Summit’s Blue Sky Sessions to Focus on Emerging SBCC Areas of Interest

On the road to Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. Photo courtesy of RIchard Stupart.

The upcoming International Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) Summit plans to hold “Blue Sky” sessions each morning to pause and reflect on pressing issues in the field of SBCC. The Summit will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from Feb. 8 – 10, 2016.

The Blue Sky session will provide participants with the opportunity to discuss broad, yet critical questions in the field of SBCC. Highlights from each Blue Sky session will be presented at the Town Hall plenary session on February 10th at 4:00pm in Conference Room 1.

All are welcome to join so we can get a wide range of experience and ideas. Among the issues to be considered:

• Feb. 8: What Counts as Evidence? Donors continue to want measureable evidence of SBCC’s impact. This session will discuss what counts as evidence and how to use that evidence strategically to advocate for SBCC in public health interventions.
• Feb. 9: How Do We Describe SBCC? SBCC has been called many names over the years – from IEC to BCC to health communication. But should we agree on nomenclature and how we describe SBCC so we can “sing from the same song sheet” when advocating for using communication to save lives and improve well-being?
• Feb. 10: What Changes Can We Anticipate in SBCC? What does the future hold for those working in the health communication field? Will donors continue to support our work with individual grants or will they include it in large service delivery projects? What is the role of ICT in SBCC projects? Do we rely on the evidence-based tried and true methods or do we break away with unproven innovations?

The International SBCC Summit is hosted by the Health Communication Capacity Collaborative, the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health and the U.S. Agency for International Development. More on the Summit.

Photo courtesy of Richard Stupart, Creative Commons License 2.0