Recruiting and Training of Hygiene Promotion Facilitators

Hygiene promotion campaigns are usually carried out by hygiene promotion facilitators such as hygiene program coordinators, hygiene promotors and community mobilisers. While the different types of facilitators all have specific roles and skills (see below), they should share abilities and characteristics conducive to working within cultural norms, shared beliefs and practices of the affected refugee or Internally Displaced People (IDPs) that may differ from their own (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2011). 

Adequate training of hygiene promotion facilitators is vital for ensuring the necessary knowledge, skills and capacities to deliver successful hygiene promotion campaigns in these settings. Facilitators must be knowledgeable in the present traditional beliefs of the refugees and IDPs and must be able to assess health problems related to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Furthermore, they need to be equipped with communication skills as well as with the capacities to effectively deliver hygiene promotion messages (GWC 2009a). 

In acute emergency stages, time pressure and limited capacities often lead humanitarian actors to deploy volunteers from existing organisations or secondments of humanitarian agencies and to postpone adequate recruitment and training of dedicated, local staff to the post-acute phase (ODHIAMBO AND REED 2013). However, it is recommended to form WASH committees (made up of representatives of the different types of hygiene promotion facilitators as well as of the various user groups (see invalid link factsheet) from the beginning, in order to integrate initiatives and to lay the foundation for a more long-term maintenance of hygiene promotion practices and services (GWC 2009b).

There are three different types of hygiene promotion facilitators with specific roles and skills: 

Hygiene Programme Coordinators

• Role: Hygiene programme coordinators are a part of the WASH team and are managed by WASH programme managers. They have the responsibility to coordinate activities with humanitarian actors that provide water and sanitation services as well as to manage the network of hygiene promoters and mobilisers. The coordinators ensure compliance with WASH standards, arrange trainings of the facilitation team and contribute to the overall design of the hygiene promotion campaign (GWC 2009b). 
• Skills: The individuals should bring in-depth knowledge in public health, experience in working in humanitarian crises and good knowledge of and experience in working with humanitarian actors at play in the region (GWC 2009b). 
• Required numbers: One hygiene coordinator is required for each hygiene promotion campaign in each camp or collective centre. 
• Recommended compensation: The hygiene promotion coordinator is an experienced professional, compensated with a full professional wage (GWC 2009b). 

Hygiene Promotors 

• Role: The principle responsibility of hygiene promoters is to manage the day-to-day hygiene promotion activities and to work with a group of community mobilisers in a specific location or sector within the refugee or IDP population (GWC 2009b). 
• Skills: Skills in health care, health promotion, community development, education or extension work are desired. Hygiene promoters require strong people skills and the ability to relate to the affected population (GWC 2009b). 
• Required numbers: The Sphere Project minimum standards recommend one hygiene promoter for every 1000 affected people (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2011) whereas the UNHCR Emergency Hygiene Standards recommend two promoters for every 1000 affected people (UNHCR 2015). 
• Recommended compensation: Hygiene promoters are generally employed on a full-time professional basis and are generally awarded a contract appropriate for their level of responsibility and in accordance with national legislations (GWC 2009b).

