Beyond tippy-taps: The role of enabling products in scaling up and sustaining handwashing

Factors that influence individuals’ opportunity to handwash have often been overlooked in hygiene promotion initiatives, with much of the focus having been on motivation. This article summarizes findings from the Water and Sanitation's Global Scaling Up Handwashing Project and other research that suggest that convenient access to water and soap when and where needed and having a designated place for HWWS are also important determinants for handwashing. Enabling products such as handwashing stations provide such a designated place in addition to an environmental cue to action and a stable context for handwashing, factors that the literature highlights as critical for habits to form and be maintained. WSP recently conducted a landscape of enabling products and many identified to date are tippy-taps. However, the learning from a design consultancy for a handwashing station for rural Vietnamese households is that appearances may matter and that designing features that take into account user preferences and practices is essential.