Recorded presentation

Kristof Bostoen, Eng, MSc, FRIPH, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, United Kingdom, 44 (0) 20 7636 8636, kleinauef@ehproject.org

Access to safe water and sanitary means of excreta disposal are a universal need and should be considered basic human rights. To improve access in practice various targets like the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) have been set. In order to attain these goals it is important to measure and quantify access to water and sanitation as well as measure good hygiene practices. Since the Global Assessment 2000 Report, existing data are based on surveys conducted for other sectors, to which some water and sanitation questions are added. Hygiene practice is often not included in these surveys and different standards and definitions are used. Data mainly refer only to the national level and are collected with inappropriate frequency and timing for local use. The WaSH survey methodology is a simple cross sectional survey method to measure progress toward the water and sanitation targets. Apart from using only the traditional questionnaires, the draft design for a WASH survey also tests the use of spot-observations, pocket voting and demonstrations. So far trials have been conducted in Kosvo, Kenya, South Africa and Laos. The biggest problem in validating the indicators is that the lack of a gold standard to compare results with. One of the finding so far is that representative sampling due to high design effects in Water and Sanitation cluster surveys is a major problem which is often neglected.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will gain a solid understanding of the three most important interventions to prevent childhood diarrhea and the programmatic challenges associated with their implementation.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation