Outcome Evaluation of WASH intervention in rural households at Jawi district, North West Ethiopia, 2021, Mixed method design. Goal based/ objective oriented evaluation

Abstract

Abstract Background The government of Ethiopia revealed that GTP II and SDG were achieved through one Water Sanitation and Hygiene Objective – To evaluate the outcome of WASH intervention in rural households of Jawi district, North West Ethiopia, 2021. Method – The evaluation was conducted in rural households of Jawi district by a Quasiexperimental design supplemented with a qualitative in-depth interview from 3/14/20213/28/2021. Intervention groups were households that takes community centered approach while the controls did not. The evaluation approach was summative and counterfactual plus participatory and focuses on program outcome theory. A total of 1280 households were selected using two stage sampling and lottery method simple random sampling. We collected quantitative data through survey and structured observational checklist, while qualitative data through key informant interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire. We assessed program effectiveness and also the analytical study was conducted through propensity score matching to assess program effect through Stata 14.1. Qualitative data were transcribed and translated to English and thematic analysis was done using Atlas.ti.9. Result: Five hundred ninety-one intervention and 600 control households were involved in the study. In intervention households, 65.24% of them used water treatment, while 99.32% were having a latrine but only 73.77% used the latrine exclusively. Besides, 46.77% and 59.7% washed their hands by using water and soap before eating and after defecation respectively. This intervention increased water treatment utilization in 41.7% availability, 24.3 percentage point Conclusion and recommendation- The overall program effectiveness was very good but the effectiveness in hand washing before eating using soap and water was poor. The intervention attributed to a statistically significant effect on the improvement of water treatment utilization, availability of improved latrine, exclusive latrine utilization, and hand washing before eating and after defecation and utilization of soap and water for hand washing after defecation and before eating in intervention households. This intervention should be scale-up and the intervention should pay greater attention to the improvement of hand washing practice and exclusive latrine utilization. Public latrines should be constructed in their working place and possible strategies should be developed to deliver soap at an affordable cost. Key words- WASH, program, Project, Outcome Evaluation, Community centered approach, Ethiopia