Sanitation Learning Hub launched

Following the start of a new four-year programme funded by Sida, the Institute of  Development Studies (IDS) launched the Sanitation Learning Hub website on 22 June 2020.

The website is divided into into three main sections:

Practical Support 

This section presents recommended approaches and practical tools to help sanitation and hygiene practitioners do their job well. It reflects our commitment to adaptable, ‘combinable’ and context-specific learning and sanitation approaches. Each approach page has an introduction recommended resources.

Current Thinking

Resources are divided by nine essential themes in this section. Each theme has an introduction, recommended resources, and sub-themes that get into more detail.

• Behaviour change
• Climate change
• Challenging contexts
• Gender
• Health
• Hygiene
• Leave No One Behind
• Monitoring, evaluation and learning
• Sustainability and safely-managed sanitation

Connect, Share, Learn

The desire to bring together sanitation and hygiene professionals is reflected here. You can find blogs, news, events in the sector and more information about workshops, including stories from participants of past workshops. You can also submit a blog in this section.

Watch this video introduction to the new website.

SuSanA webinar monthly webinar 1: “Opportunities & challenges of achieving WASH behaviour change”

Published on Apr 28, 2016

The webinar brought together speakers who presented their perspectives on how we can improve WASH behavior change. First, we learnt about how we can do a better job of leveraging the influence of community leaders to change some of the social and cultural norms that prevent uptake of healthy WASH behaviors. The role of both formal and informal leaders was explored, as well as how to extend this collaboration beyond CLTS to incorporate it more into other WASH approaches.

New tactics to nudge habit change for open defecation behavior

New tactics to nudge habit change for open defecation behavior | Source: World Bank Water Blog, March 31 2016 |

Open defecation remains a critical global health challenge, affecting almost 1 billion people around the world and contributing significantly to the estimated 842,000 people who die each year because of poor sanitation, hygiene practices, and unsafe water supplies.

Public toilet in the shanty town of Ciudad Pachacutec, Ventanilla District, El Callao Province – Peru Photo: Monica Tijero / World Bank

Most behavior change approaches and frameworks for addressing open defecation have focused on relatively conscious, “reflective”  drivers of behavior, including people’s emotions (such as pride or shame), rational knowledge (e.g., of germ theory), social norms, and explicit action plans (such as commitments to change).

Using the framework popularized by renowned social psychologist Daniel Kahneman, these factors can be described as “System 2” drivers of behavior i.e., relatively conscious and motivational factors. It is now well established, however, that human behavior can also be heavily influenced by “System 1” drivers i.e., relatively automatic, cue-driven factors.

In a newly released working paper by the World Bank Water Global Practice’s Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) “Nudging and Habit Change for Open Defecation: New Tactics from Behavioral Science”, we draw on basic scientific findings from psychology, cognitive science, and behavioral economics to propose a framework of eight “System 1” principles to support the initiation and maintenance of open defecation behavior change.

In doing so, the new working paper builds from the general framework advanced in the World Bank Group’s 2015 World Development Report “Mind, Society, and Behavior”, which emphasized three core insights from behavioral science, namely that people think automatically, think socially and think using mental models.

Read the complete article.

Webinars – Understanding Behavior Change to Ensure Success

Small Doable Actions: A Feasible Approach to Behavior Change

Small Doable Actions: A Feasible Approach to Behavior Change, 2015. WASHplus.

• Full text

A small doable action is a behavior that, when practiced consistently and correctly, will lead to personal and public health improvement. 

It is considered feasible by the householder, from HIS/HER point of view, considering the current practice, the available resources, and the particular social context.

Although the behavior may not be an “ideal practice,” more households likely will adopt it because it is considered feasible within the local context

Sept 23, 2015 – Creativity in Behavior Change Symposium

Whether it be washing hands with soap, driving sanitation demand, or purifying water, almost every area of public health requires behaviour change. The field of behaviour change is transforming.

There is a growing evidence base to suggest that traditional health education messages are insufficient to achieve sustained change and that more might be achieved by being more creative, for example by learning from product marketing, psychology and behavioural economics. 

The ‘Creativity in Behaviour Change Symposium‘ will bring together behaviour change practitioners from academia, government and the private sector with the ambition of sparking an ongoing network of collaborators.

In addition to creative case studies and provocative discussions the event will feature interactive activities throughout the day, a ‘behaviour change cinema’ which will screen materials from creative projects from around the globe and there will be a ‘soap box’ where anyone can share their big ideas for the future of behaviour change.

