The International Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) Summit’s secretariat is excited to announce they have selected a new co-chair for the 2025 gathering.

After an extensive and competitive selection process, a secretariat committee has chosen the Centre for Communication and Social Impact (CCSI) in Nigeria to help guide the planning, organizing, and execution of a 2025 Summit. CCSI will join the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs as co-chairs of the event, which is led by a secretariat made up of members from social and behavior change organizations across the globe.

The Summit has grown dramatically since 2016, when the first gathering was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Nearly 1,800 people from around the world – from academics to practitioners to government ministers to donors – attended the 2022 SBCC Summit in Marrakech, Morocco. As the Summit continues to grow and evolve, it was time to diversify its leadership and decision-making actively and intentionally.

With the choice of a co-chair, planning for the 2025 SBCC Summit can officially begin.

“We could not be more delighted to have CCSI and its dynamic leader, Babafunke Fagbemi, alongside us as a driving force to shape the next Summit and to continue to help elevate the importance of the field,” says CCP Executive Director Debora B. Freitas López. “The CCSI team brings a proven record of running large events, fundraising, and managing logistics, all of which are important as we move forward with planning the 2025 SBCC Summit.”

Fagbemi says that CCSI, which implements innovative and effective campaigns and builds strategic communication capacity in Africa, is excited by this opportunity to co-chair the 2025 SBCC Summit.

“Over the last 15 years, we have actively championed the importance and role of social and behavior change, leveraging innovation for successful campaigns, consistently demonstrating SBC relevance and application in promoting priority health and social behaviors and addressing inequities,” she says. “This is a ‘home-coming’ for CCSI, as we have actively participated in all editions of the summit, and we look forward to working with the secretariat to deliver an outstanding experience at the 2025 Summit.”

The secretariat selection committee chose from two dozen applicants to co-chair the next event. Some of the requirements were that the organization is headquartered in a low- or middle-income country, has connections with the SBCC community, prioritizes diversity, inclusion, and equity, and has existing infrastructure and resources to take on many of the key organizing tasks.

In addition to meeting the requirements, CCSI was a partner during the organization of a large hybrid event where as many as 5,000 youth participated in the Pan African Youth Innovation Forum. With the potential of broadening Summit participation by adding a hybrid option, “we felt this was an added benefit that they bring to the table,” Freitas López says.

The SBCC Summit secretariat hopes to select the date and location of the 2025 event in the coming months. For more information about the SBCC Summit, please continue to visit our website.