Before beginning to design your project, take time to assess global and national guidelines in relation to COVID-19 and hygiene projects and policies in your country. Existing guidelines will provide initial indications about which behaviours are important for public health and COVID-19 prevention at this time. Please consult the following:

Evidence-based and theoretically informed hygiene projects have been shown to be more effective than traditional education only approaches (Study 1, Study 2, Study 3). When designing a hygiene behaviour change project, understanding the basics of behaviour change theory and its application to hygiene projects can be helpful. These Hygiene Hub resources might be useful during this step:

Where possible, existing research or reports about key preventative behaviours in your local context should be reviewed. There are also a number of systematic literature summaries relating to well-studied behaviours, like handwashing, that can help inform your organizations approach to changing behaviours. Reviewing and understanding current literature will help in identifying the diverse factors that can influence individuals behaviours. Learning from existing literature can help save time at other stages of the project design process. It will also avoid you repeating data collection on some topics.

In the initial stages of intervention development, it is also useful to connect with other organisations involved in the COVID-19 response in your country and ensure that efforts are coordinated and complementary. Find out what they are working on and whether they already have information on preventative behaviors. The following resources can guide efforts to coordinate and connect with other organizations:

Author: Sian White

Reviewers: Peter Winch, Nadja Contzen, Dr Om Prasad Gautam,
Last update: 10.06.2020

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