Baseline Data to Guide Handwashing Intervention in Peru


A new technical paper from the World-Bank administered Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) found that only half of care-givers in 3,526 households in rural Peru wash hands with soap at times of fecal contact, and that 10 percent of children under five presented diarrhea symptoms in the previous 48 hours - although on average 55 percent of caregivers did not seek medical advice. An average of 20 percent of households surveyed had no sanitation facilities of any type.

WSP is testing approaches to learn what works to create and sustain handwashing with soap behavior change. To establish the causal effect of project interventions on specific health and welfare measures, the project is conducting an impact evaluation (IE) using a randomized-controlled experimental design. The study, Scaling Up Handwashing Behavior: Findings from the Impact Evaluation Baseline Survey in Peru by Sebastian Galiani and Alexandra Orsola-Vidal,includes pre-intervention (baseline), concurrent (longitudinal), and post-intervention (endline) surveys administered by WSP-contracted firms in each project country (Peru, Senegal, Tanzania, and Vietnam).

"This study offers new, relevant data that will help us determine the health impacts of these hygiene interventions and shed some light on the role of behavior change," said Bertha Briceno, senior impact evaluation specialist for the project.

For more information, visit this feature story, contact Bertha Briceno, wsp@worldbank.org , or visit www.wsp.org/scalinguphandwashing.

Download Full Document: http://www.wsp.org/wsp/sites/wsp.org/files/publications/WSP_PeruBaselineStudy_HWWS.pdf