The 2026 International Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) Summit is now accepting abstracts and other innovative submissions for the big event, scheduled from June 22 to 26 in Panama City, Panama.
The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2025.
“As we prepare to gather in 2026, we look forward to your stories, insights, evidence, and visions for the future of SBCC,” SBCC Summit Co-Chairs Debora B. Freitas López and Babafunke Fagbemi wrote as they called on people to submit abstracts for the event. “Together, let’s connect across disciplines, geographies, and generations to build a more just and sustainable world.”
Freitas López, the executive director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, and Fagbemi, who leads the Centre for Communication and Social Impact in Nigeria, are inviting practitioners, researchers, advocates, and storytellers to submit their work around the 2026 Summit theme, The Power of Connection: Reimagining Knowledge, Action, and Equity in a Changing SBCC Landscape.
More information on the theme, sub-themes, and abstract submissions can be found on the Summit’s website.
Freitas López and Fagbemi, who lead a secretariat of organizations, subcommittees and volunteers from around the world planning the event, say the Summit comes at a crucial time in the history of SBCC.
“As the funding landscape dramatically changes and crises intensify around the world on an unprecedented scale, we are being called to respond as well as reimagine how we do our work,” they wrote. “The Summit is an opportunity for us to explore the evolving landscape of SBCC – one that is community-driven, equity-centered, locally sustained, and emboldened to challenge entrenched power dynamics.”
The call for abstracts is an opportunity to collectively contribute to the field of SBCC – one that spans traditional public health and reaches into broader areas such as climate action, humanitarian response, economic equity, civic engagement, and education.
The organizers are especially eager to hear from diverse voices representing the global majority, including young people (aged 18 to 35), people with disabilities, local leaders, and communities historically left out of decision-making, whose lived experiences are crucial to any successful conference.
The 2026 Summit is the fourth gathering of its kind, following successful events in Ethiopia, Indonesia and Morocco which together drew thousands of practitioners, researchers, advocates, academics and donors together to share what works (and doesn’t) in social and behavior change, connect with friends old and new, and talk about what’s next in the field.
This is the first time that the Summit is being held in Latin America, a region with a rich history of SBCC programs and a growing cadre of young professionals.
More details about abstract submissions can be found here.
