On 28th August 2025, the African Society for Social and Behaviour Change (ASSBC) gathered almost 300 participants from across the continent for a virtual symposium titled: ‘Navigating the Funding Crisis – Adapting and Innovating for Sustainable SBC Programming.’ The event served as both a wake-up call and a call to action. With donor support diminishing, the symposium provided a platform to share hard truths, bold ideas, and hopeful solutions.
What stood out most was the shared understanding that Africa cannot keep doing things the same way. Aid cuts have been damaging, yes, but they have also created opportunities for innovation, local leadership, and new approaches to financing change. Participants left with a renewed sense of urgency, practical recommendations, and a plan for making SBC more resilient, locally owned, and effective.
The symposium fostered a commitment to decolonizing development thinking. Speakers consistently challenged the dominant aid dependency paradigm, advocating instead for locally owned, community-driven approaches that emphasise African agency and self-determination.
The discussions went beyond technical aspects of funding mechanisms to explore fundamental questions about mindset, narrative ownership, and the transformation of power dynamics in development practice.