Hygiene promotion through routine immunization programme: a successful project in Nepal

Since its inception in 2013, the Ministry of Health and Population, Family Welfare Division, with support from WaterAid, leads a project on hygiene promotion through routine immunization. The project was originally implemented in the districts of Jajarkot, Bardiya, Nawalparasi and Myagdi in Nepal between February 2016 and March 2017.

The evaluation of this one-year project shows that the intervention was effective in improving all key hygiene behaviours from 2% at baseline assessment to 53% after 12 months. The project also contributed to increasing immunization coverage, reducing drop-out and vaccine wastage rate as secondary outcomes. Finally, the intervention contributed to reducing the prevalence of diarrheal diseases during the period of implementation.

In 2019, the Government of Nepal decided to implement this programme nationwide while introducing the Rotavirus vaccine. Using the lessons learnt from the pilot project, the hygiene behaviour change package has been revised and produced and national and provincial training has been conducted by the Government of Nepal, with support from WaterAid. Additional trainings are ongoing within the districts to train a total of 16,000 health workers across the country by May 2020. The nationwide hygiene integration programme will start towards mid-2020 together with the Rota vaccine introduction in the country.

For more information visit WaterAid’s website or contact Khakindra Bhandari.