Introduction of Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) Initiative in Viet Nam (APW Report)
Summary
An Agreement for the Performance of Work (APW) was contracted with Mr Ronald Dwight Sawyer to introduce Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) initiative in Viet Nam. Terms of reference are to: 1) collaborate with responsible agencies, sector specialists and decision makers and examine the current hygiene promotion practice and identify unfilled needs for development of improved hygiene practices in rural and peri-urban communities; 2) identify how hygiene promotion practice can be strengthened and how the PHAST methodology will contribute to the National Rural water and Sanitation Strategy (Decision 104/2000); 3) conduct a workshop for introducing PHAST to core group of sector specialists and decision-makers, taking account of Vietnamese social and hygiene practices, customs, culture and organizational traits; and provide examples of PHAST implementation in other countries at different levels of applications, including the various processes and mechanism employed; and 4) gather inputs with sector specialists and if warranted and requested, develop an action plan for the formal introduction of PHAST to Viet Nam.PHAST, and especially the core methodology SARAR, from which PHAST was derived, are not entirely new to Viet Nam. The Viet Nam Women's Union (VWU), in particular, has been working with and adapting the methodology since 1995, when they were first introduced to a copy of the SARAR "tool kit" produced by the PROWWESS component of the UNDP-World Bank Water and Sanitation programme. The Embassy of the Netherlands provided the VWU with initial orientation on how to use the materials in the kit and helped to arrange for further hygiene education and participation training in 1997 at the IRC (International Research Centre) in the Netherlands. The original kit has gone through various phases of adaptation and field-testing for the Viet Namese context, culminating in a printing of 1000 copies in the year 2000. The information Education Communication (IEC) unit of the VWU has a team of five experienced trainers at national level, as well as trainers at provincial level. In general, they have found that the SARAR methodology is easy to apply and have successfully adapted it to different contexts, including water, sanitation, diarrhoea control, nutrition and gender.More recently, in August 2000, the Education and Communication Advisory Services of Dalat City Water Supply Project, with technical support from Carl Bros, produced a hygiene education "Tool Kit Manual for Motivators", based on a reduced number of materials from the VWU SARAR tool kit.The most significant experience with PHAST in Viet Nam has been in the context of Viet Tri Community Awareness Campaign Project (KfW supported), which was provided with a copy of the PHAST Step-by-step Guide by Carl Bro IEC consultants. In August 2001, the Project Manager provided an initial training for "motivators" (Village Health Workers and Community Health Workers). In October 2001, the Special Project Unit, including a trainer from the VWU, the Viet Nam Communist Youth Union (VCYU) and the Department of Preventive Medicine, conducted the first village level training. The results far exceeded their expectations: "There was real dicussion"; "All people participated"; "We were able to sustain their interest"; "Time went by very quickly"; and "Pictures are very powerful".