Mobile Technology to Support Gender Equality in WASH during COVID-19

To offer correct information and to combat COVID-19 and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) rumours, SNV and Viamo co-created key messages that were communicated through the 3-2-1 service (Suchanaa ko Sansaar), a free and on-demand national information platform that Viamo started in 2019 with Nepal Telecom (NTC). Through Suchanaa ko Sansaar, NTC subscribers may access information by dialling a short code (in Nepal, 32100) from their mobile devices. Audio messages on 3-2-1 are available even to people with limited literacy skills and the most basic of mobile phones.

Once connected, a voice-automated response system guides the caller in navigating a menu of educational content options - on topics ranging from COVID-19 prevention, to MHH, WASH, and gender equality and social inclusion (GESI). These messages include facts about hygiene and sanitation to help users gain basic knowledge and to change their attitudes and behaviours - e.g., by helping them understand how hygiene is essential for preventing infectious diseases, accessing economic opportunities, and ensuring healthy environments.

This content will be available until August 2022 and can be accessed on-demand, free of charge, by all 21 million NTC subscribers. To date, more than 300,000 users in Nepal have been reached with information via text messages; nearly 25,000 users have received prerecorded voice calls.

Beyond the 3-2-1 platform, information is available as interactive voice response (IVR) content is available through a Wanji game, an engaging, interactive narrative audio game that users can access from basic mobile phones. Through the Wanji game, content is accessible to potential users who may not have access to smartphones, stable electricity, or the internet and/or who may lack the ability to transliterate text to their primary spoken language. The game experience will help users actively envision how to operationalise key information provided on handwashing and MHH in their daily lives. The game generated an 85% engagement rate among callers within a few weeks of launch in September 2021.

In addition, in September 2021, the partnership launched a free rumour-tracking digital campaign hotline that allowed residents to report myths and rumours being spread about the COVID-19 pandemic. The hotline was available in Nepali and Maithili to allow communities in the terai (plains) to communicate in their native dialect. Over the course of two months, there were 204 rumours registered on the hotline. In Chandannath municipality in the Jumla district, social mobilisers led a community training on the use of the hotline and how to access it. The very same municipality received the highest number of calls.

WASH, COVID-19, Gender