The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Ministry of Youth, Sports & Social Development (MoYSSD) and Vanuatu National Youth Council (VNYC) have rolled out Behavior Change Communication (BCC) programme for youths.
Behaviour change communication (BCC) is the strategic use of communication to promote positive health outcomes.
It involves individuals, communities and societies to promote positive communication behaviors mostly on pressing health problems particular on Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH), based on proven theories and models of behaviour change.
It is an interactive process of an intervention with individuals, communities and societies to promote positive behaviors particular to their setting.
This helps to create enabling environments that support and sustain desired behaviour change.
“We want young people to demonstrate that knowledge of BCC strategy in Vanuatu and to become BCC influencers in their community, area council or province. This program will help them develop their communication and advocacy skills to respond to related Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) determinants or any other social development issue within their respective areas”, VNYC’s Principal Administrator- Joe Kalo said.
Kalo added that the BCC roll out will surely create an impact if the programme ends.
“We have started building capacities of young people from our BCC program rollout for TAFEA and TORBA which tells us that more young people will likely be engaged in the coming months if we are rolling out the program to other provinces. We have high hopes that a positive impact is on the way, “he said.
The BCC programme will also engage young people from communities with the knowledge capacity of providing SRH information along with respective provincial data in order to identify the demanding youth SRH needs that should be addressed.
The VNYC team will commence a nationwide online and face to face outreach survey questionnaires for SRH next week.
The BCC programme began in November last year for TORBA and TAFEA provinces and will expand to other provinces this year.
The BBC programme is supported financially by UNFPA through the MoYSSD to support youth health in Vanuatu and for technical assistance provided by ABC ID, Ministry of Health and other health partners.
Photo supplied Caption: Participants of a BCC programme in Tafea province.