Olusegun Ogboye who inaugurated the committee stated that the SBCC is a behavioural change communication committee saddled with the responsibility to guide the state on the right communication materials that are designed for public consumption. “The SBCC is a behavioural change communication committee to guide the state about putting out communication materials to the public to ensure that the messages are well understood and right for the target that we are trying to reach. And of course, it will help the public to understand our interventions better and also reduce resistance to health interventions.”
On his expectation from the committee, Ogboye said that the group is to guide the state on communication across all the different health programmes of the state. “Our expectations from them are basically to guide our communication across all the different health programmes to ensure that one, we have relevant materials available for the different programmes, to build bridges between us and the community, to build bridges between us and the media as well, so that when we do get materials and we have a better relationship with the Media to put out those materials, it would be easy and then we also have the ability to pre-test a lot of our messages with the community to ensure that it means to them what we intend for them to do.”
On her part, Dr Omotunde Odanye, The Challenge Initiative (TCI) State Programme Manager disclosed that the SBC Committee is the social and behavioral change communication committee that is responsible for the coordination and implementation of demand generation activities in the state, “It is charged with that huge responsibility of leading and facilitating strategic communication which we all know is very key to healthy and positive behaviours. We all know that at the bottom of positive health outcomes is having quality information about taking responsibility for our health which is key to preventing major and minor illnesses and also improving our general and total wellbeing.
“So inaugurating this committee today is a very huge step by the state in which the The Challenge Initiative has supported this great feat, to see the state ministry of health now leading its own demand generation activities, spearheading, quality messaging, implementing Lagos specific strategies, self- assessing their processes that are demand generation related and making improvements, harmonising all the work done by the different partners by different communities and at different levels. The primary health board and the ministry of health and by the community stakeholders, by community influencers, the media, harmonising all these things together, bringing out what has worked or what is still working or what can be improved on. Then having specific strategies that we can take forward and implement; at the end of the day, it is equipping the Lagos populace with the correct information, targeting Lagos specific audiences. We have the issue of cultures, religions influencing many people’s behaviours, and Lagos State is taking a lead on this, having a technical committee at the center of this very important thematic area, which is demand generation, that is why today is very very important,” Dr Odanye stated.
Speaking on the role of TCI in the SBCC, Dr. Odanye said that one of the things The Challenge Initiative does basically is to support the government generally across Nigeria where they work. “We support government in implementing high impact activities for family planning and adolescent youth Reproductive Health. And one of the high impact interventions under the demand generation is social and behavioral Change communication not just sharing information, not being reactive. Social and behavioral Change Communication is a set of strategic approaches that is targeted at delivering quality information to make responsible decisions about their health.
“So we are at the forefront of implementing demand led interventions, it is high impact for us and when we came we realized that one of the challenges in Lagos State is a lot of misinformation, a lot of myths and misconceptions, a lot of socio-cultural issues, influencing behaviours in relation to family planning and child birthday spacing, people fear what they have not experienced, we hear a lot of rumours, and TCI is looking at how best we can address these issues holistically,” Odanye disclosed.
Earlier, Badijo Olusegun Isaiah, the state Health Educator and Director, Health Promotion, Lagos State’s Ministry of Health, maintained that in Lagos there is need for a committee that would be responsible for demand generation for service optics, harmonise health promotion activities within the state, which would lead to behavioural change through communication. “The committee is going to design messages and these messages will be directed to the people, and will change their behaviour through different channels, the media, media can reach a larger group of people. So we are going to make a choice of what channel for disseminating those health information, so that when people are getting the information it will help them change their behavior. It is going to promote health seeking behaviour, it is going to create a demand generation for service optics, it is going to make the individual, the community, local government, the state, the citizenry, to remain healthy at all time.”
On criterion for choosing members of the committee, Olusegun stated that members of the SBCC were selected from both private and public sectors. “Members of the SBCC were selected from the private sector, public sector, line ministries, we have CSOs, we have development partners, the permanent secretary, the directors, state educator, the directors of health in the six districts in the state, so all of them, they cut across, line ministries, Agric, Environment, Youth and Social Services, they are there, so we have a lot of them, Budget and Planning, so these are part of the members of the committee.”
Olusegun also spoke on the difference between SMC and SBCC, saying “There is a difference between SMC, Social Mobilization Committee of the state and the SBCC. The Social Mobilization is non-technical, non-experts, their job is to gather people for health programmes or interventions, but the SBCC contains professionals, technical people who can provide the strategic direction required for achieving this objectives.”
Speaking on the
sustainability of the SBCC, he said that the group has no problems once there
is funding “We don’t have problem once there is funding and technical support,
and of course, we have development partners ready to take that challenge. Not
only that; the state government, the primary healthcare board and the six health
districts; all of them are going to provide funding for this.”
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