Experience of a hygiene project in Bangladesh: institutional learning

This paper, from practitioners’ point of view, draws some institutional lessons based on implementation experiences on a hygiene project- “Environmental Sanitation, Hygiene and Water Supply in Rural Areas” that aims at improving environmental sanitation and personal hygiene behavior at both households and community levels. Having analyzed the dynamics, strategies, implementation mechanism and institutional framework of the project it reveals that Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) being a government department has transformed itself as facilitator from its traditional role of implementer. It is worth mentioning that DPHE has been allocating government resources based on community action plans that have incorporated community needs and priorities regarding sanitation and hygiene. The success of the project lies in the fact that local government institutions have become interested to shoulder the responsibilities to bring positive changes towards environmental sanitation. This success is attributed to institutional framework that is worth to be replicated elsewhere.