Hygiene Education: Does it Change Behaviour?

This paper addresses the apparent failure of most water and sanitation projects to bring about sustained behavioural change. Possible reasons examined are the focus on engineering interventions at the expense of hygiene education aspects, suggesting a need to improve hygiene education components and to re-examine the assumptions behind past hygiene interventions. This paper critically examines the assumptions behind previous hygiene and water and sanitation projects. What is omitted by these assumptions "is the effort to get at the root of people's problems to assist them in making decisions to change their own behaviour. This is a process of empowerment..." The paper therefore argues for the integration of hygiene education with participatory methods. To achieve this, three approaches are suggested: decentralisation of planning to the community; use of rapid appraisal methods; and use of participatory techniques.