Handwashing Compendium for Low Resource Settings: A Living Document

"Community engagement is essential to the success of hygiene promotion activities. People must be able to feedback and interact with information in a two-way dialogue rather than receiving it passively through one-way communication..."

In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Sanitation Learning Hub (SLH) at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) developed this living document that can be used to support increased access to handwashing facilities and to promote positive handwashing behaviours in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Bringing existing information from different organisations into one place, the compendium provides guidance, local examples of, and further resources on accessible, low-cost handwashing facilities, environmental cues, and physically distanced hygiene promotion. It covers facilities for both individual households and multiple users (in densely populated urban areas, prisons, schools, etc.).

The first major section provides information on handwashing facilities. Because it "is important to create and maintain an enabling environment to encourage and sustain good handwashing behaviour," tips on how to design and locate handwashing facilities so that they are accessible to all and remind people to wash their hands with soap are provided. These can be applied to any of the technologies that the compendium then goes on to describe. Examples of technologies that can be used to set up handwashing facilities in households, public places, and institutions are given, with a short description of each facility, pictures, advantages and disadvantages, accessibility considerations, and variations that can be made based on local contexts and materials available.

Alongside the provision and promotion of handwashing facilities, as noted here, it is necessary to promote handwashing with soap at key times amongst community members. "Hygiene promotion efforts must seek to engage and include everyone in a community, including men, women, boys and girls; people with disabilities and chronic illnesses; people of all ages, genders, economic backgrounds, sexual orientations, races, ethnicities and religions." Guidance on engaging and communicating with communities at a distance and examples of communication channels are provided.

The SLH developed this 2nd edition after asking for feedback from the sector (available to download below). This edition includes sections on drainage, taps, pumps and water dispensers for handwashing, and new handwashing technologies, as well as several new local examples of handwashing facilities and examples of community engagement processes designed to promote handwashing. Further editions will be released as further feedback and good practice emerges.

The compendium concludes with links to various related resources, followed by a handwashing technology template.

The Sanitation Learning Hub (SLH), previously known as the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) Knowledge Hub, supports learning and sharing across the international sanitation and hygiene (S&H) sector. The SLH uses participatory approaches to engage with practitioners, policymakers, and the communities they serve. If you have any feedback, please contact the SLH on SLH@ids.ac.uk.