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Sustaining hygiene behaviours [Quality Assurance: Sandy Cairncross]

Author(s): Shordt, Kathleen  |  Cairncross, Sandy

Publisher: WEDC
Place of publication: Loughborough University, UK
Year: 2003

Series: WELL Fact Sheet
Collection(s): WELL

Links:

• http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/wedc/well/

After a programme ends, are hygiene practices continued in the household and community? How do we design projects for sustainable behaviours? Such questions are central to effective programming.

It is not inevitable that behaviours will fade or that as years go by people will revert to earlier, less hygienic practices. However, in water and sanitation programmes, continued access to water and sanitation services is not enough to sustain hygienic behaviours. It is the so-called 'software' aspects of the programme that are more important. Thus hygiene promotion and education should not be low-visibility 'add-ons' to water and sanitation programming. Sustained behaviours result from giving high priority to hygiene promotion and education.

This priority should begin when the programme is being planned and designed. One element of this includes ensuring a long enough duration for the hygiene intervention with intensity to build accepted and widely-practised behaviours during the life of the programme. In other words, small 'demonstration projects' will usually not lead to sustained behaviour. Other elements that contribute to sustaining behaviours include using careful preparatory research, focusing on a limited number of behaviours and ensuring personal contacts. Another important element is differentiating the strategies for different target groups, different behaviours and localities. One uniform approach or 'recipe' will probably not work.

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