Fatty, Dembo. Eliminating open defecation in Africa : a documentary review on the lessons learned by the republics of the Gambia and Sierra Leone. Master's Degree(Global Health). Thammasat University. Thammasat University Library. : Thammasat University, 2022.
Eliminating open defecation in Africa : a documentary review on the lessons learned by the republics of the Gambia and Sierra Leone
Abstract:
Background. For the past years, open defecation has been a long-standing public health challenge when it comes to environmental sanitation and hygiene. According to WHO and UNICEF, Sub-Saharan Africa bears the greatest burden of people practicing open defecation after Central and South Asia. The main purpose of this study was to share lessons from The Gambia and Sierra Leone in addressing the elimination of open-defecation practices by 2030. Methods: The study was a structural documentary review for a comparative analysis, where country selection criteria were used to select The Gambia and Sierra Leone in relation to similarities and differences of their national policy, strategy, implementation approaches, social determinants, and community empowerment in addressing the elimination of open defecation. The study was carried out between June 2022 and December 2022. The web searches yielded a total of 95 articles. 60 articles were left after duplicates and items that don't match the requirements for inclusion in the full text are removed. After selecting papers that did not fulfill the inclusion criteria based on a full text review of the abstract, 40 articles were left for the study's full text review. Findings: When it comes to policies, strategies, and implementation methods for reducing open defecation, The Gambia and Sierra Leone share a lot in common. The Gambia has social factors and community empowerment to address the practice of open defecation, however the study was unable to locate data on community empowerment in Sierra Leone. Conclusion: The reduction of open defecation behaviors in the nation is strongly correlated with the national initiatives that were carried out. More research is needed in the future, even though the findings may be restricted to establishing the availability of national papers on sanitation and hygiene and the elimination of open defecation practices
Thammasat University. Thammasat University Library