To maximize impacts, community engagement components along with sufficient budget and post-project continuity plans need to be embedded in the design of projects that entail behavioral change. This project's community engagement component was designed and implemented as a broad-based outreach program to encourage behavioral change in personal waste disposal and hygiene, especially handwashing with soap, across all communities in South Tarawa. It helped create social structures in communities, such as mothers’ health committees, that worked to promote better practices and raise awareness of the link between sanitatin and health. It also made the people more aware of the benefits of getting connected to the public sanitation systems as they become available. Thus, it succeeded in its key aim to considerably reduce the incidence of waterborne diseases. As permanent behavioral change can only be expected with sustained efforts over a longer period, continuity plans for the community engagement component beyond project completion were also mapped out.
South Tarawa Sanitation Improvement Sector Project