Promoting Sustainable Development through Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC): The Idundu Community Theatre Experience

Nigeria today is faced with several developmental challenges. A lot has been said and done to alleviate the people’s suffering and enhance development across the country. These efforts appear to be less-visible in the rural areas and as such, raises questions of strategy and sustainability. Most government development programmes seem to be tailored around the top-down model of development which negates the participation and contributions of target communities. Such efforts fail to gain the support and approval of the target recipients, hence, the need for a participatory model of development. Therefore, Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) was applied as a development approach in this study, to assess and intervene in the challenges faced by the people of Idundu, in Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. SBCC involved community theatre as one of the most viable tools for communicating development messages and achieving behaviour change at all levels of the social system. This study highlights the causes of undesired behaviours within Idundu and explored possible ways to ameliorate the challenges faced by the people. The study concludes by recommending that beyond the need for information and knowledge among the rural people, commitment at the macrosystem level is essential to achieve sustainable development.