In April 2018, over 1,000 social and behavior change communications (SBCC) experts gathered in Nusa Dua, Indonesia for the 2018 International Social and Behavior Change Communication Summit. Even before the summit began, SPRING had been highly engaged – supporting summit planning by leading the multimedia showcase subcommittee. For the conference itself, eight SPRING staff members traveled to Indonesia in order to showcase SPRING and USAID’s work in advancing high-impact SBCC interventions for nutrition. The SPRING team took full advantage of the summit’s many different presentation formats to share their work, leading a total of 12 presentations and workshops including:
- Panel discussions on community media and advancing social and behavior change (SBC) in agriculture
- Skills-building workshops on community video, the photo-to-illustration process, and Accelerating Behavior Change for nutrition-sensitive agriculture
- Multimedia showcases on community media for SBC, the photo-to-illustration process, and promoting fortified foods in Uganda
- Oral presentations highlighting SPRING’s country-based SBC activities, including working with community volunteers in the Kyrgyz Republic, community video in Niger, micronutrient powders in Uganda, and neonatal health in Nepal
- A poster presentation on combining formative research tools from health and agriculture to improve dietary diversity in Sierra Leone
In addition to these presentations, SPRING staffed a permanent booth in the exhibition hall where summit participants could come and learn more about SPRING’s activities, including those not featured in our presentations.
SPRING’s presence at the summit was well-received. In addition to reaching scores of participants through numerous presentations and workshops, SPRING connected with many other SBC practitioners and researchers who sought out the SPRING booth to learn more about our activities. By presenting on SPRING’s work in a wide range of SBCC fields, the team showed how SPRING remains a leader in social and behavior change for nutrition.