Expanding our Horizons – Formative Research on Aspirations and Family Dynamics Related to Sanitation and Nutrition

USAID Guatemala invited the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Program’s (CCP) Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3) to provide technical assistance to meet the objectives of the West Highlands Integrated Program (WHIP). Part of this technical assistance consists of supporting the development of a social and behavior change communication strategy that will contribute to positive change in existing norms and key behaviors related to chronic malnutrition. As part of this task, a literature review was conducted that revealed gaps in information on the motivations and family strategies that influence the adoption and continuation of adequate sanitation and nutrition practices in Guatemalan homes and at the level of children under two years of age. This formative research study is an attempt to fill in some of those gaps and identify motivations, actions and windows of opportunity for the design of a communication strategy that will help reduce chronic malnutrition and improve the development of minor children in the Western Highlands. This report includes only the results of the first phase of the study, generated through focus group discussions and interviews. The second phase, namely the collection of data in the field, will include the observation of feeding, care and sanitation practices in a sample of homes with children under two of normal size and homes whose children show a lack of growth.

 Expanding our Horizons – Formative Research on Aspirations and Family Dynamics Related to Sanitation and Nutrition