Handwashing with soap is one of the most effective ways to prevent diseases, but behavior change to increase handwashing remains a challenge.
On September 12, 2017, the Global Handwashing Partnership and USAID hosted a webinar that focused on behavior change approaches for handwashing with soap. The webinar gave participants ideas and perspectives to use on Global Handwashing Day and throughout the year.
During this webinar, Dr. Reshmaan Hussam, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, presented key takeaways from an experiment in India exploring the role of habit formation in increasing handwashing rates, as well as a novel technology to measure handwashing behavior.
Then, Prof. Dr. Hans Mosler, a Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Zurich and the Group Leader for Environmental and Health Psychology at EAWAG, discussed the RANAS model and how it was used to change handwashing behavior among schoolchildren and caregivers in Zimbabwe.
Nga Kim Nguyen, Senior WASH and Social Behavior Change Adviser at USAID, moderated the webinar and facilitated an active discussion to help participants apply these results and ideas for formative research, program design, and more.
Link to webinar and presentations