Designing Better Handwashing Practice in Humanitarian Contexts
- Submitting institution
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Royal College of Art(The)
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Stevens1
- Type
- L - Artefact
- Location
- Various Formats and Locations
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of production
- -
- Year of production
- 2019
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This research output is based on the design, development and testing of a freestanding handwash facility for emergency contexts, addressing a need for a low-cost, rapidly deployable resource to complement emergency latrines, in the battle against fatal communicable disease.
Large-scale emergencies often result in people living in dense populations, in camps with poor sanitation provisions, too frequently hit by disease outbreaks that could be prevented with improved handwashing practice.
Handwashing with soap is one of the most effective public health interventions in reducing diarrhoeal diseases and transmission of viruses including COVID-19, potentially saving millions of lives. However there is currently no standard or ready-made handwashing facility for emergencies, and provision is commonly a lower priority than latrines and clean drinking water. First response provisions are often very basic or improvised, undignified and non-durable, while long-term provisions are costly and slow to deploy.
Developed over two years, through several rounds of design iterations in UK and field trials in Uganda and Tanzania, the project was a collaboration led by Oxfam GB, with multiple expertise domains including behavioural science, public health science, industrial design and manufacturing.
User tests and field trials of prototypes combine the speed and insightfulness of heuristic design methods with the scale and rigour of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) methodologies more typical of the humanitarian sector. Such trials have informed design refinements, and suggest a significant increase in handwashing with soap, and a corresponding reduction in diarrhoea cases and viral transmission. The object itself, in its function and its form and material choices, embodies combined existing knowledge from diverse fields and original research conducted in this project. Now in production and in high demand from humanitarian actors/agencies, (4000 units in the field and backlog of orders), and has the potential to transform handwash habits and health.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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