Welcome to the 24th issue of the COVID-19 Hygiene Hub news bulletin.

In this issue, we are delighted to bring your attention to the forthcoming consultations planned for Hand Hygiene for All (HH4A) initiative Research Agenda and a Global Handwashing Day fact sheet.

In the coming weeks, the COVID-19 Hygiene Hub will no longer provide rapid and on-going technical support to partners. All of the Hygiene Hub resources and materials will still be available and we will launch a newly designed, user-friendly website soon. While we know that the pandemic is far from over, the funding to support these on-going operations has ended. We look forward to sharing our forthcoming learning brief on sector coordination, our final batch of case studies, and revised website in the coming weeks.

We have two new case studies for you, one about the use of art to promote and trigger key COVID-19 preventative behaviours from the Amref Health Africa Kenya team and one from Abs Development Organisation for Woman and Child (ADO) in Yemen who highlight their diverse response in schools and internally displaced camp settings whilst responding to COVID-19 and other acute humanitarian needs.

If you have a question for the Hygiene Hub, or would like to share your project, get in touch with us at support@hygienehub.info.

Learning briefs & webinars

In our last news bulletin, we shared with you our latest learning brief in which we summarise what we have learnt about the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of COVID-19 prevention programmes since our launch 16 months ago.

A recording of a recent webinar hosted by the Global Handwashing Partnership, the Global WASH Cluster and the COVID-19 Hygiene Hub, which presents and discusses the M&E learning brief.

A second webinar led by COVID-19 Hygiene Hub technical partners Ranas Ltd, in collaboration with Janseva Pratishthan, focussed on ‘Changing fear-based COVID-19 communication’. This webinar presents findings from rural Maharashtra, India and shows that psychological behavioural factors beyond risk perceptions and fear steer COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and protection behaviours. Accessed via this link, the webinar provides evidence-based recommendations on how to leverage these findings for effective communication and behaviour change.

Please also check out our previous learning briefs on hand hygiene promotion and disability and inclusion in COVID-19 prevention programmes.

Technical resources

We are updating our collection of over 200 technical resources to support you in your COVID-19 response by giving you access to the relevant evidence and guidance.

Please see our recent summary report on how to integrate COVID-19 vaccine promotion into prevention programmes, which is now available in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic.

Global Handwashing Day (15th of October 2021) is approaching fast, and the theme is ‘Our Future is at Hand - Let’s Move Forward Together”. An exciting and new Global Handwashing Day Fact Sheet is available here.

Please email us at support@hygienehub.info if you have requests or ideas for future resources.

In-depth technical assistance

The Hand Hygiene for All (HH4A) initiative, coordinated by WHO and UNICEF, aims to accelerate progress towards hand hygiene for all by 2030 and support efforts to help the most vulnerable communities have the means to protect their health and environment. HH4A and the COVID-19 Hygiene Hub are currently developing a shared global research agenda for hand hygiene, supported by representatives from WHO, UNICEF, HH4A, World Bank, Global WASH Cluster, Global Handwashing Partnership, and selected implementers. This research agenda will provide donors, researchers, policy makers, and implementers with guidance on under-researched areas within hand hygiene and specific priority research questions to improve evidence-informed programming.

A series of scoping reviews and narrative syntheses of emergent findings for priority settings (health care, public spaces, and domestic contexts) are complete. Leads have been tasked for each of these priority settings who will initiate a series of expert consultations in the coming weeks to review emergent findings and identify priority research and learning questions to guide the sectors. Settings and leading organisations are outlined below:

If you wish to join the consultations, the school and public setting leads have communicated the following dates, times and methods. We would welcome and encourage your participation.

Schools

Matt Freeman and Jed Snyder (at Emory University) are developing initial research priorities for the schools setting.

Opportunities For Engagement:

We invite you to join a Zoom discussion session led by Dr. Matthew Freemen of Emory University for your input into research priorities for hand hygiene in schools settings. Please complete the registration below to attend:

We welcome you to review a draft list of priority research questions. Please complete the survey below or comment directly using the Google document:

Public spaces

Sheillia Simiyu and Hellen Gitau (at APHRC) are developing initial research priorities for public spaces.

Opportunities for Engagement:

We invite you to a Zoom discussion led by APHRC for your input to research priorities for hand hygiene in public spaces.

Please complete the following registration link to attend.

Case studies on COVID-19 response programmes

We want to encourage peer learning by sharing case studies that showcase concrete examples of policy, advocacy and programme implementation designed to address, or adapted to, the challenges of the pandemic.

Our first case study, this month comes from Amref Health Africa Kenya in collaboration with Lynk, a programme intervention that brings together local artists to embrace the use of art to promote and trigger key COVID-19 preventative behaviours. This creativity is informed by the Social Art for Behaviour Change™ (SABC) approach developed by the OneDrop Foundation.

Each mural visually depicts one of the main COVID-19 preventive behaviours (i.e. handwashing with soap, face mask-wearing and physical distancing) or other relevant hygiene behaviours, in alignment with the broader ‘PASSWORD’ campaign in Kenya.

Our second case study comes from Abs Development Organisation for Woman and Child (ADO) in Yemen who highlight their community outreach, hygiene awareness sessions, hand washing stations, and distribution of hygiene items targeting schools and internally displaced settings.

Other recent additions to our collection of now over 30 case studies have been about:

Why not share your own experience with the sector?

If you would like to share your work and contribute to our collection of case studies, please contact claire.collin@lshtm.ac.uk. We are particularly keen to hear about programmes that incorporate advocacy, policy or sustainability components.

Social media channels

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