Hygiene Promotion - IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre

1. Hygiene PromotionWhat do you know about hygiene promotion? Ask anyone who has been part of the watersupply, sanitation and health conference circuit in recent years and you will probably hearsomething like:• Changing hygiene behaviour is crucial for healthier lives and to gain the full benefit ofwater and sanitation improvements;• Hygiene promotion should be the first element of an integrated programme to bringimproved water and sanitation, not a marginal add-on to a technical project;• Handwashing with soap can reduce the number of diarrhoea episodes by 35%;• There are not enough hygiene professionals around.It is encouraging that, thanks to a small group of committed individuals, these keymessages have been gaining acceptance in the professional fraternity. It is, though, only asmall start on what is needed to bring about the process of hygiene behavioural changearound the world. And, the relatively superficial knowledge that even the conference-goershave acquired needs adding to if it is to be put to effective use. A big global advocacycampaign called WASH is now raising the profile of hygiene promotion and improvedsanitation as political priorities.Test out your knowledge about hygiene promotion principles now by trying the TOP Quiz.You may be surprised by the results! Look too at the five main fallacies and seven keyprinciples of hygiene promotion set out in the WELL Fact Sheet (Appendix 2).Hygiene promotion is not the same as hygiene education. Although education, in its narrowsense of systematic instruction, has a place, successful programmes do not instructpeople. There have been numerous attempts over the years to distinguish hygienepromotion and hygiene education by definition. Some are presented in Appendix 5. For asummary of effective and ineffective forms of hygiene promotion, see the Unicef websitehttp://www.unicef.org/programme/wes/pubs/behave/behave.htmIn this TOP, we are more concerned with the aims and the impact of hygiene promotionand we are working with the goal amplified later that:Effective hygiene promotion reduces the main risky hygiene practices and conditions forwomen, children and men. It does so in a measurable way, to a significant level, in a presetperiod and within available resources.Alternative approaches to hygiene promotion programmes with a better chance of successare presented in Making hygiene promotion more effective. Because individualprogrammes necessarily have limited impact, there are pointers to ways of spreading thehygiene promotion messages more widely in the section on Advocacy. The critical area ofhow to monitor and evaluate hygiene promotion initiatives is introduced in Criteria foreffectiveness.IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre 5