The Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) has launched a new Handwashing with Soap Toolkit, intended for water, sanitation and hygiene, public health and other development practitioners who use behavior change strategies to promote the critical need for handwashing with soap. The toolkit is organized into four modules. The first describes the theory of change in projects that target behavioral determinants of handwashing. Achieving sustainability in handwashing programs and integrating handwashing programs into existing services or programs are covered in the second and third modules, and the final module contains resources and publications resulting from the monitoring and evaluation efforts that contributed to the learning objectives of WSP's Global Scaling Up Handwashing project.
Throughout the four modules, users of the toolkit can access narrated instructional presentations, research briefs, working papers and other tools informed by handwashing projects supported by WSP and implemented through government partners and local organizations on a large scale in Peru, Senegal, Tanzania, andVietnam. The modules within the toolkit give explanations and examples of the various materials and tools used to spur positive behavior change, including mass media, direct consumer contact, and interpersonal communication strategies. On specific country pages within the toolkit, for example, users can learn how sustainability in handwashing programs was achieved in Peru through integration in existing service platforms, or learn about what materials were used to deliver handwashing with soap messages among millions of women and children through the Vietnam Women's Union.
Although handwashing with soap can help save children's lives by reducing preventable diseases like diarrhea and acute respiratory infections, it remains an uncommon practice in many countries.
