Water, Sanitation and
Hygiene
Advocacy and
Communication
Strategy Framework
2012-17
Key WASH behaviours addressed by the Strategy –
based on available evidence
• Building and use of toilets
• The safe disposal of child faeces
• Handwashing with soap after
defecation, before preparing
and eating food, and after
handling child faeces
• Safe storage and handling of
drinking water
Strategy focus
 Immediate objective is to raise awareness
and change existing perceptions about
the importance of sanitation and hygiene
practices,
 The long term objective is to change
social norms making open defecation
unacceptable and promoting the practice
of safe disposal of child faeces,
handwashing with soap and safe storage
and handling of drinking water among
all.
Promoting Individual Behaviour Change
Knowledge
CHANGE
Focus on change at
different levels
Multiple dimensions
influence individual
behaviour as depicted in
the figure below
Interpersonal factors,
socio- cultural and
policy environments all
influence sanitation and
hygiene behaviours
STRUCTURAL ENVIRONMENT
Infrastructure, economic barriers
PUBLIC POLICY
National, state, local laws
INSTITUTIONAL
Staff capacities, resources, mandate
SOCIO-CULTURAL
Community norms and social networks
INTERPERSONAL
Family & friends
INDIVIDUAL
Knowledge,
attitudes, skills,
practices
C4D - ICO
The Core of the Communication Strategy
Audiences’
Knowledge/
Perceptions
Needs,
challenges,
problems,
opportunities
Info-Com
Systems
Baseline &
other studies
Communication
Objectives
Primary &
Secondary
Audiences
Activities
Communication
Approaches
Messages/
Themes/Media
Communication Objectives
 To raise mass awareness make the
identified audiences more
conscious about issues related to
the importance of sanitation and
hygiene
 To influence decision makers and
opinion leaders to advocate for
improved sanitation and hygiene
standards
 Ensure that households have
knowledge of the linkages between
sanitation, hygiene and health
leading to increase public demand
for quality sanitation services and
adoption of hygiene practices.
Three phases of the communication strategy
PHASE 1
Awareness raising
PHASE 2
Advocacy
PHASE 3
Social and Behaviour
Change
• Raise visibility of the importance of good sanitation
and hygiene behaviours. Increase awareness on the
risks and implications of open defecation
• To provide influencers and decision makers with
the information they need, encourage them to
speak up take action for positive change. Get
Support & create an enabling environment for
change
• To empower individuals and families to make
decisions based on correct information , Stigmatize
risky practices, promote healthy norms and practices
Is knowledge enough to change?
• Knowledge, when packaged in messages, must
have an effective appeal to promote the
intended change, such as
• Love
• Reward (e.g. economic)
• Social recognition/compliance
• Fear
• Disgust
Audience?
Action?
Why do it?
The Problem/Solution Tree
for getting more income
Not being
able to work
Being Sick
Having to pay
for medications
Having to
attend sick
children
Etc.
Not knowing
what to do
Magazine ads
Champions – Social
emulation/pressure
Looking at Smoking from the
Audience’s Point of View
Allure of smoking
•Brand identity (cool, hip)
•Independence (rebellion)
•Individuality
•Nicotine high
•Relieves stress
Allure of non-smoking
•Healthy (no sicknesses, no
wrinkles)
• Makes feel some adults
proud as they provide a good
example
DISGUST
In addition to knowledge, behaviour change
happens through IPC and social pressure
• Dialogue, counseling and open forum discussion
are best methods to empower and internalize the
need for change
• Social pressure is also
key to promote change
How do new ideas spread ?
The diffusion of Innovation Theory
Innovators
2%
Early
Adopters
14%
Early Majority
34%
Late Majority
34%
Late
Adopters
10%
Resistors
6%
Individuals and peers groups can effectively influence
others groups and draw them in to be more open to new
ideas, as their peers have already modeled before them.
Production Mode v. Strategic Mode
IEC Production
Social Behaviour
Change Comm.
Key focus
Production of communication Research, evidence-based
materials based on technical strategy, audience-focused,
solutions
media mix, participatory
approaches
Comm. Mode
One-way (monologic)
Mix of one-way and two-way
(dialogic)
Advantages
Easy and quick to produce
Higher impact and higher
degree of sustainability
Disadvantages
Of little effectiveness, unless Require a longer process (but
carefully researched, planned achieve better results)
and integrated
A common fallacy when developing
the communication strategy
THE WRONG WAY
THE BETTER WAY
Deciding the solution and
developing the strategy based
solely on WHAT is happening;
e.g. Open defecation (how
many and who) → Latrines
(how many and for whom)
Focusing on the causes of
WHY it is happening (reasons,
perceptions) and/or WHY the
solution is not being adopted
(with plus and minus)
In any case, stakeholders’ participation and engagement is
what can prevent many of the problems experienced in such
instances
Implementation framework
• A detailed implementation
framework has been developed
based on the three identified
phases
• It lists out the primary and
secondary stakeholders, the
activities to be used with each of
them and the inputs required
The implementation framework
provides guidance for states to
develop state-specific action
plans for rolling out of the
strategy.
A district communication plan
template has been developed.
Evidence of effectiveness in longitudinal studies shows:
Isolated interventions, focused on
behavior change at individual level
are not sufficiently effective in the
long run
The most effective is:
A wide range of interventions at
different levels, for a sufficient time and
according to the needs of states/districts
and communities
Monitoring and evaluation framework
(to be planned from the start)
M &E framework has been developed with indicators for all the
three phases. The indicators are organized at three levelsOutcome Indicators
To assess the effectiveness of the strategy in meeting the
stated objective. These are defined by behavioural
results, policy changes or changes in social norms
specified from the very outset
Output Indicators
Refers to milestones/intermediate results of the
communication interventions
Process Indicators
Used to assess how well the communication plan is being
implemented and to adjust the activities to meet the
objectives
Thank you