Health Communication & SBCC for Health Programs

Our approach to health communication

Health communication works best when it treats people as decision makers, not targets. People weigh costs, risks, trust and family opinion every time they choose whether to seek care, take medicine or bring a child for vaccination.

Our work starts by understanding those decisions, then designing communication, community engagement and service changes that make the healthy choice easier.

We work with ministries and county health departments, UN agencies, INGOs, local NGOs and private health providers. Every program we support links communication to measurable changes in service use or practice.

Immunization and vaccine demand

Vaccination decisions depend on what people think and feel, social processes, motivation and practical issues such as distance, cost and clinic hours. The WHO Behavioural and Social Drivers of vaccination (BeSD) tools provide a useful framework for measuring these factors.

• Assessments of the drivers of low uptake and zero-dose children
• Health worker communication training and counseling tools
• Reminder and recall systems, including SMS and community follow-up
• Community engagement with leaders, caregivers and influencers

Family planning and reproductive health

Family planning choices involve partners, families, providers and social norms. Our work in this area supports informed choice and voluntary use, with attention to youth, couples and service quality.

• Formative research on norms, myths and service experiences
• Couple communication and male engagement approaches
• Youth-friendly service design and digital information channels
• Counseling aids that support full, informed choice

Malaria prevention and treatment

Malaria programs depend on everyday behaviors: sleeping under nets every night, seeking prompt testing, completing treatment and attending antenatal care for prevention in pregnancy.

• Net use and care campaigns linked to distribution
• Prompt care-seeking and testing before treatment
• Preventive treatment in pregnancy and for young children
• Community case management communication tools

HIV and TB

HIV and TB programs face stigma, fear and long treatment journeys. Communication needs to be respectful, confidential and closely linked to services.

• Testing, prevention and treatment demand creation, including self-testing
• Adherence and retention support with clients and peer networks
• Stigma reduction with communities and health workers
• Messaging for key and priority populations, developed with them

Health communication services

Across all health areas we offer the full SBCC cycle:

• Formative research and KAP surveys
• SBCC strategy and campaign design
• Message development and pretesting
• Demand creation and RCCE
• Training for health workers and teams
• Monitoring and evaluation

Planning a health program or responding to a ToR? Contact us.

Planning a health communication program

Strong health communication starts with a clear picture of the behavior you want to see and the service it depends on. Before any materials are produced, we help teams answer four questions: which behaviors matter most for the health outcome, who needs to practice them, who influences those people, and what currently gets in the way.

The answers usually point to more than one audience. A child immunization program, for example, may need to reach caregivers, fathers and grandmothers, but also health workers who decide how welcoming a clinic feels, and county managers who set outreach schedules. Each audience needs its own objective, message and channel.

We then link the plan to the service delivery system. There is little value in creating demand that a facility cannot meet. Where stock-outs, long waits or poor provider attitudes are the real barrier, our recommendations say so, and we work with managers on practical fixes alongside the communication.

Supporting frontline health workers

In most African health systems, the most powerful health communication happens face to face. Community health promoters, nurses, clinical officers and pharmacists answer questions, address fears and give advice that families trust.

We design tools that make these conversations easier: short counseling cards, job aids with key questions and answers, and simple scripts for difficult topics such as side effects or rumors. We train staff using role play and real cases, and we listen to their own concerns, because a health worker who feels unsupported or unsure will not communicate confidently.

Supportive supervision and follow-up are part of the design. A one-day training rarely changes practice on its own, so we build in refreshers, peer learning and simple checklists that supervisors can use during routine visits.

Measuring health communication results

We measure success by behavior and service use, not by the number of posters printed or radio spots aired. Typical indicators include vaccination coverage and timeliness, new and continuing family planning users, net use the previous night, testing rates and treatment retention.

Where possible we use existing health information system data, such as DHIS2 in Kenya, supplemented by short surveys or exit interviews. This keeps monitoring affordable and makes it easier for ministry and county teams to continue tracking after the program ends. See our approach to SBCC monitoring and evaluation.

Digital health communication

Mobile phones, WhatsApp, social media and interactive voice response give programs new ways to reach people with timely, personal information. Digital health communication works best when it complements, rather than replaces, face-to-face contact. We design digital approaches that fit people's phones, data budgets, literacy and languages, and we test them for clarity and trust before launch.

We also plan for privacy and safety, especially on sensitive topics such as HIV or family planning, and we track engagement and service outcomes to show whether digital activities are adding value.