Monitoring impacts of WASH interventions:The case of SHEWA-B

摘要

UNICEF and its government counterpart are implementing a large WASH programme with explicitbehavioural change goals. A baseline survey showed that handwashing with soap (HWWS) was mostfrequent after defecation (17%) or cleaning a child’s anus (23%), and lowest around food-related events(<1%). Observed practices are sharply poorer than self-reported behavior. After one year, significantimprovement was noted in handwashing practices following contact with faecal matter, but HWWSbefore preparation, serving or eating of food remained stubbornly low. Open defecation had declined,most notably in the poorest quintile. Morbidity was not significantly different in control and interventionhouseholds. However, intervention households were significantly more likely to have coliform-freehousehold water (48%) than were control households (32%). This robust monitoring framework hasallowed the project to understand WASH practices in the target communities in detail, and to identifyareas of success and areas where efforts need to be redoubled.