1. The production of a practical tool (guidelines, check lists and resource packs) will assist field workers assess the sanitation and hygiene education needs of a refugee community. It will also guide them through the selection of the most appropriate options for meeting those needs and the best ways that those options could be implemented.

2. An investigation of the options for providing excrete disposal Facilities on sites where traditional infiltration methods are inappropriate such as when the water table in very high or there is rock close to the surface or where the population density is very high. Current options are unsuitable for such situations. The results of the investigation will be fed into the resource packs.

3. The production of a set of training modules for field staff to teach them how to use the guidelines and interpret the outputs.

After mobilisation the project will set up an advisory panel of experts involved in emergency sanitation and hygiene education to guide the project team and ensure the outputs are appropriate to their needs. Organisations such as Oxfam, MSF, UNHCR, GTZ, ICKC, AICF, MERLIN and DROP are likely to be involved. The panel will meet twice a year. The panel will also make up the core of the peer review panel. Relevant data will be collected and collated through a literature review, contact with advisory panel members and other field staff. Particular emphasis will be placed on investigating new ideas for providing emergency sanitation on difficult sites.

This will include considering the prospect of developing commercially available package sewage treatment plants for use in emergency situations.

A set of draft guidelines and check lists will be prepared. These will cover assessment of sanitation and health education needs, selection of appropriate interventions, development of suitable implementation programmes, appropriate monitoring procedures and methods for evaluation. The guidelines will be accompanied by a resource pack describing the possible interventions, now they are designed and implemented and their limitations. Copies of the draft outputs will be sent to the members of the advisory panel for comment and tested by the project team in the field in conjunction with a local NGO where a suitable one exists.

The outputs will be revised and a set of training modules prepared. A second, extended field trial will be undertaken with the assistance of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The visit will be timed to coincide with a IFRC sanitation input. The research team will train the IFRC staff in the use of the guidelines prior to departure and support them in the field during the initial assessment. A local NGO will collaborate in the exercise should a suitable one exist. Further visits will he made to the field by the project staff over a period of about three months to monitor and evaluate progress. After a final revision the outputs will be published and disseminated. This will be followed by a workshop organised by the project to explain the outputs and their use and attendance at other training courses to assist in the training of trainers and participants.

Delegates from the major relief agencies in Europe and India will be enrolled to provide inputs and review the outputs. Such an approach has been shown to? increase interest in research projects and raise the commitment of agencies to use the outputs.

The final documentation will be published and distributed to all the international and European agencies involved in emergency sanitation and hygiene education. The project will conduct a training workshop to disseminate the data gathered and to test the modules. Other training courses will be attended to assist with the use of the modules and the training of trainers. Dissemination will also tale place through channels such as GARNET, conferences and journal papers. The data will also be incorporated into WEDC teaching programmes and short courses.

Tel: 01509 222885
Fax: 01509 211079
Email: WEDC@lboro.ac.uk