Community Mobilisers

• Role: The primary role of community mobilisers is to carry out the day-to-day hygiene promotion activities within a defined section or area of the refugee or IDP population. Community mobilisers can be instrumental in doing outreach and household visits, which provide an interactive manner of assessing practices and hygiene levels in the households (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2011).
• Skills: Community mobilisers are generally recruited from within the affected populations as they will have a better understanding of the local challenges and will be more easily accepted and respected by the population (ODHIAMBO AND REED 2013). Only if necessary – for instance when the urgency of the humanitarian response requires it - should people from outside the affected population (for example Red Cross volunteers) be selected as community mobilisers. Suitable candidates should represent both genders and different community roles and should have experience in community health, education or development (such as teachers, health care workers, traditional birth attendants and community leaders) (HARVEY et al 2002). Precautions should be taken not to remove important staff and volunteers from other essential activities of the humanitarian response to hygiene promotion (GWC 2009b). High levels of literacy are helpful but not vital if communication skills are strong and individuals can rely on their colleagues for reporting and monitoring (ODHIAMBO AND REED 2013). As the skills of the community mobilisers increase, the promoters can increasingly hand over their task to the mobilisers, thus strengthening the local population thereby mobilising their community (GWC 2009e). To provide effective household visit assessments, community mobilisers require specific training in facilitating these assessments (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2011). 
• Required numbers: At least two community mobilisers per 1000 affected people or two per hygiene promoter are recommended (GWC 2009b). If there is an outbreak of a water-borne or WASH-related disease, the number may need to be increased (UNHCR 2015).
• Recommended compensation: Community mobilisers may be employed as daily workers, through a contract or on a voluntary basis in accordance with national legislation (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2011).The advantages of paying community mobilisers include (adapted from GWC 2009b): a) paid mobilisers can focus full time on the hygiene promotion and can thus respond immediately to emerging concerns (e.g. hygiene related epidemics); b) it is easier to plan and manage paid workers as they have contractual obligations and incentives to perform through receiving a wage; c) wages can avoid overburdening a specific group within the refugee population with the responsibility of hygiene promotion (THE SPHERE PROJECT 2011); d) by providing a livelihood to community mobilisers from the affected population they and their families` capacity is strengthened which in turn reduces their overall vulnerability; e) it is simpler to manage money payments rather than time-consuming and complex in-kind incentives which are sometimes used to recruit and retain community mobilisers. The disadvantage of paying community mobilisers include: a) the individual may start to be regarded as working for the implementing humanitarian agency which can weaken their ties with the affected population they are part of; b) affected populations may be less inclined to participate if they know community mobilisers receive payment; c) if some humanitarian actor pays community mobilisers, it may create problems for other actors or agencies who carry out similar work on a voluntary basis; d) paying community mobilisers may be expensive and divert payment from other essential services; e) it can be difficult to maintain sustainability after the emergency phase.

• Communication skills and methods for delivering messages (See Camp Hygiene Promotion Campaigning in Early-Stage Emergencies and Camp Hygiene Promotion Campaigning in Later-Stage Emergencies factsheets).
• Knowledge of health problems related to sanitation in emergency situations and appropriate prevention strategies;
• Understanding of traditional beliefs and practices;
• Knowledge of hygiene promotion methods targeted at adults and
• Children;
• Understanding of basic health messages and their limitations;
• Knowledge of the appropriate use of in community engagement communication techniques such as use of songs, drama, and puppet shows;
• Understanding of gender issues (see invalid link factsheet);
• Knowledge of how to target various groups and especially vulnerable groups within the affected area;
• Skills for administering participatory approaches such as Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST, see invalid link), Community-Led Total Sanitation (CTLS, see Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) factsheet), and Behavioural Change Communication (BCC); and
• Monitoring and evaluation skills.

Under certain circumstances, didactic (instructional, traditional teaching style) approaches are best to use, while in many other situations participatory methods are more appropriate (JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY AND IRFC 2008). There are also situations in which a combination of both might be most suitable. For this reason, hygiene promotion facilitators should be trained in both areas. Training in participatory methods is particularly important where facilitators are used to a traditional, didactic style of teaching rather than a more participatory form of communication (REED 2014). Training facilitators in using participatory methods and materials that are culturally appropriate provides the affected population with opportunities to take accountability for their own hygiene improvement through planning and monitoring. 

The guidance provided in this factsheet is intended primarily for planned Camps or collective centres but also applies to Prolonged Encampments or Rural Settings. In collective centres, forming and training sub-committees for hygiene are especially important but complex and expensive as the existing level of hygiene is often extremely inadequate (IOM, NRC AND UNHCR 2010). For self-settled camps in Rural Settings, villages workers in the rural areas can be trained using guidance in this factsheet to provide ongoing motivation and support for improving hygiene practices. However, when local people are providing this service, it must be considered that they have limited time to devote to this as their poverty levels often oblige them to devote significant time to securing their own livelihoods.