Improving Hygienic Environments for Infants and Young Children in Ethiopia

The goal of this study was to inform and refine the design of a feasible, desirable, and sustainable intervention package to support caregivers’ improved performance of hygienic environment behaviors by providing a deeper understanding of how best to promote related hygienic practices. We addressed our research objectives using a mixed-methods, participatory formative research approach based on Trials of Improved Practices (TIPs). Our TIPs approach used a prospective, quasi-experimental design. The TIPs study was implemented in Daro Lebu Woreda, a district located in the Oromia region of Ethiopia (see adjacent map). The TIPs stage included a range of methods, such as baseline, midline, and endline surveys, hand rinses, and the collection of water samples from both intervention and control households; in a sub-set of intervention households, we had planned on conducting semi-structured observations. The study was approved by the FHI 360’s Office of International Research Ethics and the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. The study was officially terminated on February 28, 2025, following President’s Executive Order on Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid. As a result, all planned study activities were discontinued. Prior to the termination, we successfully completed the the baseline surveys under the TIPs stage. The data from the baseline demographic and behavioral survey and the environmental sampling survey is shared here.