WASH and Behaviour Change

International WaterCentre WASH

Target Audience

The course is designed for WASH practitioners working in civil society or non-government organisations, government institutions, donor organisations, and the water/sanitation/hygiene industries.

Description

The addition of a hygiene target in Sustainable Development Goal 6 is a clear indicator that conventional WASH approaches need reinventing to integrate a focus on community behaviour if universal and equitable access to water and sanitation for all is to be achieved.

Evidence shows that even after services and facilities have been installed, and some form of health education is imparted, communities continue with risky hygiene practices such as open defecation, handwashing without soap or poor menstrual hygiene. An integrated approach that uses evidence-based behaviour change interventions, as part of WASH programs, can lead to long-term gains critical to achieving the targets for water and sanitation.

This course gives participants the knowledge and skills they need to effectively incorporate behaviour strategies into WASH program design and delivery. By helping to foster an understanding of when behaviour change strategies should be integrated into WASH programs, this course provides the tools to guide the integration of behaviour change into WASH programs.

The course includes key topics:

  • Introduction to WASH and Behaviour Change
  • Understanding changing WASH behaviours
  • Planning – selecting behaviours, target audiences and theory of change
  • Formative Research
  • Intervention design and pretesting
  • Piloting interventions and scaling up
  • Monitoring and Evaluation

Learning Objectives

This course offers employers an opportunity to develop the necessary skills in behaviour change interventions in their existing human resource base. With these skills, organisations can diversify their WASH programs to include behaviour change interventions and contribute to successful delivery of water and sanitation.

By the end of this course participants will have gained knowledge of and will be able to:

  • Understand the need for, and role of, behaviour change integration into WASH programs
  • Identify alternatives to education and awareness strategies for changing behaviours
  • Plan and design interventions that address risky WASH behaviours, and implement and evaluate behaviour change interventions within WASH programs
  • An introduction to a global network of participants and sharing a range of scenarios, challenges and initiatives.