PHAST checklist and guidance notes – Evaluating Red Cross Red Crescent PHAST programmes

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) advocates for the integration of “hardware” and “software” for water, sanitation and hygiene promotion. This approach has been adopted by the International Federation under the Global Water and Sanitation Initiative (GWSI), establishing a set of criteria related to beneficiaries identification, technical options, scale of projects, impact measurement, gender mainstreaming, government and other stakeholders’ integration and environment, that should be met by all the Red Cross Red Crescent water and sanitation players.

IFRC promotes PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation) methodology as the backbone of software activities since, throughout the seven steps, the two core software elements (hygiene behaviour change and community management) are widely addressed.

In recent years all long-term developmental IFRC projects have been designed following the GWSI technical criteria including a strong component of Water and Sanitation software based on the implementation of PHAST methodology. PHAST is used as a very dynamic and flexible methodology that can include more or less emphasis on community management and/or behavioural change depending on the scenario.