Thanks for flagging this article--I had not yet seen it and find it quite interesting. ZimAHEAD who undertook the work  in the brief you shared also trained the Amalima team on the CHC approach during the earliest stages of the project (Amalima is the project in the brief I posted that combined VSL/IGA + CHCs). Having this support from ZimAHEAD at the earliest stages of the project was a fantastic opportunity for the Amalima team to learn from the ~20-25 years of experience that ZimAHEAD has in CHCs and to use these learnings to inform the program design. 

Thank you for sharing this learning brief on ''Integrating Savings and Income Generating Activities into Community Health Clubs to Improve Latrine Construction in Zimbabwe''.   It is quite a useful and interesting approach to share. I felt it would be great to look into what other similar interventions exist across the continent, for possible knowledge sharing options, and some really interesting examples presented themselves below.

Community Health Clubs have been introduced in several countries, and Rwanda is one of the countries in which Community Health Clubs have proved to be an effective tool in facilitating sanitation and hygiene behavioral change. Community Health Clubs have helped community members to prioritize having modern latrines and have provided a platform that teaches people about sanitation and hygiene in order to improve their environmental health, read more about the Rwanda example here .

EXTRACT FROM ARTICLE:

Community health clubs are changing minds. The Nturanyenabos are members of a local health club called Isoko y’Ubuzima, meaning “the source of healthy life.” They attend club meetings and activities weekly. The club teaches people about sanitation and hygiene to improve their environmental health and nutrition.Some families do not lack a latrine or hygiene and sanitation practices because of poverty, but because they have no information about the associated benefits and risks. Sharing this knowledge is a key goal for members of the community health clubs. Jean determined to upgrade his latrine after a random joint visit to his home by Gikuriro and Rwamagana District authorities, including Vice Mayor of Social Affairs Umutoni Jeanne.

In an attempt to promote hygiene in Burkina Faso a similar program was implemented called the “ Saniya program”,  like the ZIMHEAD program in Zimbabwe it concentrated on understanding people's behavioral practices and hence how to change that behavior, by promoting and demonstrating ideas that can be applied on a larger scale. The Saniya program aimed to promote a small number of safe hygiene options and used local channels of communication to reach the target groups. Read more here  . Since this article makes some reference to Zimbabwe, i wonder if this has some relationship with your work Nicole?

This learning brief focused on the efforts made to solve the economic aspect or reason for poor latrine construction through community health clubs, however, aside from the economic reasons for poor latrine construction there exists socio-cultural reasons that can still hinder progress even after effective integration of income-generating activities. The socio-cultural reasons and additional reasons are provided here . 

Regards,
Chaiwe.

PRO-WASH and Amalima have recently published a learning brief on  Integrating Savings and Income Generating Activities into Community Health Clubs to improve latrine construction in Zimbabwe.  It is available here. 

Short description
In rural Zimbabwe, the Amalima project implemented a project promoting Community Health Clubs (CHC) in collaboration with the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health to facilitate sanitation and hygiene behavior change. The cost of latrines was identified as a barrier to improving sanitation. Therefore, CHCs were encouraged to diversify into income-generating (IGA) and village savings and lending (VSL) activities, although not all decided to pursue this activity. A qualitative study was undertaken to better understand barriers and motivators to latrine construction and how and if the integration of these activities with CHCs improved uptake of latrine construction. This learning brief shares key study findings along with additional key lessons from implementation, including on engaging with ministry counterparts from the onset of the project design to encourage sustainability, developing a male-engagement strategy, and dedicating time and resources to sufficient capacity building, supervision, and monitoring from the earliest stages of program start-up

Please reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have any questions or feedback on the learning brief.
Thanks, Nicole