More Than a Day: Assessing the Impact of Global Handwashing Day Activities

Each year since 2008, Global Handwashing Day has been celebrated around the world on October 15 with the objectives of: fostering and supporting a global and local culture of handwashing with soap, spotlighting the state of handwashing in individual countries, and raising awareness about the benefits of the practice. This toolkit was designed to help Global Handwashing Day coordinators leverage the profile and enthusiasm generated by Global Handwashing Day and monitor the effects of their activities on awareness and, ultimately, behaviour change over the medium to long term.

As indicated here, communication activities on Global Handwashing Day revolve around three main objectives: advocacy, education, and behaviour change. The opening pages of the resource detail each of these three pillars - noting that, depending on the context of a particular country, the main purpose of the annual celebration's activities will be defined by current priorities, resources, and the general situation regarding behaviour associated with handwashing with soap.

Following this background is a list of 13 monitoring methods that can be used to help assess the state of knowledge on the theme of handwashing with soap in a particular planner's intended community and the impact of Global Handwashing Day activities. These methods are also designed to be useful in taking a snapshot of the current situation, which is required for developing a longer-term strategy for handwashing programming. Methods are outlined that incorporate children (highlighted with an asterisk), provide baseline information, and can help assess the reach of a campaign. The 13 methods include: media tracking; recall survey; recording participation; video/photography; telephone tracking; email survey; monitoring assessments; group discussions; social mapping; role-plays; spot observation; interview; and structured observations.

Table 1 synthesises Global Handwashing Day activities and possible methods of assessment, including: media event; television/radio public service announcements; launch events/celebrity events; telephone text messaging at key times; Guinness Book of Records attempt at having the most number of children wash their hands with soap at one time; creative competitions, including songs/artwork/photos; handwashing learning events (for teachers, health officials, community leaders, and others); school ("edutainment") activities; school curriculum development integrating the handwashing with soap message; community/household behaviour change programmes; school behaviour change programmes; brochures/pamphlets/information notes and other written materials; video; PowerPoint presentation; billboard poster; and school handwashing with soap material.

A key point stressed here is that: "Child-led approaches for monitoring and evaluation can be one of the best ways to assess school-specific but also wider community or household activities carried out during the Day. When using one of the methods that involve children, it is helpful to present them in a way that children feel free to adapt them."

Another table outlines a variety of typical Global Handwashing Day activities with their proposed assessment methods. The resource concludes with a monitoring and evaluation checklist designed to help planners determine whether their programme is ready to be launched.