• Additional information – Creativity in Behaviour Change Flyer
• Online registration for the event

For those who are not in the UK, all the sessions will also be filmed and available on our website at ehg.lshtm.ac.uk

iDE’s Approach to Market Development

Brief Overviews of iDE’s Approach to Market Development

iDE is offering two short overviews that address key aspects of market development. These reports are designed to be short, but dense with practical information resulting from our experience in building markets for sanitation in seven countries across two continents.

iDE Tactic Report: The Dynamics of Market Development

In this publication, you will find a description of how we analyze the situation in a country to design a dynamic and responsive sanitation business model.

The report also compares market type, sanitation awareness, product range, supply chain maturity, manufacturing base, and government engagement across a sample of the countries we work in.

Download the Markets tactic report

iDE Tactic Report: Behavior Change Grounded in User Insights

In this publication, we share our experience with a one-year pilot on behavior change, and outline our key takeaways for building an effective campaign. 

A handful of social games, the core of the behavior change program we developed, are shown and explained in this report.

Download the Behavior Change tactic report

Orlando Hernandez – Behavioral Challenges and Potential Solutions to Reach Universal Sanitation Coverage

Behavioral Challenges and Potential Solutions to Reach Universal Sanitation Coverage by Orlando Hernandez, USAID/WASHplus Project and Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor, Global Health, Population and Nutrition (GHPN), FHI 360.

The comments below are from Dr. Hernandez’s participation at the World Water Forum 2015 and then posted to the Sanitation and Water for All website.

Behavior change specialists rely on frameworks to dissect a problem and define a strategy to address it. The Water Improvement Framework (WIF), previously named the Hygiene Improvement Framework (HIF) developed in connection to USAID WASH projects some 15 years ago, is one such framework. Given its openness and comprehensiveness, the WIF has stood the test of time. Other donors and implementation agencies are thinking along the same lines as there are other similar frameworks developed by WSP, SVN, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, among others.

The WIF is a three-legged stool which brings together: 1) supply, 2) demand, and 3) the enabling environment. It suggests that behavior change (BC) strategies are more than mere promotion, channels and messages. They bring a human dimension to the WASH sector, and when based on the WIF’s the three elements, it guides us to design, implement and evaluate WASH activities.  

Behavior change frameworks require us to segment our audiences as social groups involved in development are not monolithic. One obvious breakdown in sanitation is a split between urban, peri-urban and rural dwellers. The needs, preferences, sanitation practices and certainly resources of urban, peri-urban and rural populations may be different. With growing urbanization throughout the developing world, coverage in peri-urban areas represent a challenge, especially when we think of tenants living in crowded quarters with no services.

WASHplus Weekly – Behavior Change in WASH Programs

Issue 106 | July 3, 2013 | Focus on Behavior Change

This issue contains 2013 studies and resources on behavior change in water, sanitation, and hygiene programs. Included are a USAID-sponsored event and webinar on behavior change and an interview featuring WASHplus Deputy Director Julia Rosenbaum about small doable actions as a behavior change approach. Other resources include toolkits from the SHARE project and the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program as well as reports and case studies from Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.  

EVENTS/INTERVIEWS

• Behavior Change in WASH Programs, June 27, 2013. (Video)
  One in a series of “Strate-Chats” that USAID is hosting to coincide with the launch of its new Water and Development Strategy, this event focuses on behavior change methodologies and case studies. Presenters include Chris Holmes and Merri Weinger of USAID, Ron Cleemer of World Vision, and Orlando Hernandez from WASHplus.
• Breaking the Cycle: Small Doable Actions in WASH to Improve Child Health, 2013. J Rosenbaum, WASHplus. (Video)
  WASHplus’s Julia Rosenbaum discusses the power of small doable actions as a behavior change approach when it is applied to water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programs.

TOOLKITS

• Behavior Change. The World Bank Water and Sanitation Program, 2013. (Toolkit)
  This behavior change module introduces the theory of change and key components of the approach WSP used in the Global Scaling Up Handwashing project. The module includes four presentations: behavior change overview, FOAM Framework, enabling products, and monitoring.
• Choose Soap. SHARE Project. (Toolkit)
  The SHARE resource was created to promote hand washing with soap in households in low income settings and draws on ideas and best practices from different fields, including hygiene and health promotion, behavioral sciences, and marketing. This kit is designed to be used to promote hand washing with soap: at key times; within a realistic budget and time frame; and for an organization working at village level across multiple villages.

USAID, World Vision, WASHplus – Behavior Change in WASH Programs

Watch the webcast of USAID’s discussion on “Behavior Change in WASH Programs: From Barriers and Access to Application and Use.” Featuring Chris Holmes, Merri Weinger and Jenny Datoo, USAID; Ron Clemmer, World Vision; and Orlando Hernandez, WASHplus/FHI 360.