International SBCC Summit 2022: Meeting Report

"We give full measure of the strategic and capital importance of communication in social and behavior change in order to improve the living conditions of individuals and communities around the world." - Khalid Ait Talib, Morocco's Minister of Health and Social Protection

The 2022 International Social and Behavior Change Communication Summit, held in Marrakech, Morocco, from December 5-9 2022, drew 1,800 practitioners, researchers, students, and donors from 129 countries to catch up on the latest developments in social and behaviour change communication (SBCC), to forge and fortify relationships, and to be inspired by the field. This report provides key details about and highlights from the gathering. Among the recommendations it shares: Reframe communication as a right to ensure that equity is at the heart of SBCC.

The SBCC Summit was hosted by a consortium of international and local partners including the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the American University of Beirut Center for Public Health Practice, PRICELESS SA, Quilt.AI, Breakthrough India, Puntos de Encuentro, and IYAFP - with thanks to ThinkPlace, Save the Children, and local Summit event organiser Real Travel Services. It is the third International SBCC Summit; the first was held in 2016 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the second was held in 2018 in Nusa Dua, Indonesia. See Related Summaries, below, for access to the reports from those meetings.

The 2022 Summit was influenced by consultations and conversations that occurred regionally in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East, bringing in diverse perspectives, ideas, and voices. The virtual regional events were organised, in part, as a chance to discuss how the pandemic has changed the way we work. Topics included but were not limited to: combatting disinformation; water and sanitation; climate change; new technology; community mobilisation; community radio; engaging faith leaders; social norms; and menstruation. [Watch the recordings here.]

The Summit itself featured 202 oral sessions, 171 posters, 94 pre-formed panels, 42 multimedia showcases, 38 booths, 36 comm talks, 22 skills-building workshops, and 9 Blue Sky sessions. They focused on the following themes:

• Catalysing transformational change on agendas of urgency, including the climate crisis and global heating, gender equity, disparities in health and wealth, global inequality, and humanitarian action. These and other topics were addressed through three lenses:
  1. Expanding the boundaries of SBCC through multisectoral engagement and a focus on structural determinants;
  2. Harnessing SBCC for social justice; and
  3. Nurturing new voices for change and social movements.
• Future forward, considering that informed and engaged participation in social and behaviour change (SBC), and public discourse more broadly, is especially relevant to the field. This theme explored three topics:
  1. How digital media is transforming SBCC - both positively and negatively - and the implications for the field.
  2. Issues around misinformation and disinformation, with the aim of identifying effective response strategies, including technology-driven solutions.
  3. The future of the field.
• Connecting the dots, in light of the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has connected us in ways we have rarely, if ever, seen before. This theme explored connections in two distinct areas, with a focus on strengthening processes and support within the field:
  1. Connecting for collective action - through co-design and co-creation - across different sectors, disciplines, and stakeholder groups and generations; and
  2. Connecting the SBCC community to increase collaboration, share skills and resources, and build capacity.

Summit sessions were recorded in English, Arabic, French, and Spanish (technical difficulties prevented an English recording on December 5.) Below, you will find the video of the English version of the Summit's opening ceremony; click here to access all the recordings.

Other highlights include sessions led by the Youth Champions of the SBCC Summit - rising stars in the field of SBCC - including the youth café, two days of intergenerational sessions ("spark discussions"), a selfie booth, and a youth advice booth, where anyone could network, share best practices, and learn from young people in the field.

The following 8 insights were drawn from the hundreds of contributions received by the Summit Insights Team:

1. We need to break paralysis around climate behaviours at every level: We should use the strength of SBCC by shifting norms and defaults to climate-positive behaviours, advocating for governments to take positive climate actions, and integrating climate into SBCC programmes, now.
2. It's our duty to systematically infuse community voices into programme design, implementation, and evaluation: We collect the lived experiences of community members in our formative research, but we don't always include what we gathered in our evidence-based programmes. Those experiencing the change should define success and how data are collected and utilised to inform programming. Empathy and co-design are no longer optional principles in SBC programmes.
3. The language we use can drive accountability and inclusion and can shift power dynamics: Words have the power to connect and catalyse, divide, and regress, include or exclude; for example, jargon may exclude and disenfranchise key stakeholders. It is imperative that we "include the voices and use language that helps all participate in the dialogue."
4. Reframing communication as a right puts equity at the heart of SBCC: Communication is not just a tool to make change happen. When people can openly express themselves, be heard, and be understood, they become the principal architects of their futures.
5. Digital approaches require respectful, ethical engagement: Given the tension between the speed at which digital technology is evolving and our ability to ethically, safely, equitably, and systematically ensure protection of people and data, we need to: protect data, particularly when working with communities that are at greatest risk of harm when their privacy is violated; become active fact-checkers; continue to experiment with software and artificial intelligence (AI); and ensure free expression.
6. Embrace failure: We should strive to create an SBCC community that feels safe enough for us to honestly share our programmes' failures and generous enough to receive them as a gift. Competition, lack of coordination, and duplication across SBCC sectors and countries limit our potential.
7. Creating spaces to expose distress - including our own - can be valuable: Poverty, sexism, disease, violence, and mental health have a compounding effect on key audiences and those who work to address those challenges. Opportunities to process and address mental health should be integrated into SBCC programmes.
8. Storytelling helps create meaning and connection and brings data to life: Many participants spoke about the power of storytelling to motivate behaviour change and connect people to an issue. We need to do a better job of sharing and elevating these stories.