Want to get started on a learning journey that will help you boost your community engagement impact? You’ve come to the right place! 

In 2024, IOM began running the SBC Academy - a 4-day in-person journey of informative presentations, group exercises, and discussions with IOM staff and partners to understand the importance of behavioural science in creating positive waves of change at the community level. 

Now we’re taking the SBC Academy online with a self-guided e-learning and downloadable resources so more people can get an introduction to SBC and learn about IOM’s approach to community engagement. 

The SBC Academy is rooted in activities that are:

What is Social and Behaviour Change (SBC)? 

Various factors that shape the ways we interact with our world also influence how we navigate choice. These may be social factors, like the norms that fuel discrimination or drive people into irregular migration, or they may be psychological, like patterns of thinking that determine what we perceive to be desirable. Too often, for individuals and families living in poverty, exposed to insecurity, or relying on weak public systems, the factors that limit control over choice are structural.  

Power imbalances rooted deep within societies cut people off from the decisions that most greatly affect their lives. Social and Behaviour Change (SBC) aims to lower structural barriers that hinder people from adopting positive practices and hinder societies from becoming more equitable, cohesive, and peaceful. 

Drawing on various disciplines – from sociology and psychology, to communication and behavioural economics – SBC encompasses any set of strategies and interventions that influences drivers of change and supports local action towards better societies. It helps development practitioners and policymakers design more effective programmes for reducing poverty and inequity. And it blends scientific knowledge with community insights to expand people’s control over the decisions that matter most.