Water, sanitation, and hygiene

Reports

Cover photo: A mother and father with their child, sitting outside on a bench consulting with a health worker. Photo: Abdoul Khalighi Diallo for SPRING.

Guinea: Formative Assessment of Household Maternal, Infant, and Young Child Nutrition and Hygiene Practices

Introduction

Keywords: Maternal, infant, and young child nutrition, Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Essential nutrition actions, Social and behavior change communication
Location: Guinea
Cover photo: a mother in Sierra Leone bending down, carrying her infant child on her back as she uses a tippy-tap to wash her hands

Shifting Nutrition and Hygiene Behaviors in Sierra Leone Utilizing Trials of Improved Practices

The SPRING project, together with Helen Keller International (HKI), recently used Trials of Improved Practices (TIPs), a qualitative research methodology, to design social and behavior...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Social and behavior change communication
Location: Sierra Leone

Training Materials

Photo of three women looking at the toolkit materials.

Training Community Volunteers on Nutrition and Hygiene Module Toolkit

This toolkit is designed to provide program implementers with training session modules, job aids, and social and behavior change communication (SBCC) materials to help community volunteers...

Keywords: Training, Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Location: Kyrgyz Republic
A woman holding a baby watches another woman use a tippy tap

DYNASET-SETAL: Pour la Lutte Contre la Malnutrition à Travers le Maintien de la Propreté Autour de l’Enfant

La formation Dynaset-setal a pour principal objectif d’informer les cellules sur le lien entre l’hygiène et la nutrition, et de leur fournir les connaissances de base nécessaires pour...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Handwashing
Location: Senegal

Videos

Animated image taken from the video showing a happy family outside their clean latrine and tap.

Clean Latrines (Kyrgyz)

SPRING/Kyrgyz Republic works with media partners and the Ministry of Health to develop and share videos on key nutrition messages across the country. This animated video contains key...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Clean household approach, Essential nutrition actions, Social and behavior change communication
Location: Kyrgyz Republic
Image from the video showing two animated figures cleaning a latrine.

Clean Latrines (Russian)

SPRING/Kyrgyz Republic works with media partners and the Ministry of Health to develop and share videos on key nutrition messages across the country. This animated video contains key...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Clean household approach, Essential nutrition actions, Social and behavior change communication
Location: Kyrgyz Republic
Photo to Illustration Tutorial intro slide

Photo to Illustration Tutorial

This tutorial demonstrates the steps of the technical process, from reference photography to line drawing, color, volume, patterns, and a final image for layout. Both program managers and...

Keywords: Training, Infant and young child feeding, Maternal, infant, and young child nutrition, Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Social and behavior change communication
Animation of two boys with a thought bubble between them showing fruit under a water tap.

Preventing Worm Infection: Kyrgyz Republic Television Spot (Russian)

SPRING/Kyrgyz Republic works with media partners to develop and share videos on key nutrition messages across the country. This animated video shares the importance of properly washing and...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Handwashing
Location: Kyrgyz Republic
Animated boy with a thought bubble of himself washing his hands

Preventing Worm Infection: Kyrgyz Republic Television Spot (Kyrgyz)

SPRING/Kyrgyz Republic works with media partners to develop and share videos on key nutrition messages across the country. This animated video shares the importance of properly washing and...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Handwashing
Location: Kyrgyz Republic
Three older women watch as a school-aged girl shows them how to use a tippy tap.

Community Video (Senegal): Les Moments Critiques du Lavage des Mains

Ya Ngoné is a fish vendor and lactating mother who lives and works in Djilor, a village not far from the sea in Senegal. She is very careful about hand hygiene and is supported in these...

Keywords: Nutrition-sensitive, Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Location: Senegal
A man and his young son bend over a bowl to wash their hands. The father is teaching the son how.

Community Video (Senegal): Hygiène dans la Maison

El Hadj, a father in Senegal who cares about the health of his family, is very attached to his home. Knowing the importance of good hygiene in preventing illness like diarrhea, malaria, and...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Community media, Handwashing, Nutrition-sensitive
Location: Senegal

Success Stories

Photo of a child washing her hands with a tippy tap as several other children look on. Caption: "Children in the village of Touba Mourid have fun practicing proper hygiene by washing their hands at a special handwashing station or tippy tap."

Hygiene Champions Improve Health in Senegal, One Village at a Time

SPRING trained Mariama and more than 250 other community members from 3 of Senegal’s 14 regions to establish and lead hygiene monitoring units. These units consist of 6-10 highly engaged...

Keywords: Handwashing, Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Location: Senegal
Photograph of several women and men looking at notes posted on a large bulletin board and having a discussion. Caption: "CHAIN partners reflect on joint activities they developed during a November 2016 workshop."

