Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Innovations for Poverty Action

Titre : Creating a Toilet Habit, Kenya

Région /Pays : Kenya

Date : 2013-2016

Résumé
Despite expanding access to sanitary options such as community toilets, many individuals, especially in urban slums, continue to practice open defecation. One potential explanation is that open defecation has become an ingrained habit. Applying lessons from psychology and neuroscience, researchers are evaluating whether a combination of economic incentives and a marketing campaign can foster a new habit—using hygienic latrines instead defecating in the open—among slum dwellers in Kenya.

Présentation
Sanitation coverage for urban dwellers in low-income countries remains low. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, only 42 percent of the urban population has access to sanitation. Even when individuals have access to sanitation options, such as community toilets, usage of these facilities remains low and many households continue to practice open defecation. One potential explanation for the persistence of this practice is that it has become an ingrained habit that individuals continue to engage in despite having a better alternative.

Can interventions designed using lessons on habit formation from psychology and neuroscience encourage individuals to switch to a better habit ? Private sector firms have successfully used this type of interventions to foster new habits. For example, advertising campaigns that associated triggers (a feeling of uncleanness when people run their tongue across bacteria plaque on their teeth) and rewards (a tingling sensation after brushing) with brushing regularly with mint-scented toothpaste encouraged millions to adopt it as a daily routine. However, there is little evidence on whether similar interventions would work when it comes to individuals’ hygiene choices in developing countries.

Taille de l’échantillon  : 3,000 individuals

Innovation for Poverty Action (IPA)