Communication strategy for health care waste (HCW) management in tunisia

The Demonstration and Promotion of Good Techniques and Practices in Health Care Waste (HCW) Management Project is a project implemented by the Tunisian Waste Management Agency (ANGed) with fundings from the Tunisian Government, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the World Bank. The project is being implemented as part of Tunisia's fulfilment of its commitments under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The project manager is Mr. Mohamed Toumi, Head of the Hazardous Waste department at ANGed. The project is coordinated by Ms. Afef Makni-Siala, technical director at ANGED.

Implemented between January 2014 and May 2017, it aimed at setting up an optimized management system of 3,200 tons of infectious HCW per year. Mismanagement of infectious HCW, including their uncontrolled combustion, was the second largest source of dioxins and furans in Tunisa, which are POPs. For more information on the project, see the website: www.pops-tunisie.tn.

ATI has developed and implemented the communication strategy for the HCW Management Improvement Project. The strategy included an internal and institutional communication component, advocacy, dialogue and awareness raising. Also, a series of communication training for behavioral and social change for the improvement of HCW management has been carried out all over Tunisia.

The communication strategy was developed on the basis of qualitative research work in early 2014 and was evaluated between March and April 2017.

In addition to the communication strategy itself, the main products of the implementation of the communication strategy are: 

• An information website on progress in Tunisia's implementation of its commitments under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. All documents produced under the project are downloadable on the website and an intranet platform is accessible to project partners for internal information sharing: www.pops-tunisie.tn. According to the evaluation conducted in May 2017, the website has benefited from more than 2,400 unique visitors.
• A communication campaign with the slogan "Together, Let's Change Our Habits" for improving HCW management practices in healthcare settings. For this purpose, a set of awareness posters was produced with humorous illustrations of good and bad HCW management practices by Tunisian cartoonist Chedly Belkhamsa. These posters were distributed in public hospitals throughout Tunisia and were used during traveling exhibitions in the governorates of Tunis and Ariana. They are downloadable on the project website. The campaign is accompanied by a facebook page "Ensemble, changeons nos habitudes".

• 4 HCW Newsletters to inform partners and the general public about the progress of the HCW project and the implementation of the Stockholm Convention. The newsletters can be downloaded from the project website.

• An institutional film on the improvement of HCW management: the institutional film summarizes the whole project of optimization of HCW management and shows the commitment of the institutional actors and the practitioners in this project. 

• An awareness raising spot for the broad public.

People who collaborated with ATI on this project:

• Kaouther Maaroufi, consultant, web content manager
• Saloua Ayari, consultant, backstopping