On Identifying the Causal Links between Local Political Leadership and Sanitation

In this project, we want to understand whether community led information and education campaign can lead to better environmental hygiene practices and reduction in exposure to pathogens that may be associated with unsafe sanitation and hygiene behavior. Additionally this project will also aim to identify some of the pathways by which these interventions may have impacts on adopting better hygienic practices. Since the interventions are implemented following an RCT protocol, we can interpret the differences in different outcomes (such as bacteriological count from hand swabs) between control and treatment unions (the lowest administrative tier in Bangladesh) as causal relationships. The project will primarily use microbiological analysis of sanitation related environmental outcomes (e.g. E. coli contamination). Moreover, we want to test whether the capacity building activities improve the ability (e.g. as measured by their knowledge on sanitation and hygiene issues) of the female local government members and the ward sanitation sub-committees as well as the perception toward the local government leaders and institutions. We believe the results will have important implications for public policy, as capable institutions are increasingly believed to ensure the households invest in sanitation, which in turn has implications for preservation of local environmental and natural resources such as water bodies.