High Five

Background

Diarrhea is a major public health problem in Indonesia. The national diarrhea is 11 percent and it is one of the biggest killers of children under five (IDHS 2007). Multiple studies (eg. Fewtrel L. et. al., 2005; Curtis, 2003) suggest that hygiene and sanitation practices are important keys to reduce diarrhea illness. However, some caregivers are not practicing these behaviour, consequently placing infants and children at risk.

High Five implemented by Yayasan Cipta in a partnership with Center for Communication Programs, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHU/CCP), Baltimore– USA, that focuses on improving hygiene and sanitation practices at the household and community levels. High Five will put STBM into action, and taking advantages of the presence of city.

Aims

The High Five goal is in line with Community-based Total Sanitation (STBM, Sanitasi Total Berbasis Masyarakat) Program of Indonesian Ministry of Health, which emphasizes five pillars of hygiene and sanitation for behavior change: eliminating open defecation, hand washing with soap, household safe water treatment and storage, solid waste management  and waste water management. High Five put STBM into action, and taking advantages of the presence of city. This initiative is estimated to benefit 12,000 households or 48,000 people living in urban area within the period of three years.

The specific objectives of High Five program are:

• To create an enabling environment by engaging public-private partnership and communities in developing and implementing plans for improved water supply, sanitation and hygiene;

• To improve sanitation and hygiene behavior through participatory programming at the community level with stakeholders, social networks and community members;

• To ensure the sustainable demand and access for safe water, hygiene and sanitation facilities at the household and community levels through empowered and informed communities advocating for themselves.

Strategy/activity

• Engaging Public-Private Partners to support STBM practices improvement effort through developing partnership with government at national and local level, partnering with private companies for STBM practices improvement, STBM appropriate technology competition and establishing collaboration with media.

• Improving STBM practices through behaviour change communication through approaches and strategies in behaviour change communication, participatory assessment and community dialogue, capacity building for Pokja STBM Kelurahan, Communicating STBM to high intervention communities, amplifying STBM practices through media and STBM in school.

• Moving forward: encouraging community to advocate for demand and access to sanitation to ensure sustainability through identifying available but unfamiliar sanitation technologies , advocating stakeholders for in-kind and in-cash support, and improving community efficacy.

Summary results

High five experience in implementing STBM in urban areas showed that STBM is suitable to be implemented in urban areas with full participatory and eclectic approach. Our experience showed that sanitation program should be flexible and create room to accommodate community and other stakeholders perceived needs, so that it will improve the community’s confident and efficacy.