Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3) Capacity Assessment

Under the Health Communication Capacity Collaborative, or HC3 as it was called, a Social and Behaviour Change Communication Organisational Sustainability Tool was developed for improving an organisation’s capacity to design, implement and evaluate social and behaviour change communication programmes. The tool helps organisations to understand fundamental organisational requirements, management systems and structures to ensure long-term sustainability of the organisation. In addition to focusing on programmatic sustainability, the tool also helps organisations focus on their management practices to improve services and make the organisation institutionally and financially sustainable. Using the tool, an organisation can assess its programmatic sustainability in Social and Behaviour Change Communication, as well as its institutional and financial sustainability, and develop a concrete plan for making improvements.

The cornerstone for the application of the tool is a workshop that last a total of five days. During the five days, the organisational leadership and selected staff come together to build consensus about the stages of development of their organisation’s SBCC programs, their management practices, the improvements needed, and an action plan for making those improvements. As part of the HC3, Center provided technical assistance to Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs and Management Sciences for Health in administering the tool for the first time and documenting the process in order to provide guidance on its future use. The documentation became part of the assessment package to guide other organisations in the use of the tool.