Finding a Shared Purpose: Strengthening Coordination and Collaboration for Improved Nutrition in Rwanda

SPRING worked with USAID | Rwanda to develop collaboration goals among CHAIN partners and prepared an analysis of the 11 partners’ existing work and monitoring and evaluation (M&E)...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Social and behavior change communication
Location: Rwanda
Photo of a man, Tengdo Kuzoba, standing by his latrine and tippy tap.

Community Video Spurs Collective Action to Improve Sanitation in Ghana

In rural Kpatia-Tengre, a 131-member community in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region of Ghana, a lack of latrines resulted in community members openly defecating around homes and...

Keywords: Community media, Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Handwashing
Location: Ghana
A woman picks okra in her field.

Clean Fields Bring Stronger Yields

Identifying a need for better hygiene in Yiziidug, in 2016, SPRING introduced community-led total sanitation (CLTS) to Yiziidug.

Keywords: Dietary diversity, Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Thousand days
Location: Ghana

Galleries

A couple talks to a visitor about growing Indian spinach. The couple explains that their Indian spinach sells quickly in the market. Consumers know how the spinach is grown and that the plant is nutritious. Photo credit: Sarah Hogan, 2017

Growing Spinach for Nutrition: Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Community Video in India

Under the UPAVAN project, SPRING and Digital Green create community videos promoting nutrition-sensitive agriculture practices in Odisha, India.

Keywords: Agriculture, Dietary diversity, Communication, Complementary feeding, Nutrition-sensitive, Maternal, infant, and young child nutrition, Nutrient-dense crops, Handwashing, Infant and young child feeding, Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Social and behavior change communication
Location: India
The video development team watches as a neighbor explains benefits of poultry raising for the family, “Small scale poultry farming at home can be beneficial for you and it can meet your short term financial needs.” Photo credit: Sarah Hogan, 2017

Benefits of Chicken Raising: Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Community Video in India

Under the UPAVAN project, SPRING and Digital Green create community videos promoting nutrition-sensitive agriculture practices in Odisha, India. This community video shows neighbors...

Keywords: Agriculture, Dietary diversity, Communication, Complementary feeding, Food security, Handwashing, Infant and young child feeding, Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Social and behavior change communication
Location: India
Photo: SPRING/Senegal nutrition advisor, Mariam Sy, speaks to guests about SPRING’s accomplishments in nutrition, gender and hygiene at one of the stands set up to showcase project achievements.

SPRING/Senegal Celebrates End of 18 Months of Implementation with Close-out Ceremonies in Kaolack and Dakar

SPRING/Senegal organized two close-out ceremonies to mark the end of 18 months of implementation – one in Kaolack and one in Dakar. Both ceremonies showcased the project’s work in nutrition...

Keywords: Maternal, infant, and young child nutrition, Nutrition-sensitive, Social and behavior change communication, Gender, Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Location: Senegal
Dynaset-setal members speak during a village gathering to remind community members of key hygiene messages.

Local Influencers Promote and Monitor Household Hygiene in Senegal

As part of SPRING/Senegal’s multi-sectoral nutrition strategy, hygiene monitoring teams known as dynaset-setal groups conduct regular home visits to ensure that households meet basic...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Handwashing
Location: Senegal
SPRING/Senegal SBCC Advisor Albert Boubane, standing in the bed of a truck, distributes water to participants before the hike.

SPRING/Senegal Organizes Hike to Promote Nutrition, Agriculture, Gender and Hygiene Messages

On August 9, 2017, SPRING/Senegal and partner radio station Niombato FM organized a promotional hike in Toubacouta Village.

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Agriculture, Gender
Location: Senegal

News

A graphic representation of a woman cleaning a yard of animal feces, disposing of the feces responsibly, and washing her hands with a tippy tap.

How to Make “Good” Better: The Science of Improving Program Impact

SPRING co-facilitated a session on implementation science with GAIN and the Society for Implementation Science in Nutrition at GWU’s Global Health MiniU in September 2017.

Keywords: Agriculture, Clean household approach, Community mobilization, Enteropathy, Handwashing, Nutrition-sensitive, Nutrition-specific, Social and behavior change communication, Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Location: Kyrgyz Republic, Sierra Leone
Photo: SPRING/Senegal’s Agriculture/Markets Officer, Mamadou Ba, holds up a photo of one of the cereal processing units that SPRING helped install in communities.

Celebrating 18 Months of Implementation: SPRING/Senegal Holds Close-out Ceremonies in Kaolack and Dakar

SPRING/Senegal organized two close-out ceremonies in Kaolack and in Dakar to showcase 18 months of implementation in the areas of nutrition-sensitive agriculture, SBCC, gender, and WASH.

Keywords: Agriculture, Gender, Social and behavior change communication, Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Nutrition-sensitive
Location: Senegal
Picture of a group of people looking over a collection of nutrition informational materials on a table.

