Strengthening the role of WASH and disabilities in Bangladesh

In 2014, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and IRC obtained a grant from the Australian Development and Research Awards Scheme) to research accessibility to sanitation in relation with disabilities in Bangladesh and Malawi. The project, aims to obtain prevalence of disability related problems on access and accessibility to sanitation and reflect on a mitigation strategy to be rolled out beyond the project. Iinitial findings based on the survey are: To address the problem of adapted sanitation facilities, a general mobility problem needs solving first; to discuss solutions, social barriers around both sanitation and disability need to be lifted by all relevant stakeholders. To address suitable solutions in a cost-effective and up-scalable way, a dialog between provider and user seems to be the best way forward in Bangladesh. At the same time, self-assessment by the disabled does not always result in the most appropriate solution

Water, sanitation and hygiene for the prevention of diarrhoea

Background Ever since John Snow’s intervention on the Broad St pump, the effect of water quality, hygiene and sanitation in preventing diarrhoea deaths has always been debated. The evidence identified in previous reviews is of variable quality, and mostly relates to morbidity rather than mortality

Measuring Access and Practice: Designing a Survey Methodology for the Hygiene, Sanitation and Water Sector

Access to safe water and sanitary means of excreta disposal are essential elements of human development and poverty alleviation. It is estimated that one in four people in the developing world lacks access to water while over half the population has no access to sanitation. From the Alma-Ata declaration in 1978 to the recent Millennium Development Goals, efforts to improve this situation have been hampered by the lack of meaningful indicators to measure hygiene, sanitation and water coverage and establish progress towards the goals and targets set out by the international community. This thesis aims to determine if measuring prevalence of access to water~ sanitation and the practice of hygienic behaviour in hous~hold surveys can be.improved. With no indicators available in current international' laws and targets, various aspects of access and practice were examined to design indicators for field-testing. By using - existing data sets, the research established that there is a high geographic clustering of the measures of interest, which results in large design effects (deff) and rates of homogeneity (roh) in cluster surveys. Based on the calculated roh optimum numbers ofcluster and sample size were calculated for the field trials. This requires introducing survey costs in the sample size calculations. The high clustering of water and sanitation indicator require large sample sizes, resulting in large amounts of data which organisations in the four field trials in Kosovo, South Africa, Kenya and Laos found difficult to handle. Practical problems in the implementation of the survey method resulted in non-sampling errors and could cause reluctance in adoption the methodology. The research improved water and sanitation indicators but found that for individual behaviour such as hygiene the household is not a suitable sampling unit. It also showed that observation among interviewers have to be better standardised to reduce the inter-surveyor.variation. Representative sampling is the current bottleneck in the development of such a survey method. Current method requires a good understanding of sampling theory as well as reliable sample frames, which are rarely available to implementing organisations. Alternative sampling methods are suggested, and recommendations are made for the further development ofthe survey method designed in this research, which to date may be too complex for widespread use

Optimization of household survey sampling without sample frames.

There are a few sampling methods available to survey households in situations where sample frames are either unavailable or are unreliable. The most popular of these methods is the expanded programme of immunization (EPI) sampling method, which has been used in low-income countries. The purpose of this paper is to explain how mathematical programming can be used to optimize EPI and other household survey sampling methods in these situations

Methods for health surveys in difficult settings: charting progress, moving forward

Abstract Health surveys are a very important component of the epidemiology toolbox, and play a critical role in gauging population health, especially in developing countries. Research on health survey methods, however, is sparse. In particular, current sampling methods are not well adapted for certain 'difficult' settings, such as emergencies, remote regions without easily available sampling frames, hidden and vulnerable population groups, urban slums and populations living under strong political pressure. This special issue of Emerging Themes in Epidemiology is entirely devoted to survey methods in such settings, and builds upon a successful conference in London highlighting problems with current approaches and possible ways forward. Greater investment in research on health survey methods is needed and will have beneficial effects for populations in need.</jats:p

Costing water services in refugee camps - Camp Bambasi, Ethiopia & Camp Kounoungou, Chad

Ce rapport présente les résultats d'une application de l'approche des coûts à long terme à l'approvisionnement en eau potable dans deux camps de réfugiés

Catana's wandering quarter sampling method (Abbreviations: H, household; S, sampling points; , distance)

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Optimisation of the T-square sampling method to estimate population sizes"</p><p>http://www.ete-online.com/content/4/1/7</p><p>Emerging Themes in Epidemiology 2007;4():7-7.</p><p>Published online 1 Jun 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1894793.</p><p></p

An illustration of the steps followed when applying the T-Square method in practice

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Optimisation of the T-square sampling method to estimate population sizes"</p><p>http://www.ete-online.com/content/4/1/7</p><p>Emerging Themes in Epidemiology 2007;4():7-7.</p><p>Published online 1 Jun 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1894793.</p><p></p