The 1st Africa Social & Behaviour Change Conference

Disruptive Social Behaviour Change strategies for the future of Africa

Nairobi, Kenya, February 19–21 2019, PS Kenya hosted the first Africa Social and Behaviour Change Conference. The high-level meeting acclaimed as a successful convergence of like-minded stakeholders brought together over 600 delegates, 31 speakers, and 146 oral presentations with representation from 25 countries across the globe to share experiences and best practices within their areas of expertise as well as learn from each other.

A section of delegates follow proceedings at the official opening of ASBC 2019

PS Kenya’s vision became a reality at the ASBC Conference, which converged a diverse audience and expert panels with lively contributions on how to bring people working on the African continent together, to look inwards, reflect on African uniqueness, and see how development can be further catalyzed in Africa through Social Behaviour Change.

A session by PSI Somaliland and Somalia showcasing their Community Demand Creation work for health products and services.

A key take out from the conference was that Africa needs to tell its own story, in its own way.

Radio Africa CEO, Patrick Quarcoo: “Stories are critical to moving the needle in social change. Every story has within it the power to create change. Stories change people. We can model behavior with stories of impact. “

Several sectors were represented at the conference including financial institutions, mobile technology, education, agriculture, academia, civil society, development partners and government, underscoring the need to have a multisectoral approach to development through Public Private Partnerships.

Delegates interact with a mobile telephone application at one of the exhibition stands at the conference. Several sectors were represented at the conference including mobile technology.

There was an emphasis on building on a multi-sectoral approach- bringing the players including the beneficiaries, corporate sector, and governments around the table to talk about solutions for various challenges and opportunities to build on.

Speakers on a multisectoral panel discussing Universal Health Coverage share a light moment during the plenary session

There was agreement that Universal Health Coverage will bring a fairer deal to the African continent if only our countries focused less on health facility/infrastructure as a major hurdle, and put more emphasis on communities and factors that stop them from accessing health care.

A display of voices from the community at the PS Kenya exhibition stand. Speaker after speaker re-emphasized on the need for Social Behaviour Change community of practice to embrace a bottom up approach.

Solutions must be designed with the intended end users and not in boardrooms. Communities have solutions to issues affecting them and what they need to do to drive meaningful change. Our work is to help package these solutions and support execution to drive change at scale. This is the only way we can achieve sustainability in SBC.

Delegates brainstorm on instigating change within culturally rooted communities, at one of the breakout sessions at the conference.

Social Behaviour Change has driven exceptional change in the health sector and in many ways has been perceived as a preserve of the development sector. The challenge now is how the Social Behaviour Change community of practice can transfer skills to other sectors to help drive meaningful change across diverse issues affecting Africa

Delegates learn from one of the Poster presentations at the Conference.

Below is a summary of key take-outs from the Conference after the three days of intense and extremely interesting presentations and discussions on Disruptive Social Behaviour Change for the future of Africa:

Conference Media Coverage

PS Kenya SBC Approach