Kenya: translating research into national-scale change: a WASH in schools case study

Translating Research into National-Scale Change: A Case Study from Kenya of WASH in Schools, 2011. SWASH Project.

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Over the past 5 years CARE, Emory University’s Center for Global Safe Water, and Water.org, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Sustaining and Scaling School Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Plus Community Impact (SWASH+) project, have worked to achieve sustainable and national-scale school WASH services in Kenya through applied research and advocacy. The project tested a multi-armed school WASH intervention through a randomized, controlled trial with multiple policy-relevant sub-studies. Research results were then used to advocate for policy change to bring about sustainable school WASH services nationally. These efforts have focused on improving budgeting for operations and maintenance costs, improving accountability systems with a focus on monitoring and evaluation, and more effectively promoting knowledge of WASH through teacher training and the national curriculum.

Advocacy objectives were developed through a problem-tree analysis and stakeholder analyses. SWASH+ used Outcome Mapping to track progress against these objectives. Specific advocacy goals were to identify important policy intervention areas, work with policymakers to update knowledge and identify learning gaps and then act as a learning adviser to the relevant ministries.

Though the project has not achieved all advocacy objectives, it can claim some advances. Lessons for effective school WASH advocacy gained from the program successes and mistakes are as follows:
1) Having a rigorous evidence base creates large amounts of credibility with policymakers.
2) Significant time and follow-up are needed as well as having staff with appropriate skills.
3) The “ripeness” of the external policy environment is crucial and can make or break efforts to affect national-scale change. Successful advocacy initiatives avoid being insular, focus on the external policy environment at the outset, assess data needs and stakeholder roles and responsibilities, and set reasonable objectives.

Kenya: assessing the impact of a school-based water treatment, hygiene and sanitation programme on pupil absence

Tropical Medicine & International Health, December 2011, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3156.2011.02927.x

Assessing the impact of a school-based water treatment, hygiene and sanitation programme on pupil absence in Nyanza Province, Kenya: a cluster-randomized trial

Matthew C. Freeman, Leslie E. Greene, et al.

Objectives  There has been increased attention to access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) at schools in developing countries, but a dearth of empirical studies on the impact. We conducted a cluster-randomized trial of school-based WASH on pupil absence in Nyanza Province, Kenya, from 2007 to 2008.

Methods  Public primary schools nested in three geographical strata were randomly assigned and allocated to one of three study arms [water treatment and hygiene promotion (WT & HP), additional sanitation improvement, or control] to assess the effects on pupil absence at 2-year follow-up.

Results  We found no overall effect of the intervention on absence. However, among schools in two of the geographical areas not affected by post-election violence, those that received WT and HP showed a 58% reduction in the odds of absence for girls (OR 0.42, CI 0.21–0.85). In the same strata, sanitation improvement in combination with WT and HP resulted in a comparable drop in absence, although results were marginally significant (OR 0.47, 0.21–1.05). Boys were not impacted by the intervention.

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Conclusion  School WASH improvements can improve school attendance for girls, and mechanisms for gendered impacts should be explored. Incomplete intervention compliance highlights the challenges of achieving consistent results across all settings.

Africa: political stability and country leadership key to water and sanitation progress

Political stability has heavily influenced progress in improving access to water supply and sanitation services with low-income stable countries outperforming low-income fragile and resource-rich countries.  ”This breaks with the common perception that access to sanitation and water increases with GDP”, says Senior Financial Specialist Dominick de Waal, lead author of a new report [1] by the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program (WSP).

The report, commissioned by the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW),  maps progress  in water supply and sanitation of 32 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. WSP carried out the country studies together with the African Development Bank in close partnership with UNICEF, WHO, and the 32 governments.

Kenya, Eastern Province: Amina Abdalla, “You can’t maintain hygiene without water”

Amina Abdalla, a 45-year-old mother of seven, living in Marsabit District (pop. 121,000), Eastern Province, told IRIN/PlusNews about her daily struggle for water. She knows water is essential for hygiene, but there is not enough and it’s too expensive. She has to get up at 4 a.m. in the morning to queue for water.

“Some of us women come with small children to the water vendor and stay the whole day waiting for our turn. The children cry all day of hunger and the scorching sun, but getting water is the most important thing at that moment.

“At the vendor, it doesn’t matter what is the size of your family. We are just given five jerry cans of 20 litres each and they expect you to use it until after 10 days when you can return for more.

“When I finish my water – which I always do before the end of the 10 days because my family is large – we buy from people who hawk water. They sell one 20 litre container for 50 shillings [US$0.54], which is very expensive but there is little I can do. At times, you end up using money meant for food to buy water because even if you have food, you can’t cook it without water.

To save money, Amina Abdalla’s children can only bathe once every three days, and cannot wash clothes regularly.

“I have seven children but there would have been more; I lost three to cholera because the surroundings are dirty as a result of poor hygiene… You can’t maintain hygiene without water”.

There are boreholes in the forest but women risk be molested by men if they go there or are denied access by herders with their livestock.

“Here in Marsabit, we will have war one day and it will not be about animals or land… War will take place because people will be fighting for water.”

