More than three decades ago, the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs began running its signature Leadership in Strategic Communication Workshop, a three-week program for social and behavior change practitioners from around the world, which many have called nothing short of transformative.
The mind behind the workshop, the late Benjamin Lozare, took versions of this hands-on training to countries across the globe, teaching CCP staff to apply proven theories and new technologies to the constantly changing nature of communication, social norms and individual behavior and decision-making.
He, and others, also worked with members of CCP’s global network to create longstanding workshops in Nigeria, India and beyond. Over the years, there have been workshops focused on youth and HIV, depending on the needs of the moment.
Today, CCP continues to carry on Lozare’s legacy by offering customized workshops to countries that wish to strengthen the social and behavior change capacity of local leaders who want to gain deep understanding of the approaches vital to applying communication to impact global health and development goals.
CCP trained 120 Ministry of Health staff, including district-based communication officers, in Côte d’Ivoire over three, two -week workshops in the summer of 2024 in collaboration with the World Bank. In February, CCP will host a two-week training for members of the Ministry of Health in Jordan, sponsored by USAID. A three-day session for senior leaders in the Jordanian Ministry of Health, in collaboration with UNICEF and USAID, will also take place in February.
“Helping people to do quality social and behavior change is what CCP is all about,” says Arzum Ciloglu, CCP’s director of capacity strengthening, who also leads the Baltimore workshop. “We use our tools and approaches, building on what’s already there. It’s just part and parcel of what we do to improve social and behavior change skills in so many corners of the world. We see it as part of our mission.”
Ciloglu will be joined in Jordan by CCP colleagues Andrea Brown Anschel and Eric Filemyr.
Large funders have been working to build up the skills of local practitioners and leaders and CCP has been creating tailored programs to address the needs of individual countries and health ministries. Ciloglu also traveled to the Philippines, Zambia, and Uganda to run workshops in 2024 and will soon facilitate in Bangladesh. Other CCP staff have recently conducted workshops in Guatemala and Sierra Leone.
The CCP workshops take a blended learning approach to capacity strengthening, guided by the belief that formal training, combined with hands-on opportunities, provides the richest and most sustainable path to building practical skills.
“Each iteration of the workshop is designed and adapted with the geographic location and specific topic in mind, starting with what has already been done and what we already know is critical to building a creative and innovative strategy that will have maximum impact,” Ciloglu says.
The next Baltimore workshop is scheduled for June 16 to July 4, 2025. The application deadline is Feb. 3.
More than 5,000 health and development professionals in more than 35 countries have been trained through the tuition-based Leadership in Strategic Communication Workshop worldwide. Workshop facilitators regularly update the curriculum to incorporate lessons learned and acknowledge the real-time, dynamic nature of the strategic process, as well as new technologies and the constantly changing nature of communication, social norms and individual behavior and decision-making.
The workshops focus not only on skills needed to plan, implement and evaluate social and behavior change interventions, but also self-reflection and nurturing true leadership skills to move organizations forward.
Past participants have gone on to become country presidents, ministers of health, USAID mission directors, and other leaders in government, public health, global development, medicine and communication.
If your organization is interested in holding a leadership workshop in your country, contact Cassandra Mickish Gross at ccpbd@jhu.edu for more details.
