<PART2: Community-based Sanitation>What Motivates Toilet Use among Indigenous Communities? Factors for Promoting Hygiene Behavior among Baka Hunter-Gatherers in Cameroon

Abstract

Despite the global effort, in low- and middle-income countries, people still lack access to safely managed water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities. In Cameroon, the WASH issues are impacting the nation at all levels, including urban slum, rural and indigenous communities that are often invisible, understudied and ostracized. To address this problem, local Non-Governmental Organizations have been playing a pivotal role in bridging the gap between government, academics and local communities. However, hygiene attitude and behavior are a complex system that stem from wide-ranging drivers from individual to sociocultural to technological factors. Through (1) the review of the case studies of inter-sectoral collaborations between NGOs, researchers and local communities (urban slum, agricultural village and indigeous community) and (2) authors' field study in indigenous communities, our findings show that (1) distance (contextual), (2) privacy and comfort (psychosocial), (3) safety and cleanliness (technology) and (4) ownership (contextual and technology) are fundamental for the use of sanitation facilities across different living conditions. Furthermore, (1) cultural norms and identity as a hunter-gatherer (psychosocial) and the exposure to modernization (technology) were important factors for promoting WASH behavioral change in the indigenous context.