Successes in Multi-Sectoral Nutrition: Sharing Lessons Learned from SPRING/Ghana

SPRING/Ghana hosted a learning event to share important lessons and celebrate accomplishments in improving maternal and child nutrition in the country from 2014-2017.

Keywords: Aflatoxin, Agriculture, Anemia, Social and behavior change communication, Infant and young child feeding, Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Location: Ghana

Briefs

Photo of three women smiling as they work a pump to fill a tub with water, a white bull stands to the left.

Seeing is Believing in Niger: Fourth Round of Data Collection

In this slide document, we present findings from a fourth round of data collection completed in May 2017 in Niger to measure the sustained effect of the community video activities. The...

Location: Niger
Photo of a woman demonstrating hwo to properly use a tippy tap. Caption: Tippy tap demonstrations in Dinyogu Community and Primary School - in Gushiegu District.

Engaging Community Members to Adopt Effective WASH Practices for Nutrition

SPRING’s “WASH 1,000” strategy promotes focused, evidence-based WASH behaviors to eliminate common fecal-oral contamination pathways in children during the first 1,000 days. The strategy...

Location: Ghana

Events

Woman feeding child on her lap.

Introducing New SPRING - UNICEF Resources to Develop/Adapt High Quality Images for Nutrition

High-quality visual images are an essential component of nutrition and health social and behavior change (SBC) programming but can be difficult to find or produce.

Keywords: Communication, Infant and young child feeding, Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Location: Online

Job Aids and Tools

Front page of document. Please download for alt-text.

Counselling Cards: Hygiene Practices - Sierra Leone

SPRING/Sierra Leone created a set of counselling cards that address key complementary feeding and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) behaviors for the Sierra Leonean context.

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Complementary feeding, Handwashing
Location: Sierra Leone
A young child grins at the camera as she washes her hands at a tippy tap.

WASH 1,000 Approach Photo-Aid

The WASH 1,000 Photo-Aid depicts a series of behaviors centered on WASH. These behaviors are targeted at 1,000-day households, but the general population can also use them.

Keywords: Handwashing, Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Location: Ghana
On one side of the ruler is a poem with key messages about the importance of hand washing, drinking clean water, and eating healthy foods to avoid illness. The other side of the ruler reminds children to wash hands with soap before eating, after visiting the toilet, after playing, and after coming home from school.

Deworming School Ruler and Facility Poster

SPRING/Kyrgyz Republic has designed a ruler with key messages on preventing helminth infections to be distributed to primary school children.

Keywords: Handwashing, Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Location: Kyrgyz Republic

Activities

dashboard that shows a map of Burkina Faso with the areas in which SPRING works highlighted in green.

Developing a GIS Mapping tool to Explore and Coordinate SBC Activities in the Sahel

SPRING is developing an interactive GIS mapping tool that allows users to view the geographic distribution and summaries of nutrition, WASH, and SBC activities in the Sahel, making...

Keywords: Mobile Health, Social and behavior change communication, Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Location: Sahel, Burkina Faso, Niger

Pages

Resource Review Summaries

WASHplus

The WASHplus project supports healthy households and communities by creating and delivering interventions that lead to significant improvements in access, practices, and health outcomes...

Keywords: Anemia, Water, sanitation, and hygiene

Converging for Nutrition - ENUFF Technical Brief

SNV’s ENUFF project in Lao PDR integrates activities in gender, agriculture, nutrition, and WASH to improve the nutritional status of families in the country's northern region. The project'...

Keywords: Agriculture, Gender, Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Food systems, Multi-sector
Location: Laos

Triggering for Positive Behaviour Change in Nutrition

This technical brief provides an overview of community SBCC and triggering on positive nutrition and hygiene behaviours. It summarises some key insights and findings from Sustainable...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Dietary diversity, Social and behavior change communication
Location: Zambia, Uganda

Is Exposure to Animal Feces Harmful to Child Nutrition and Health Outcomes?: A Multicountry Observational Analysis

This journal article investigates the extent of children’s exposure to animal feces and whether this exposure is associated with child anthropometry. Using diverse, large samples of data...

Keywords: Agriculture, Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Location: Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Vietnam

Improved Sanitation Facilities are Associated with Higher Body Mass Index and Higher Hemoglobin Concentration among Rural Cambodian Women in the First Trimester of Pregnancy

This study assessed the role of sanitation on nutrition outcomes and anemia status in pregnant Cambodian women. The authors found that women who used an ‘improved’ sanitation facility had...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Anemia
Location: Cambodia

The Ministry of Health of Peru Trains Mothers in Charge of Communal Kitchens to Combat Anaemia in Young Children

On January 30, 2016, Peru’s Ministry of Health came together with the Ministry of Education for an event on anemia prevention. The event targeted mothers who coordinate communal kitchens in...

