Convergence of Social Marketing and Engineering: A Lead Mitigation Study in Madagascar

Abstract

Background and Situation Analysis The importance of Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects for the protection of health is embedded in the sustainable development goals. However, within the development and humanitarian fields sustainability of WASH projects is still a challenge with 30–50% of projects failing within two to five years of implementation. Though failure is not linked to any one source, a common theme speaks to a greater need for community engagement and integration of the wants and needs of the end-user in the design process. Social marketing, with its focus on the consumer and use of commercial marketing strategies to achieve behavior change is a promising approach that can be integrated into ongoing WASH initiatives to meet program outcomes and to achieve long-term sustainability. Priority audience Primary audience includes technicians who manufacture and repair pitcher pumps. Secondary audience includes community members in Toamasina, Madagascar, who will experience a decrease in exposure to lead through their water supply. Behavioral objectives Decrease exposure to lead (Pb) introduced through the use of a decentralized, self-supply water system, the pitcher pump. Specifically, decrease use of leaded components in the manufacturing and repair of pitcher-pumps Strategy/Intervention Development of the intervention followed the social marketing process including conducting a situational analysis, identification and selection of a behavioral focus and priority population, formative research, development of an integrated marketing strategy, pretesting the strategy, followed by campaign implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. An intervention focused on building a sense of community and introducing the element of professionalism for the pump manufacturers was developed, consisting of personalized one-on-one outreach to raise awareness of the health topic, followed by skill building trainings on how to make the switch to non-leaded components. This was coupled with tangible products that created a new professional network, documentation of work, and backing of work by trusted government entities. Evaluation Methods and Results Using the theory of planned behavior, a pre/post-test summative evaluation was developed. Preliminary results indicate that pump technicians no longer use lead in pumps unless specifically requested by the pump owners. These results indicate a positive shift towards the use of lead-free components with project follow-up and analysis ongoing. Recommendations for Social Marketing Practice Use of social marketing within the WASH sector is lacking. This paper demonstrates the integration of social marketing in an ongoing WASH project. Through a description of each step of the process, our experiences in implementing it and the lessons learned, we hope to guide future integration. Additionally, this paper demonstrates the convergence of engineers and social marketers working collaboratively on an interdisciplinary team and how this served to enhance project understanding, aid in building local partnerships and help with long-term sustainability.

Reductions in Children’s Blood Lead Levels from a Drinking-Water Intervention in Madagascar, Sub-Saharan Africa

“…This observational pre/postremediation (i.e., replacement of lead pump components with nonleaded pump components) study evaluated aqueous lead concentrations of pumps and BLL measurements of children under six years of age in Toamasina, Madagascar (refer to Supporting Information for more details on the remediation process). This assessment is part of a larger project that took place November 2020 to February 2021, which remediated 500 pumps, coupled with the implementation of a social marketing campaign (i.e., behavior change campaign) aimed at phasing out the use of lead components in the manufacturing and repair of pitcher pumps. , BLL were measured at two points: at the beginning of the project for over 300 children in Toamasina prior to pump remediation and the social marketing campaign efforts, and after remediation and the social marketing campaign for a subset of the original sample. Recruitment for the larger project employed a cluster sampling approach and used nine local health clinics across five arrondissements (or city districts) in Toamasina.…”

Why can’t we be friends? Bridging the academic/practitioner gap in social marketing

“…Alternatively, academics and practitioners can co-author articles together on collaborationssee (Askelson et al, 2019;Bator et al, 2014Bator et al, , 2019Buerck et al, 2023;Mulally et al, 2020;Palmedo et al, 2022;Rubenstein et al, 2018;Salazar et al, 2018Salazar et al, , 2021 for several examples. This is currently happening in more general terms in Germany with 20% of Bridging the academic/ practitioner gap academics jointly publishing with practitioners (Lindgreen et al, 2021).…”

“…It is important to acknowledge that academics choosing to engage with industry need to manage expectations associated with delivering high-quality research while also ensuring efficiency. In turn, practitioners can show value by co-authoring articles, assisting academics by supplying completed real world case studies to include in course materials for students and more (Chen et al , 2013; Buerck et al , 2023; D’Agostino et al , 2022).…”

Flowing Futures: Innovations in WASH for Sustainable Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

“…The advantages encompass notable decreases in water usage, relief of pressure on water supply systems, and mitigation of water pollution through the minimization of wastewater volume. Also, they play a role in promoting sustainable and environmentally friendly sanitation practises [48]. The implementation of novel waste management strategies plays a pivotal role in the transformation of sanitation methodologies, hence guaranteeing the effective and secure disposal of waste materials.…”