By Iyemah David
African health leaders and development partners have called for the institutionalisation and sustainable financing of Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) as a core pillar of health systems across the continent.
The call was made on Tuesday in Abuja, during the Continental SBC Costing and Financing Workshop, bringing together policymakers, technical experts and partners from across Africa.
It would be recalled that the phase two continental SBC costing and financing workshop will focus on practical, hands-on application of costing and financing approaches for SBC across five African countries.
Building on lessons from Phase One in Malawi, the workshop highlighted refining tools, strengthening country capacity, improving budget alignment, and validating the SBC costing framework.
Using participatory methods like group work and technical sessions, the workshop aims to help countries produce draft costing outputs, improve financing pathways, and agree on implementation steps.
Dr Folake Olayinka, Director of Immunisation at Africa CDC, said SBC remained central to improving health service uptake and building community trust.
“Social behaviour change is at the heart of health uptake and the confidence communities have in using health services.
“It must no longer be treated as a secondary issue but as a core health system function,” she said.
Olayinka said that countries must move beyond ad-hoc communication during crises and instead embed SBC into routine health planning, backed by proper costing and financing.
She said that Africa is putting the right pillars in place, planning, costing and execution, to achieve better health outcomes.
Also speaking, Prof.Aliko Ahmed, Special Regional Representative for West Africa, Africa CDC highlighted the importance of community trust, especially amid ongoing disease outbreaks in parts of Africa, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda
“There is no success in any health system if communities do not trust and utilise available services,” he said.
Ahmed outlined three priority areas for Africa CDC support, capacity building, co-creation of frameworks with member states, and sustained advocacy to ensure SBC is fully funded and integrated into national systems.
On implementation, Mr Kshitij Joshi, Chief of Social and Behaviour Change at the UNICEF, Nigeria Country Office, said lessons from the first phase of the workshop revealed gaps in understanding and financing SBC globally.
“In many cases, SBC is reduced to communication materials, whereas it is a system-strengthening approach that delivers sustainable results,” Joshi said.
He noted that the workshop promotes collaboration between SBC practitioners, health economists and finance experts to improve evidence-based budgeting and ensure SBC is embedded in national development frameworks.
From the national perspective, Dr John Urakpa, Director of Health Promotion at the Coordinating Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, said Nigeria would leverage the workshop to address coordination challenges and strengthen its health promotion system.
According to Urakpa, fragmented advocacy and uncoordinated messaging across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have limited the effectiveness of SBC interventions.
“We are working towards an integrated national health promotion communication framework to harmonise efforts and improve coordination,”. .
He added that outcomes from the workshop would be cascaded to sub-national levels to support states in advocating for and securing funding for health promotion activities.
Providing an overview of the workshop, Dr Priscilla Madzinga-Kusena, Head of Social and Behaviour Change at Legacy, said the initiative builds on outcomes from its first phase held in Malawi.
Madzinga-Kusena explained that phase one produced key tools, including a standardised SBC package, costing and financing tools, a scorecard for institutional assessment, and a taxonomy for budget coding.
“Phase two is focused on application—countries are using these tools to cost their SBC activities, assess their systems and define financial pathways,” she said.
She said the workshop is expected to deliver three key outcomes: improved country-level costing of SBC interventions, harmonised use of the SBC scorecard, and validation of a continental framework for SBC financing.
Participants at the workshop stressed that sustainable health outcomes in Africa would depend on moving from reactive communication during crises to proactive, well-funded and system-driven behaviour change strategies.
They expressed optimism that the initiative would strengthen Africa’s health security and sovereignty by ensuring that community engagement, trust and behaviour change are fully integrated into health systems.
Meanwhile, the workshop will consolidate lessons learned from Phase 1 and strengthen country capacity in SBC costing.
It will produce draft costing outputs for the five participating countries, while also refining financing pathways and budget guidance.
In addition, the workshop will validate the SBC costing and financing framework and establish a clear roadmap for follow-up actions and implementation.
