Water - Hygiene Promotion

Hygiene Promotion

Every day, some 6,000 children die from diseases associated with inadequate sanitation, poor hygiene, and unsafe water; diarrhea alone kills one child every 20 seconds. To reduce disease transmission not only requires providing toilets and other hardware but also effectively promoting hygiene to change peoples’ behavior. Hygiene refers to the set of behaviors related to safe management of excreta, such as washing hands and disposing safely of household wastewater. Together with sanitation, hygienic behavior is critical for control of diarrheal diseases and parasitic infections that cost lives and contribute to malnutrition. An effective hygiene promotion program can reduce the main risky hygiene practices and conditions, bringing major benefits for health: for example, washing hands with soap at key times such as after going to the toilet can reduce diarrheal incidence by nearly half.

Key Challenges
Knowledge alone is insufficient to change long-established behavior. Rather than simply providing hygiene education, hygiene promotion needs to focus on achieving behavioral change, including by using marketing approaches. Public-private partnerships have a role to play here, particularily in handwashing initiatives, and there is a major need for capacity building of specialists who can apply marketing approaches to promoting hygienic practices.

World Bank Response
The World Bank and several other organizations have come together to work with governments to raise awareness, enhance political commitment, and assist with fund raising through coordinated country programs to promote hygiene. To help ensure the effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of World Bank-financed investments in water supply and sanitation, funding is often complemented by capacity building, communications programs, and policy advice focused on hygiene promotion and the achievement of supportive institutional and sector environments. Also, Bank-assisted schools projects provide sanitation and water supply and promote hygiene to help safeguard children's health and welfare and improve their learning performance.