Formative evaluation of UNICEF three star approach for WASH in Schools in the Pacific

The Three Star Approach was designed to be a “simple, scalable and sustainable” method to address WASH issues in schools, with a particular focus on hygiene and behaviour change. Schools are rated from a scale of zero to three stars based on the WASH infrastructure and behaviours exhibited by students (UNICEF & GIZ, 2013). It is an incremental approach, centred on strengthening the capacity of schools to identify their own needs and empower children to become agents of change in their communities through their improved WASH knowledge. It looks to address the bottlenecks that block the effectiveness and expansion of current WASH in Schools programmes. Additionally, the Three Star Approach works to encourage governments to create an enabling environment through the commitment of policy, legislation and financing for effective WASH in schools. 

The purpose of this evaluation is to generate evidence to inform replicability and scalability of the Three Star Approach for WASH in Schools. It is designed to foster learning and improvement of the approach, and identify priority focus areas for government partners, donors and UNICEF. The intended audience is UNICEF Pacific, education and health ministries in host governments (along with other relevant ministries), WASH programme implementing partners and donors. Based on the evaluation’s formative purpose, the objectives were centred on assessing progress to date and identifying lessons from the way in which the Three Star Approach has been implemented in the five target countries. These lessons are intended to inform UNICEF Pacific’s WASH agenda, as well as the UNICEF Pacific Multi-Country Programme.