The C in SBCC: Contradictions

Over the years, the SBCC community has curated several novel approaches to understanding people’s behaviours and creative ways to influence them. Communications in the SBCC terminology holds special importance and we have witnessed several success stories of effective use of posters, media, edutainment and the likes to drive impact, be it in the space of global health, education, governance or influencing gender norms. That said, the SBCC world sometimes exposes us to some contradictions: we push for a participatory approach without relinquishing control of our ideas; we talk about the power of youth but also attach skepticism to it given the multiple, often conflicting, identities that youth embodies; we talk about localised approaches and external validity in the same breath. These are just a few of the contradictions we face as part of our work, and there are many more. Through a fun ‘pecha-kucha’ style warm up exercise to hear thoughts on some of these contradictions, this session will be a world-cafe style, free flowing discussion. Participants will walk around the room to debate and contribute to a facilitated discussion around the top five themes of contradictions identified by the participants. We see this session as a way to spark conversation, as a starting point that would feed into the dialogue of shaping up the future of SBCC.