In Safe Hands is a marketing support package for public sector professionals.

National handwashing campaigns are planned and ongoing in a number of countries, in recognition of the fact that handwashing with soap is the single most cost-effective way to prevent diarrhoeal related deaths and disease.

Bringing about behavioural change

One of the biggest challenges faced by countries in getting people to adopt handwashing with soap is a fundamental change in behaviour. Most often, those responsible for the campaigns are engineers, public health officials, and other non-government organisations, only a few of whom have been exposed to the communication techniques that are needed to bring about behavioural changes.

We believe that the private sector has a lot of experience in behaviour change, given that this is at the very core of what we do in order to sell goods. Therefore, providing marketing training to the public sector presents an opportunity to substantially increase the effectiveness of these handwashing campaigns in changing behaviour.

Designed by the Unilever Marketing Academy and the Lifebuoy brand team, the objective of In Safe Hands is to support the public sector in the development of handwashing campaign communication, in order to jointly develop more effective behaviour change programmes.

Partnerships

The programme is run in partnership with The World Bank through its Water and Sanitation Programme, and with the Ministries of Health of various governments.

A global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap (PPP-HWWS) has been set up in tandem with the World Bank's Water and Sanitation Programme, which hosts the global secretariat of handwashing with soap.

The aim of the partnership is to enable private industry and the public sector to work together with other partners to develop programmes to promote handwashing.

Programme implementation

The development of the In Safe Hands programme is one of the most important contributions by the private sector to the PPP-HWWS. The first stage of the programme is a half or one day long 'Marketing Expo', attended by senior decision and policy makers of the country where it is being held.

The expo guides delegates through the In Safe Hands approach, introducing the role and value of marketing in communication and behaviour change in regard to handwashing with soap.

Following the Expo, a three and a half day workshop guides participants through a simple six-stage process for communications development. Participants are made aware of the impact of this approach through strong relevant case studies, gaining live experience of key moments within the marketing process. Exposure includes field immersion to complement and bring-to-life existing research, and working with a creative agency to develop creative ideas.

Participants are then involved in the actual development of an integrated campaign for handwashing in their country.

Success stories

To date, the programme has been implemented successfully in Vietnam, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Indonesia, with stakeholders from Benin, Ethiopia and Senegal also benefiting from In Safe Hands workshop. Uganda has piloted its campaign and it is being refined prior to rolling out. Indonesia, Kenya and Tanzania have briefed agencies and are awaiting creative responses.

In Safe Hands continues to support countries as requested by governments, in countries where Lifebuoy is present.

The next stage of In Safe Hands will be to effectively launch a generic campaign that changes behaviours on the ground.