Social and Behaviour Change and Advocacy Division

Systems for Trust, Demand and Community Intelligence

The Africa CDC Social and Behaviour Change and Advocacy Division works with African Union Member States to institutionalize behavioural intelligence, social and behaviour change, community engagement and advocacy as evidence-driven, financed, and accountable functions of resilient health systems.

Housed within the Immunization Directorate, the SBC and Advocacy Division provides cross-cutting continental leadership and technical support to Member States and priority Africa CDC programmes.

Our Mandate

The Division provides continental stewardship and technical leadership for Social and Behaviour Change, Health Promotion, Community Engagement, SBC in Emergencies and Advocacy across Africa CDC priorities. It supports Member States, Regional Coordinating Centres and Africa CDC Directorates to move from stand-alone campaigns and communication activities towards institutionalized systems for trust, demand, behavioural intelligence, community action, financing, and accountability.

Positioning statement: We support Member States to institutionalize SBC systems, demand, trust and community intelligence not only implement activities, by embedding behavioural and community evidence within governance, planning, financing, programme delivery and accountability.

What We Do

Developed by the Africa CDC SBC and Advocacy Division as a continental public good, BIIM is Member State-led, Africa CDC-stewarded, and partner-supported. It enables countries to translate behavioural, community, rapid research, service-use, and information-environment signals into timely decision intelligence for immunization, primary health care, emergency preparedness and response.
Developed and led by Africa CDC with partner support, this initiative helps Member States define costed SBC priorities, financing pathways, dedicated budget lines and expenditure-accountability mechanisms. Its continental public goods include the SBC Costing and Financing Framework, institutionalization scorecard, costing and financing tool, SBC package and components, taxonomy and technical communiqué.
Strengthens Member State capacity to assess and use behavioural and social evidence to identify and address barriers affecting immunization access, confidence, motivation, and uptake. BeSD work is linked to BIIM so that findings move beyond assessment into routine intelligence-to-action and programme adaptation.

Institutionalizes community feedback, trusted networks and responsive engagement across routine programmes and public health emergencies. Through multiple platforms and channels, this work supports sustained demand, trust, social accountability, and responsive health services.

Translates behavioural intelligence, costing evidence and community priorities into compelling investment cases, policy commitments and high-level action. The Division supports political advocacy, and leadership engagement to advance domestic financing for SBC systems, public trust, and institutional accountability.

Strengthens national, regional, and continental structures, competencies, standards, tools, and implementation support. Through the Health Promotion and Community Engagement for SBC Community of Practice, Africa CDC promotes peer learning, partner coherence, technical collaboration, dissemination of continental public goods and scale-up of proven approaches across Member States.

Behavioural Intelligence and Infodemic Management Platform

Flagship Continental Initiatives

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