The CLTS Knowledge Hub has changed to The Sanitation Learning Hub and we have a new website https://sanitationlearninghub.org/. Please visit us here - it would be great to stay in contact.
The CLTS Knowledge Hub website is no longer being updated you can access timely, relevant and action-orientated sanitation and hygiene resources and information at the new site.
The promotion of hygienic behaviour – and particularly handwashing with soap – is one of the most cost-effective health interventions. Yet, despite bringing some of the highest public health returns on investments, hygiene is neglected – in public health interventions, in national and global health policy priorities, and in national and global monitoring frameworks.
This report by 3ie summarises a systematic review by De Buck and colleagues that examines which promotional approaches are effective in changing handwashing and sanitation behaviour and which implementation factors affect the success or failure of such interventions. The study is the first mixed methods systematic review of behaviour change in sanitation and hygiene, drawing on quantitative and qualitative evidence. It shows that CLTS, in comparison with approaches like social marketing and health messaging, is most effective in improving OD behaviour and latrine use.
Faecal contamination of groundwater from pit latrines is widely perceived as a major threat to the safety of drinking water for several billion people in rural and peri-urban areas worldwide.
Faecal contamination of groundwater from pit latrines is widely perceived as a major threat to the safety of drinking water for several billion people in rural and peri-urban areas worldwide.
This study examined the sanitation hardware supply chain in rural, low density settings in Indonesia and Vietnam. Actual costs along the chains were investigated to understand the challenges and opportunities to support affordable sanitation in remote, rural locations. Data was collected from four remote districts in Indonesia and Vietnam through a systematic value-chain analysis comprising 378 interviews across households and supply chain actors and both quantitative and qualitative analysis.
The new study, Scoping and Diagnosis of the Global Sanitation Fund’s Approach to Equality and Non-Discrimination, authored by Dr. Sarah House, Suzanne Ferron, Dr. Sue Cavill, and with contributions from Dr. Jacques-Edouard Tiberghien is now available in English. (French available next month).
Regular handwashing with soap is believed to have substantial impacts on child health in the developing world. Most handwashing campaigns have failed, however, to establish and maintain a regular practice of handwashing. Motivated by scholarship that suggests handwashing is habitual, This study designed, implemented and analyzed a randomized field experiment aimed to test the main predictions of the rational addiction model. To reliably measure handwashing, the researchers developed and produced a novel soap dispenser, within which a time-stamped sensor is embedded.
The study by Valerie Bauza and Jeremy S. Guest looked at the relationship between child faeces disposal and child growth in low- and middle-income countries. You can read a more detailed abstract here. It was published in the Journal of Tropical Medicine and International Health is available for purchase from the Wiley Online Library
Open defecation, which is still practiced by about a billion people worldwide, is one of the most compelling examples of how place influences health in developing countries. Efforts by governments and development organizations to address the world's remaining open defecation would be greatly supported by a better understanding of why some people adopt latrines and others do not.
Lack of access to acceptable sanitation facilities can expose individuals, particularly women, to physical, social, and mental health risks. While some of the challenges have been documented, standard metrics are needed to determine the extent to which women have urination- and defecation-related concerns and negative experiences. Such metrics also are needed to assess the effectiveness of interventions to mitigate them. This study developed a sanitation insecurity measure to capture the range and frequency of women’s sanitation-related concerns and negative experiences.
