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Useful materials, methods and tools

Working with materials

Materials and equipment for hygiene promotion cost a lot of money. Contrary to what is often thought, good programmes do not necessarily need to spend most of their budgets on the development and production of materials. They decide what they want to achieve and how, and then decide which techniques, tools and training are needed, which of them are already available and which gaps need to be filled. Often, there is already quite a bit of hygiene promotion material available with a range of programmes and agencies, but much of it may be sitting in offices.

Hygiene promoters do need promotion materials, for their work and to give them an element of status with those they are motivating. Knowing how to work creatively with hygiene promotion and education materials and having access to materials and tools that are flexible and adaptive is more valuable than having a set of standard booklets and posters. Many hygiene promoters who work with local groups also have technical skills that include:

  • the ability to use locally available natural or low cost materials for producing implements and products for better personal and domestic hygiene such as, in rural areas, slabs and sanplats for latrines, wickerwork lining and dried bricks for latrine pits, pots for water filters and sticks for drying frames;
  • the ability to demonstrate to local women and men how natural local materials such as small pebbles and seeds can be used to prepare maps, charts and matrices with which they can map out local conditions and practices for problem identification, analysis, planning and monitoring.

Participatory methods and tools

Participatory methods and tools are a great help in informed planning and decision making. They help not only to plan and monitor the implementation of hygiene improvements, but also to plan and monitor performance of management organisations and financing systems. Methodologies exist that utilise locally available no cost material, e.g. PRA/PLA and MPA or ready-made kits such as PHAST. Cautions on use and costs mentioned above are also valid for programmes that promote community managed hygiene improvements.

Two examples of participatory techniques and tools in community-managed hygiene promotion programmes:

  • Forming a management organisation
    In community-managed hygiene promotion programmes, the presence of a well-functioning, capable, representative and trusted local organisation to manage the programme is crucial to its success. The technique described here helps to form such an organisation, or to see if an existing organisation could be adapted. In an open meeting, women and men discuss the tasks of a water, sanitation and/or health and hygiene committee. For each task, they make a small drawing, write a card (if people are all literate) or choose a life symbol, such as a coin for financial management. They also list, draw or choose symbols for the kind of characteristics and expertise committee members need to have, e.g. live in the community, have time, have consent of husband. A third aspect they consider is which groups the members must represent, e.g. come equally from a red (better-off), blue (middle class) and green (poorer) household. The group thinks of candidates and decides which women and men meet their own criteria and are likely to make a good committee. The group, or local leaders, approach these candidates and a committee is formed.
  • Welfare classification
    This tool helps to integrate attention to poverty in the inventory, analysis, planning and implementation of local community-managed hygiene promotion programmes. First the participants make drawings of a better off, a worse-off and an in-between household. They then list the characteristics of each group. They also count how many of the households in their area fall in each group. For this, they distribute the same number of beans as households over the three drawings. They use the information to identify which houses belong to which group and mark the results on their map. They use the information also to decide if the committee is representative. Alternatively, they use the information to make a summary table. The three socio-economic groups become the rows. The two columns are labelled 'haves' and 'have nots' of an improved facility. The number of owned facilities are distributed over the cells with the help of beans, one per household. The outcome shows who is worst-off and may need help.

For community planning, implementation and monitoring, many other participatory tools/techniques are available. Social marketing programmes tend to use group-adjusted audio-visual and printed materials for information and knowledge and back these up by interpersonal contacts to achieve behaviour change. These contacts are often through home visits. However, one can also work in homogenous groups and use participatory tools. A growing number of such tools for hygiene work are available.