Source: IRIN, 24 Aug 2011

Rwanda: Local NGO Wins Continental Sanitation Award

During the third Africa Sanitation and Hygiene Conference (AfricaSan 3) the Rwanda Environment Care (REC), a local NGO that provides a variety of sanitary facilities across the country, scooped the Utilities Award in Africa for its efforts to improve sanitation and hygiene. Announcing the Utilities Award, the head of Unilever, Dr. Myriam Sindibe said that REC was awarded for raising the bar on service delivery of sanitation services. Others awarded include the Mayor of Ouagadougou, who received the local government award for formulating and implementing clear policies on sanitation that have contributed to large-scale improvement in sanitation and hygiene. Prof. Sandy Cairncross received the AMCOW roll of honour for his outstanding lifetime contribution in advancing the sanitation and hygiene agenda in Africa. Kenya won a hand washing award for the private public partnerships that saw the country win the Guinness World Record for the most number of people washing their hands at the same time at a single location on October 15, 2010. The WASH United received the media award for their sustained coverage of sanitation and hygiene issues have provided high visibility in the media space and contributed to raising the profile of sanitation and hygiene on the continent.

Source: Edwin Musoni, The New Times / allAfrica.com, 23 July 2011 ; Claire Wanja, KBC News, 21 July 2011

 

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Eastern Africa drought: seven million people in need of WASH services

Seven million people, including over 700,000 refugees are in need of waster, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services according to a United Nations report of 15 July 2011.

The drought affecting Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti is being called the worst in 50 years. UN agencies have asked for US$ 1.6 billion to pay for essential programmes in the Horn of Africa, but have only received half that amount so far.

Water trucking is still needed in the driest areas as natural water points failed to refill sufficiently. Two million people have been given better access to safe drinking water so far in 2011.

Paradoxically, some areas in Ethiopia and Somalia are expected to receive above-normal rainfall in the June to September period. This is likely to increase the risk of flooding and subsequent outbreaks of waterborne diseases.

Kenya, Western Province: Lifestraw’s “Carbon for Water” program is “bogus” says Kevin Starr

A project to use carbon credits to finance the free delivery of water filters to 4.5 million people has been sharply criticised by a US expert. Mulago Foundation director Kevin Starr calls Verstergaard Frandsen’s Carbon for Water initiative a “loopy funding scheme paired with a lousy public health solution”. The company maintains it is providing a sustainable solution by guaranteeing free service and repair for the next 10 years.

The Verstergaard Frandsen company, in partnership with the Kenyan Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, has delivered 900,000 of their LifeStraw Family water filters free-of-charge to households in the Western Province of Kenya through their Carbon for Water programme.

Using filters instead of boiling water with firewood will lead to significant reduction in carbon emissions the company says. This earns them carbon credits that they can sell to companies in countries that have carbon caps and exchanges. Vertergaard Frandsen is investing US$ 30 million (Euros 20.7 million) in the project. It expects to generate a CO2 emission reduction of two to 2.5 million tonnes per year which it will sell on the voluntary carbon credit market. The company says it has already made an advance deal worth 1.8 million tonnes of carbon emissions with the US bank JP Morgan Chase, adding that the current market value oscillates between six and 10 euros per tonne.

Kenya, Nairobi: hygiene promotion in schools improves handwashing behaviour

Schools that promote a healthy learning environment for pupils ensure that there is access to water and sanitation facilities and that teachers engage pupils frequently on discussions about health. In these schools the number of children who washed hands frequently increased from six percent to over 80 percent in a period of 10 months.

Researchers from the Nairobi-based African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) worked with 22 primary schools in two informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya under an initiative dubbed Health Promoting Schools (HPS). HPS is a World Health Organization (WHO) initiative that takes a holistic approach in integrating healthy behaviours into all aspects of school life.

Kenya, Nairobi: Unilever enrols 100,000 schoolchildren in handwashing drive

Unilever through its Lifebuoy soap brand has reached 100,000 students in over 80 schools across Nairobi County its hand washing campaign. The “School of Five” campaign aims to get over one million people across Kenya to pledge to the habit of washing their hands with soap on five occasion throughout the day with the help of trained school children and teachers. The campaign is being jointly implemented by Lifebuoy Kenya and Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP).

Lifebuoy School of Five poster

Unilever contracted popular Kenyan singer Esther Wahome, in a two-year “multi-million shilling” deal, to act us brand ambassador  for the Lifebuoy School of Five campaign. In line with the campaign. Mrs Wahome has released a handwashing jingle dubbed Osha Mikono (Wash your hands) to accompany the campaign.

A 2010 clean hands study conducted to check the hand washing habits of Kenyans found that only 15 per cent are aware of the proper hand washing techniques.

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Source: Stanley Njenga, Nairobi Star / allAfrica.com, 09 Jul 2011 ; Hot Secrets, 25 Apr 2011

Kenya: Residents of Narok have been told to practice rain water harvesting.

Speaking to the press on 27 April 2011 Water Management Resources Authority Narok official Jared Anekeyah said “We need to move towards greener water and sanitation projects such as rainwater collection to keep pace with booming urban populations. We should encourage the harvesting of rain water and preserving natural systems such as forests and wetlands which could help to filter waste water that is not treated.”

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Source: Kiplang’at Kirui, Nairobi Star / allAfrica.com, 28 April 2011