The 2022 Summit in Marrakech, Morocco was an opportunity for a new kind of Summit, influenced by consultations and conversations that occurred regionally in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, bringing in more diverse perspectives, ideas and voices than ever before. While in Marrakech, we learned lessons on advocacy, community engagement and mobilization, and how crucial communication is in the midst of a public health crisis. We branched out beyond health topics to existential issues such as the climate crisis. We shared our successes — and even some of the failures that ultimately led us there.

In the Summit report, you’ll find insights gleaned from the Summit, including recommendations to reframe communication as a right, to put equity at the heart of SBCC, to carefully choose the language we use to drive accountability and inclusion, and to systematically infuse community voices into program design, implementation and evaluation. We’ll also share some of our survey results, the names of many of you who contributed to the Summit, and highlights of some of the event’s best moments.

The first International SBCC Summit was conceived with a bold vision: to bring together the global community of SBCC organizations, practitioners and researchers to advance the field of behavior change. And this vision was realized.

For four days in February 2016, more than 750 SBCC professionals from over 50 countries came together in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to share knowledge and lessons learned, to forge new partnerships and strengthen friendships, to disseminate recent research and tools, to generally enhance the science and art of SBCC for global health and development, and to show the world that our community exists and it is strong.