Diarrhoea and acute respiratory infection are leading causes of death in Kenyan children (WHO, 2010). In order to move toward Millennium Development Goal 4 to reduce childhood mortality, it is critical to address behaviours that can reduce these infections. In 2009, the Kenya National Strategic Plan for Handwashing with Soap set a goal of increasing handwashing with soap at critical times, such as after toileting or before eating, from 5% to 30% by 2011. The Strategic Plan recommended targeting handwashing programmes to school children because they may be more amenable to behaviour change than adults and because they can act as advocates for behaviour change in their families and communities.

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This Field Note is part of the UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Sanitation and Hygiene Learning Series, designed to improve knowledge of best practice and lessons learnt in sanitation and hygiene programming across the Region. The series has been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundationin support of improved knowledge management in the sanitation sector. The documents in this series cover the following topics:

•             CLTS at-scale
•             Small towns sanitation
•             Mobile-enabled sanitation and hygiene programming
•             Regional supply chains for sanitation
•             Sanitation marketing
•             Handwashing with soap
•             CLTS in fragile contexts