African health leaders and development partners have renewed calls for Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) to be entrenched as a core component of health systems across the continent.
They stated this on Tuesday in Abuja at the Continental SBC Costing and Institutionalisation Workshop, where the Africa CDC and its partners stressed that sustainable financing for behaviour-change interventions was critical to improving health outcomes.
The workshop, which brought together policymakers, technical experts, and development partners, was part of a continental effort to embed SBC as a routine and well-funded component of Africa’s health systems.
The second phase of the initiative focuses on practical costing and financing methods that will enable five African countries to integrate SBC into national health planning. Lessons from the first phase, held in Malawi, are now being transformed into actionable tools to help countries strengthen budget alignment and institutional capacity.
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The Director of Immunisation at the Africa CDC, Dr. Folake Olayinka, stressed that Africa must abandon the habit of using SBC only during epidemics.
“We need to move beyond emergency messaging. Behaviour change should be a routine, budgeted part of our health systems,” she said.
She noted that effective planning, costing and execution are now being positioned as strategic pillars for achieving better health outcomes across the continent.
Special Regional Representative for West Africa at Africa CDC, Prof. Aliko Ahmed, warned that countries cannot succeed in delivering essential health services without building community trust, a lesson reinforced by ongoing disease outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
“Communities must trust and use services. Without this, even the best health systems will fail. He outlined Africa CDC’s support to member states, including capacity building, co-creating frameworks, and advocating for sustained financing for SBC,” he said.
UNICEF’s Chief of SBC in Nigeria, Mr. Kshitij Joshi, noted that a major global challenge is the misunderstanding of SBC as mere communication products.
“SBC is not about materials. It is about building systems that influence behaviour sustainably,” he said.
He emphasised the growing collaboration between health economists, finance experts and SBC practitioners to ensure countries can cost interventions accurately and integrate them into long-term development plans.
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Director of Health Promotion, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr. John Urakpa, said the country will use insights from the workshop to fix longstanding coordination problems.
He noted that multiple ministries and agencies often run disconnected campaigns, weakening national health promotion efforts.
“We are working toward an integrated national communication framework to harmonise all SBC initiatives,” he said.
Urakpa added that states would also be supported to strengthen advocacy for dedicated SBC funding.
Head of SBC at Legacy, Dr. Priscilla Madzinga-Kusena, explained that Phase One of the project produced key tools such as standard SBC packages, costing and financing templates, and a budget coding taxonomy.
“Phase Two is where countries begin applying these tools, costing their activities, assessing their systems and identifying financial pathways,” she said.
The workshop aims to produce draft SBC costing outputs for participating countries, harmonise the use of the SBC scorecard, and validate a continental financing framework.
Participants agreed that Africa must build a system where communities are consistently engaged, not just during outbreaks. They stressed that resilient health systems rely on trust, behavioural insights, and long-term community partnerships.
As Africa works to reduce dependence on emergency communication, the workshop is expected to guide countries toward proactive, well-funded SBC strategies that strengthen the continent’s health security.