Community based solutions for sustainability of rural sanitation behaviour change in Kenya

Kenya loses USD 324 million per year due to poor sanitation (World Bank, 2012), and 19,500 Kenyans, including 17,100 children under 5 die each year due to diarrhea. Communities’ knowledge on desirable behaviors and their willingness to adopt these desired practices are greatly influenced by their surroundings. Certain aspects and conditions must be met for these communities to adopt desired behaviors and also to ensure that they do not relapse. This paper seeks to demonstrate how through simple community based solutions the Kenya Sanitation and Hygiene Improvement Programme (K-SHIP) has been able to identify hindering factors to collective behavior change and how to remedy these factors. KSHIP is funded by Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) through Global Sanitation Fund (GSF) and implemented by Amref Health Africa in Kenya.