Draft Title: The Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing: Mainstreaming
Handwashing Behavior Change
Session Summary: Every year, diarrhea and acute respiratory infections cause the death of more
than 3.5 million children under five. These figures could be cut dramatically if handwashing with
soap were widely practiced. The Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap
(PPPHW) was created in 2001 and works to save children’s lives by promoting the awareness of
this simple practice. With a Steering Committee representing 14 of the world’s leading
handwashing-related academic, donor, private sector, and non-profit organizations, the PPPHW
is excited to share with AfricaSan the successes and challenges of mainstream handwashing with
soap around the world. While the session will specifically cover the integration of handwashing
with soap into sanitation-related programs we also have some general mainstreaming lessons that
will be helpful to the participants. We hope that attendees will leave our session excited about
handwashing with soap and armed with tools to integrate handwashing behavior change into
their own programs.
Session Convener: PPPHW (We are working to confirm the facilitator of the session)
Main contact person: Katie Carroll, kcarroll@aed.org, 202-884-8551
Session Design:
Objectives:
1. Share the successes and challenges of mainstreaming handwashing at scale.
2. Inspire participants to integrate handwashing behavior change into their own
sanitation or other related programs/activities.
Format: Panel interview format (TBC) where panelists speak on different aspects of
handwashing behavior change in a directed conversation with a facilitator. If time
permits, we may ask the participants to break into discussion groups to identify three
next steps they can take to integrate handwashing with soap into their own sanitation
programs/activities.
Panel topics (We are still working to finalize the panel topics and panelists. This will determine
how many of the following topics will be covered, but we anticipate 3-4 total).
Facilitator: Introduction of the PPPHW, the importance of handwashing and objectives of the
session.
Proposed Panel topics (organized by PPPHW pillars):
1. Formative research: lessons learned and role in handwashing behavior change program design
(TBD)
2. Program design: Comparison of stand-alone handwashing program to handwashing program
integrated into sanitation, health or other program (exploring with WSP)
3. Public-Private Partnership: The role of soap companies in handwashing behavior change and
sanitation (exploring with private sector partners)
4. Government: Integrating handwashing into government-sponsored national sanitation
programs (TBD)
4. Communications: Best practices for integrating handwashing into campaigns for sanitation,
health, newborn health, etc. (exploring with UNICEF and other partners)
5. Monitoring: Presentation of a handwashing with soap monitoring toolkit (UNICEF)
6. Evaluation: Successes and challenges of integrating handwashing with soap into CLTS
program in Ethiopia (WashPlus)
7. Research: Results of integrating handwashing with soap into nutrition program (exploring
with Johns Hopkins/CDC)