Making the Case: Advocacy Skills for Scaling SBC in Family Planning

There is strong evidence demonstrating that social and behaviour change (SBC) interventions are essential to ensuring equitable delivery and uptake of rights-based family planning (FP) and contraception services. However, despite significant global investment in FP commodities and service delivery, interventions that address social and behavioural determinants of FP remain critically underfunded. This skills-building session addresses a key practical barrier: policymakers and programme managers lack the tools and skills to effectively advocate for and allocate sufficient resources to SBC interventions within contraceptive and family planning programmes and services.


The session will use an experiential role-play approach, with participants representing diverse stakeholders including policymakers, programme managers, donors, community leaders, and civil society representatives to practice applying evidence-based advocacy for scaling SBC interventions. Teams will develop 2-minute advocacy pitches and policy brief outlines addressing realistic scenarios such as securing budget allocations, gaining ministerial commitment, and mobilizing community support for SBC.


Participants will leave with immediately usable advocacy skills and tools including WHO's first ever SBC implementation guidance document and toolkit including customizable policy brief templates, SBC intervention evidence summary cards, success story templates, and stakeholder-specific key message libraries. This session uniquely combines practical resources with experiential learning to equip advocates with both the skills and tools to secure sustainable financing for SBC programming to complement service delivery and supply investments.