Integrating Behavior Change and Hygiene in Public Policy : Four Key Dimensions
During the past decade countries in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region have lifted more than 50 million people out of poverty, yet half of the rural population in the region still lacks access to sanitation and approximately 20 percent to drinking water. In January 2012, policy makers, scholars, and practitioners from nine LAC countries came together in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to explore the opportunities and challenges of integrating in a more systematic and sustainable way the promotion of hygiene and sanitation behavioral change into water and sanitation investments. During the conference in Santo Domingo, it became evident that a common understanding is currently emerging from most countries in the sense that infrastructure by itself will not solve the global problems of inadequate access to improved sanitation and potable water, unless people adopt new behaviors. Therefore, there is a need to spread learning on best practices to implement cost effective water, sanitation and hygiene models, which bring about change at home and in the community at scale. This paper highlights key issues that arose in presentations and group discussions during the conference, which, can lead to substantial improvements in the provision of a multi-sector approach to hindering sustainable water and sanitation services for all.
| Summary: | During the past decade countries in the
Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region have lifted more
than 50 million people out of poverty, yet half of the rural
population in the region still lacks access to sanitation
and approximately 20 percent to drinking water. In January
2012, policy makers, scholars, and practitioners from nine
LAC countries came together in Santo Domingo, Dominican
Republic to explore the opportunities and challenges of
integrating in a more systematic and sustainable way the
promotion of hygiene and sanitation behavioral change into
water and sanitation investments. During the conference in
Santo Domingo, it became evident that a common understanding
is currently emerging from most countries in the sense that
infrastructure by itself will not solve the global problems
of inadequate access to improved sanitation and potable
water, unless people adopt new behaviors. Therefore, there
is a need to spread learning on best practices to implement
cost effective water, sanitation and hygiene models, which
bring about change at home and in the community at scale.
This paper highlights key issues that arose in presentations
and group discussions during the conference, which, can lead
to substantial improvements in the provision of a
multi-sector approach to hindering sustainable water and
sanitation services for all. |
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