Keywords: Anemia, Dietary diversity, Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Micronutrient, Supplementation, Training
Location: Peru

Multisectoral Approaches to Improving Nutrition: Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

A growing body of evidence shows strong connections between poor sanitation and stunting, and provides a basis for this paper’s focus on achieving better nutrition outcomes from both the...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Nutrition-sensitive

Preventing Environmental Enteric Dysfunction through Improved Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: An Opportunity for Stunting Reduction in Developing Countries: The Impoverished Gut and Stunting Reduction

In 2011, one in every four children under 5 years of age worldwide was stunted. The realization that most stunting cannot be explained by poor diet or by diarrhea, nor completely reversed...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Infant and young child feeding

Multisectoral Approaches to Improving Nutrition: Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

Given the range of drivers of nutrition—spanning multiple sectors of agriculture, social protection, health, WASH, and education—tackling undernutrition demands a multisectoral response....

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Multi-sector, Agriculture

The Making of Nutrition Stars: Community Videos Help Farming Families Improve Nutrition

This photo essay explores livelihoods in Bangladesh in detail, focusing on a woman farmer who learned how to improve sanitation in her community through a community video program. With...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Agriculture
Location: Bangladesh

The Sanitation Hygiene Infant Nutrition Efficacy (SHINE) Trial: Rationale, Design, and Methods

The Sanitation Hygiene Infant Nutrition Efficacy (SHINE) trial centers around the premise that environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) is a main underlying cause of child stunting and...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Anemia

Improving Nutrition Outcomes With Better Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: Practical Solutions for Policies and Programmes

There is emerging evidence to suggest that safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) practices play an imperative role in improving nutrition outcomes, including the treatment and...

Keywords: Anemia, Water, sanitation, and hygiene

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) and Nutrition

Approaches combining WASH and nutrition interventions are necessary to improve population’s nutritional status. This webinar focused on connecting WASH and nutrition approaches when...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene

Is Reliable Water Access The Solution To Undernutrition?

This paper aims to connect the dots and review the literature available on the linkages between irrigation and food security, improved nutrition, and health. Based on the limited evidence...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene

Review Paper on ‘Garden Kits’ in Africa: Lessons Learned and the Potential of Improved Water Management

Garden kits that pay specific attention to small-scale irrigation might hold the key to stronger food security for smallholder farmers. A new study recommends an approach to building better...

Keywords: Home gardens, Water, sanitation, and hygiene

Nutritional Status of Women and Children: A 2014 Update on Nutritional Status by Sociodemographic and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Indicators Collected In Demographic and Health Surveys

The role of nutrition-sensitive interventions in achieving global nutrition targets has been made abundantly clear. WASH is a cross-cutting area with a significant impact. This report...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene

Effectiveness of a Rural Sanitation Programme on Diarrhoea, Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infection, and Child Malnutrition in Odisha, India: A Cluster-Randomised Trial

This randomized control trial examined the effectiveness of a rural sanitation intervention to prevent diarrhea, soil-transmitted helminth infection, and child malnutrition in India....

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Malnutrition
Location: India

WASHplus Weekly Update – Focus on WASH and Nutrition

The September WASHplus community update focuses on linkages between WASH and nutrition. This edition includes links to a research article on child undernutrition and the gut microbiome, a...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene
Location: India

Reducing Child Undernutrition: Past Drivers and Priorities for the Post-MDG Era

Working to update their previous IFPRI work, “Explaining Child Malnutrition in Developing Countries” (2000), Lisa Smith and Lawrence Haddad draw on data from 1970-2012 across 116 countries...

Keywords: Malnutrition, Water, sanitation, and hygiene, Women's empowerment

WASHplus Weekly Update – Focus on WASH and Nutrition

This update from the WASHplus community includes a special emphasis on the intersection between WASH and nutrition. Relevant webinars and reports from USAID, FHI360, JSI, Wash Advocates,...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene

WASH, Nutrition and Early Childhood Development: New Evidence in ECD and Findings from the Field

This webinar included a presentation focused on addressing environmental enteropathy in CARE's Nutrition at the Center Program and new evidence linking WASH, nutrition and early child...

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene

The Nexus of WASH & Nutrition Community of Practice Literature Update

The February 2014 edition of the WASH/Nutrition Literature Update included a wide range of articles, including a study that examines the relationship between WASH, environmental enteropathy...

Keywords: Enteropathy, Water, sanitation, and hygiene

The Nexus of WASH & Nutrition Community of Practice January Literature Update

The January 2014 edition of the WASH/Nutrition Literature Update included a wide range of articles, including several studies that examined WASH and food safety.

Keywords: Water, sanitation, and hygiene