FOAM and SaniFOAM frameworks

FOAM (Focus on Opportunity, Ability and Motivation) and SaniFOAM (Sanitation FOAM) are conceptual frameworks to help programme managers and implementers understand and analyse handwashing and sanitation behaviours.

Table of Contents

Background

The FOAM and SaniFOAM frameworks were developed by the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) and its partners with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  FOAM was developed during a workshop in Hanoi in March 2007 by participants from the Global Scaling Up Handwashing Project and SaniFOAM at a workshop in Durban, South Africa in 2008 attended by participants from six organisations including UNICEF, LSHTM, USAID and AED/HIP.

The purpose of the frameworks is to help practitioners in accomplishing the following:

·         Analysing the results of available formative studies;

·         Informing the design of new research;

·         Prioritising the behaviours to be changed and the populations to be targeted;

·         Understanding and considering the range of factors that influence a particular behaviour;

·         Focusing and prioritising interventions on particular factors for behaviour change;

·         Improving the effectiveness of interventions aimed at changing the behaviour; and

·         Identifying the appropriate indicators to monitor.

Both FOAM and SaniFOAM identify the factors that influence the behaviours and classify these under the categories of Opportunity, Ability and Motivation.  Examples of determinants under each of these categories are as follows:

·         Opportunity: convenient access to soap and water or a toilet;

·         Ability: affordability of soap or toilet options; and

·         Motivation: beliefs about soap or faeces.

The F in FOAM and SaniFOAM stands for Focus, which serves to identify what target population and behaviour is being analysed. Thus the frameworks can be used to analyse multiple behaviours, including handwashing at various critical times (e.g. after using a toilet, handling of children’s excreta and/or defecating in the open).

Experience to date

FOAM and SaniFOAM have been applied by two global programmes namely; the Global Scaling Up Handwashing Project and Global Scaling Up Sanitation Project in six countries: Indonesia, Tanzania, India, Senegal, Vietnam, Peru.

Evidence of effectiveness

In Indonesia (East Java) FOAM was used to help identify determinants of behaviour at various stages along the sanitation ladder using 2008 household survey data.  Higher social status and access to quality suppliers were found to be associated with improved sanitation. These findings helped programme managers improve their behaviour-change communication strategy.

Both in Peru and Senegal, handwashing was found to be significantly correlated with access to soap and water when needed at a designated place. As a result, the Global Scaling Up Project has re-oriented interpersonal communication to focus on building skills of caretakers to create designated places for handwashing; additional studies on ‘enabling products’ for handwashing (e.g. handwashing stations and tippy-taps) are being undertaken (Devine, 2009c).

WSP Website; Global Scaling Up Sanitation Project at http://www.wsp.org/index.cfm?page=page_disp&pid=1585  Accessed March 2010.

WSP Website; Global Scaling Up Handwashing Project at http://www.wsp.org/index.cfm?page=page_disp&pid=1586  Accessed March 2010.

Devine, J (2009a).  Introducing SaniFOAM: A Framework to Analyze Sanitation Behaviors to Design Effective Sanitation Programs.  WSP, Washington DC, USA.  http://www.wsp.org/UserFiles/file/GSP_sanifoam.pdf  Accessed March 2010.

Coombes, Y; Devine, J (2009b).  Introducing FOAM: A Framework to Analyze Handwashing Behaviors.  Working paper of the WSP.  WSP, Washington DC, USA. 

WSP (2008).  Developing a Sanitation Behavior Change Framework: SaniFOAM.  Workshop Report February 21-22, 2008.  WSP, Washington DC, USA.  Durban, South Africa.  http://www.wsp.org/UserFiles/file/SaniFOAM_Report409_3.pdf  Accessed March 2010.

Resources

This article is linked to the article on Environmental Sanitation Planning for the Urban Poor. Other related sections are:

This collection of atricles were contributed by Elizabeth Tiley (project officer at Eawag) and Andy Peal. The issues and topics addressed are based on the title, Hygiene and Sanitation Software: An Overview of Approaches, by Andy Peal, Barbara Evans,and Carolien van der Voorden.

Related Articles

An information resource and hub for the global water community
 
Browse
Last Contributors
Last contributors on this document:
  XWiki.beddowve   Victoria Beddow