Our thinking

Communicating for change

9 December, 2022

It has been a big week for Morocco. They beat Spain in a nail-biting penalty shootout in the World Cup. And importantly for us, they hosted the International Social and Behaviour Change Communications (SBCC) Summit (admittedly less well celebrated).   

SBCC is the strategic use of communication to inspire social and behaviour change to improve lives- from increasing use of modern contraceptive methods to fostering gender equality, to addressing the climate crisis.

Good Business was invited to present our programme; an empowerment campaign for adolescent girls in sub-Saharan Africa, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This formed part of a session on ‘Harnessing the Power of Youth for Impact’, something we believe passionately in and have plenty of learnings to share from a decade running a youth-led campaign.

The Summit brought together hundreds of delegates from around the world for a diverse community of changemakers; from Ministers, tech innovators to grassroots organisations and everything in between. Some highlights from the packed agenda included how to make the most environmentally friendly options the easiest choice for people, how to empower community-driven solutions for social and climate activism, and how to spark intergenerational conversations on sexual health.

As Jane Brown from the John Hopkins Centre asserted in the opening plenary, “it will be next to impossible to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.… without wide-scale behaviour change, the adoption of new social norms and structural shifts in policy and implementation.”

SBCC will be essential to this goal. We’ve come away from the Summit feeling invigorated by the inspiring people collaborating across disciplines to make change happen. So, if your business wants to use communications as a tool for transformational change, then why don’t you drop us a line.

By Alice Railton