Saher Zafar - Designing a National Behaviour Change Campaign for Rural Cambodia

Every year the health of children under 5 years old in Cambodia is jeopardized due to a lack of good sanitation and hygiene, leading to undernutrition and stunting. Not washing hands with soap, exposure to harmful faeces in the environment, and drinking unsafe contaminated water are some of the main causes of life-threatening child illnesses such as diarrhea, which also affects brain development in the first 5 years.

So how can we ensure caregivers teach children in Cambodia to practice good sanitation and hygiene habits so they grow up healthy?

Learn how the iDE Cambodia Innovation Lab designed a national Social Behavior Change (SBC) campaign to improve child-centered water, sanitation and hygiene practices, creating an aligned strategy for everyone in the country to use. The campaign puts people at the center of the process and ends with innovative solutions that are tailor-made to suit their needs and create positive impact. With multi-stakeholder collaboration and 18 months of research and testing, it incorporates many approaches, including new services, products and tools that can be used in a sustainable way by the local community.

Transcript

1. Behavior change is a process and needs to go beyond awareness.
2. Define the problem, people, practices, and have a clear goal in mind.
3. Be willing to test and iterate. Even “good” ideas can fail.
4. Constantly engage with multiple stakeholders and consider all agendas and needs along the way.
5. Be strategic. Make decisions. Prioritize. This will help you to know what feedback is necessary and when to move forward.
6. Behavior change is hard and it takes time...but if we understand people, create informed nudges and an enabling environment, we can influence actions.
7. Want to connect with The iDE Innovation Lab? facebook.com/ideinnovationlab @ideinnovationlab innovationlab@ideglobal.org For more information about our process and case studies, scan this code!
8. Saher Zafar linkedin.com/in/saherzafar Feel free to connect with me for questions, feedback, discussions….