Advantages

Advantages of Integrated SBCC

SBCC integration has many potential advantages. Programs may choose to integrate SBCC in order to:

• approach audiences more holistically by organizing programs in a way that reflects the audience’s reality (i.e., audience’s lives are not divided by health topic);
• avoid message fatigue by linking similar messages together;
• reduce missed opportunities for the audience and the program by addressing behaviors that happen together or are linked to one another (e.g., HIV and substance abuse, or offering FP counseling when new parents bring children for immunization services);
• increase the reach of SBCC interventions, either by serving a larger number of people or reaching new or underserved populations, such as women or youth;
• help build a brand or take advantage of a successful brand (e.g., expanding a well-regarded family health brand to include and promote modern family planning);
• give more visibility to topics whose SBCC efforts have historically been under-funded;
• leverage resources and improve effectiveness by sharing costs and resources, and reducing duplication of efforts;
• support integrated service delivery ;
• help realize national goals related to harmonization, coordination, collaboration and integration;
• strengthen the capacity of staff and the local community or government to better manage programs across topics or sectors;
• enhance the sustainability of interventions by establishing and institutionalizing their interdependence; or
• improve the satisfaction of providers or clients (e.g., beneficiaries being able to receive all relevant services at one time in one place).