies seek to understand and address the individual, social and structural factors that drive people’s behaviors so communities can embrace healthy behaviors and positive change, which supports the achievement of broader health and development outcomes.
“Social and behavior change interventions have helped to save millions of lives globally, but challenges such as emerging diseases, conflict, poverty and inequities pose ongoing threats to health and development,” says Kara Tureski, director of social and behavior change at FHI 360. “The SBC Blueprint will help ministries of health and other SBC actors to strengthen health systems in more resilient and sustainable ways that support lasting adoption of healthy behaviors and enabling norms at scale.”
“With the SBC Blueprint, we have created a tool that will foster lasting, locally owned solutions to a wide range of systemic challenges. When country actors are driving the plan and everyone affected is involved, change endures for future generations,” says Kenneth Mulondo, general secretary at AS-SBC.
“Nearly every challenge we face today requires people to adjust their day-to-day choices. Social and behavior change is at heart about active participation in making informed, healthy choices. This Blueprint is a great resource for anyone working in public health,” says Mrs. Chinyere Nma Ogbonna, head of Nigeria’s HPD.
“Investments to date have mostly focused on individual capacity strengthening needs, instead of the systems that enable social and behavior change. To help countries and communities tackle big issues, we need to look to the systems that will support that change,” says Nicola Christofides, associate professor at the Wits School of Public Health.
To ensure the SBC Blueprint and accompanying toolkit will support sustainable, locally driven solutions to various problems using SBC, over 1,200 stakeholders including private sector actors, practitioners, researchers, donors and governments were consulted in its creation. The global dialogue included 12 online listening sessions with about 90 participants, more than 1,100 online poll respondents, dialogue discussions with more than 45 SBC practitioners and specialists, and external reviews with SBC experts.
