Enhancing health campaigns through environmental education: a case of the ‘keep Zambia clean and healthy’ programme

Abstract

This study theorised that the problem of dirty and unsanitary environments that were characteristic in Zambia stemmed from human behaviour and that dealing with it needed a multifarious approach. The study, therefore, investigated the determinants of pro-environmental behaviour and the tools for behaviour enhancement among the general public in Zambia. The theoretical framework was informed by the Community-based Social Marketing Theory, the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Health Belief Model. A Mixed Methods approach was used to collect and analyse data. A questionnaire with a Likert scale was administered to 545 randomly selected participants in two low and four high density residential areas of Lusaka and Mumbwa. The study also used unstructured interviews to collect data from council officials, franchise contractors and officials at the Ministry of Local Government. Document study involved compiling and analysing comments made on the KZCH programme by members of the general public. Consistent with earlier studies, this study found that there was a gap between possession of environmental knowledge, on one hand, and displaying pro-environmental behaviour, on the other hand. Whereas results for perceived behavioural control (76%), subjective norm (81%) and possession of pro-environmental values (78%) were high, results for pro-environmental behaviour (49 %) were lower. The study attributed the gap to internal and external barriers that impacted on individual and societal environmental behaviour. Interrelations among such multiple factors support the argument (thesis) that to encourage behaviour change, there was need for a holistic approach to implementing the KZCH programme, best facilitated by EE. This not only required increasing environmental knowledge and awareness among members of the general public but also resolving infrastructural impediments, as well as increasing participation through use of behaviour change tools such as incentives, feedback, goal-setting and prompts. The study recommends the use of a proposed behaviour toolkit which appears as Appendix B. Furthermore, the study suggests that future studies could employ behaviour change tools explained in this report in the field in order to determine how effectively they may assist behaviour change in Zambia. Keywords: Keep Zambia Clean and Healthy; behaviour; behaviour change; barriers; behaviour change tools; behaviour change toolkit.