SOCIAL AND BEHAVIOUR CHANGE (SBC) SUPPORTING IMMUNIZATION IN INDONESIA: A BACKEND STORY

Significance of social and behaviour change (SBC) in development and health is well recognized. SBC engages, empowers, informs, educates, and facilitates positive change in individuals, families and communities and influences policies and progressive legislative frameworks. In addressing varied development and health issues, especially the ‘child- centric’ developmental planning, more targeted SBC strategies are designed in making optimum use of available resources to achieve the planned results in a given context. Based upon research, i.e. the community-based study of risk- factors (studying behavioural insights) and the operational research, SBC theories and methodologies evolved and so did the strategies and practices for results-driven and human- centered design under the SBC. The SBC arm is highly strategic to the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), wherein mitigating the risks of the vaccines preventable diseases (VPDs) is a crucial life-saving intervention. SBC for EPI is also termed as a ‘Demand Generation’ strategy, which is suitably employed in Indonesia; yet there exist many vast areas with the Zero-Dose children. Vaccination resistance and hesitancy continues to loom large, such as in the Banda Aceh; despite the best efforts being made by the health and development stakeholders in Indonesia. This qualitative review attempts to study the SBC component and its critical role and status in Indonesia in demand generation strategies for routine immunization. It demonstrates, among key conclusions, that the SBC micro-planning is an essential element together with the critical need for empowering communities, especially the providers and the health officers, in empowering them with the much-required results-tracking tools.