To curb the spread of COVID-19 among the world’s most vulnerable populations, SNV joined up with 20 INGOs in the Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition (HBCC) programme of the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Unilever. HBCC is a public-private sector partnership that leverages the know-how and networks of all implementing partners to promote handwashing and good hygiene messages. Together, the partnership aims to reach up to one billion people, across 38 countries, during the course of one year (August 2020 to July 2021).

Within the partnership, SNV is the main partner responsible for HBCC activities in Indonesia and Mozambique.

In collaboration with the Governments of Indonesia and Mozambique, SNV is bringing key sanitation and hygiene messages to urban populations whose,

• living arrangements make it impossible for social distancing to be practised,

• livelihoods cannot be sustained by work from home arrangements,

• residents already struggle to observe ideal hygiene behaviours due to limited access to water, soap and proper sanitation facilities, and

• residents have an overall lack of awareness about safe behaviours and are particularly at risk of receiving false information.

Through the HBCC programme, SNV is tailoring COVID-19 messages for different target groups, including women, people with disabilities, school children, youth, frontline workers, and facility cleaners in public spaces (e.g., schools, health care facilities, transport hubs and markets). SNV applies a stepwise approach that is informed by the organisation’s long-term and multi-country experience in leading behavioural change communication (BCC) strategies. SNV’s BCC strategy includes,

• tailoring messages based on formative research results and behaviour centred design principles to promote hand hygiene, surface cleanliness, wearing a mask. and social distancing,

• communicating messages through diverse channels, innovatively linking interventions and carefully considering outreach, unequal digital access, and capabilities based on gender, poverty, and disability identifiers,

• promoting the rollout of cost-effective and durable handwashing and hygiene supplies, with preference to engage local service providers, and

• monitoring outreach, recall of messages, and behavioural change.

Through HBCC, SNV is committed to reaching 1.5 million people.

SNV's HBCC programme is managed by Fanuel Nyaboro. To learn more about HBCC activities in countries, contact: Saniya Niska (for Indonesia) or Alex Grumbley (for Mozambique).

Banner photo: Practising regular hand hygiene with soap saves lives (SNV/Aidan Dockery) | Bottom photo: Urban living, Indonesia (Nuh Rizqi from Pexels)