Distribution of hygiene materials: We supported the provision of handwashing stations, soaps, disinfectants and COVID hygiene kits in partnership with the Ministry of Health. To date, we have reached nearly 2 million people in over 11 provinces.

Provision of technical support: We provided technical support to develop and roll-out protocols on HWWS in schools and in public places. We also supported the implementation of Intervention, Prevention and Control (IPC) measures in healthcare facilities and measures regarding the management of medical waste at the household level.

Revision of the National Sanitation Program: We revised the protocols for Community Engagement in the National Sanitation Program in light of COVID-19 situation.

Support the school reopening process: We are supporting enhanced assessments and data collection exercises to prioritize WASH in schools.

Development of a national monitoring system for key target behaviours: We have been asked to support the Government in developing and implementing a national real-time monitoring system for three COVID-19 prevention behaviours - handwashing with soap, mask usage and physical distancing. The idea is that this monitoring system will allow the government to visualise and understand the effectiveness of their campaigns over time. This monitoring initiative, called 3M, is based on structured observations which are undertaken by a network of over 30,000 volunteers. Structured observations are conducted at the entrance of public places or institutions, such as markets, mosques or schools. Volunteer observers are asked to complete a short survey about the behaviours of the first ten people entering the place and not whether there is anyone at the location responsible for encouraging COVID-19 prevention behaviours. Specifically, volunteers document whether there is a handwashing facility with water and soap available and what proportion of the people they observe wash their hands with water and soap on entry to the location. The observers also note down whether people are correctly wearing a face mask, whether there are measures in place to enable physical distancing or whether people adhere to these. Volunteers report their data via smartphones and then data is collated at the national level by our 3M platform to further inform decision-making around COVID-19 preventive measures.

The system provides a credible system for learning about behaviour: In setting up the system our primary goal was to understand actual behaviour. Several methods for measuring behaviours are currently used by the Government of Indonesia, mostly based on either self-reporting or structured observations. While real-time monitoring of self-reported behaviours is known to overestimate actual practice, observation-based approaches suffer from a lack of scalability and consistency in reporting. To ensure our system is able to gather credible and consistent data while being nationally scalable, we decided to adapt, simplify and shorten the structured observation methodology, relying on a network of more than 30,000 volunteer observers. In addition to observing actual behavioural compliance, this approach allows us to understand whether handwashing facilities are functional and have water and soap available to enable practice. It also allows us to see whether there are ‘attendants’ in these public settings whose role it is to remind people to wash their hands, wear a mask and key at a distance.

Data collection can feasibly be done across the country by volunteers: Considering the size of Indonesia and its socio-economic and cultural diversity, our monitoring system had to be designed to work everywhere and to be implemented by a network of 30,000 volunteers with little or no training. The data collection process only requires the volunteer to have a smartphone or data collection device. We also designed a simplified orientation training for volunteers which explained to them how to conduct observations.

The monitoring system is socially supported: It was important to us that Indonesians accepted and saw value in the monitoring process. To address this our volunteers were recruited via an existing Civil Society Organisation (CSO). Volunteer recruitment was boosted by the fact that we engaged our national UNICEF ambassador to promote the process and encourage volunteers. As such we positioned this monitoring as part of a social movement which is about adopting healthy behaviours to protect each other. We are also rewarding volunteers with mobile phone credit, instead of in-cash payment, aiming to leverage their sense of civic duty.