Planning for health and socio-economic benefits from water and sanitation programmes : a workshop summary : April 21-22, 1993

The objectives of the workshop were to provide inter-agency and inter-sectoral collaboration, to improve knowledge of how health and socio-economic benefits can best be achieved from water, sanitation and hygiene education programmes, and to develop and endorse guidelines for a global strategy which would focus on maximising health and socio-economic impacts. The presentations and discussions covered six major topics: the health and socio-economic impacts that can be expected from water, sanitation and hygiene education; state of the art techniques for monitoring and measuring health and socio-economic impacts; how to measure behaviour change; the nutritional impact of water, sanitation and hygiene education; developing a conceptual framework for water, sanitation and hygiene education; and planning programmes which have health and socio-economic impacts as their major focus. Participants agreed that the new strategy should focus even more on empowerment of communities including women, capacity building, service delivery, building intra and intersectoral linkages and advocacy. This report lists eight main recommendations for implementation in water and environmental sanitation programme planning, which reflect the issues discussed at the meeting.