Lifebuoy Way of Life Annual Review 2008-9PDF

The state of handwashing with soapDr Val Curtis

Top 10 Hygiene Lessons

Changing behaviour of 1 billion people by 2015

Towards universal handwashing with soap: Annual Review 2008/09

This report has been created for on-screen use, so may not be suitable for printing. For a high resolution version, please contact the Lifebuoy marketing team.

{Lifebuoy aims to bring safety, security and health to five billion people around the world, through the active promotion of handwashing with soap.

LIFEBUOY’SON A MISSION

Annual Review 2008 - 2009

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Lifebuoy way of life

ContentsForeword- Opening statements from Paul Polman, Unilever CEO,

and Ricardo Pimenta, Global Brand VP Unilever Health Brands

Our commitment to making a difference every day- Myriam Sidibe, Lifebuoy Global Social Mission Manager,

introduces the Lifebuoy Social Mission

Lifebuoy - in brief- Some facts about the brand

Handwashing state of the world- A summary from Dr Val Curtis, Director of the Hygiene Centre at the

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

A brand on a mission- Making a difference around the world

Hygiene promotion activations- Putting a spotlight on Lifebuoy country programmes

Capacity building and partnerships- How teamwork is shaping the future for handwashing

Advocacy- Keeping handwashing on the global and local agendas

Lifebuoy Way of Life- Tracking social and business impacts

Rewind and Recap- The Lifebuoy Top 10 hygiene and health lessons

learned from 2008-2009

Our next steps- Anuj Rustagi, Lifebuoy Global Brand Director,

outlines the Lifebuoy Way of Life Challenge

References

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“I sincerely believe that businesses like

Unilever can be a positive force for good

in the world and that such an approach is

in the interests of all our stakeholders – our

investors, our consumers, our employees

and the communities where we operate.” {

{

Paul Polman, Unilever Chief Executive Officer

Foreword

Unilever’s mission is to meet the everyday needs of people around the world for nutrition, hygiene and personal care. We do this with products that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life – something which Lifebuoy has been doing for the past 114 years.

Every day around 160 million people in 150 countries choose our Unilever brands to feed their families and to clean themselves and their homes. And every second, 91 families choose a Lifebuoy product to deliver on health and hygiene promises. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the social and environmental impacts we have on the world come largely from our brands, and Lifebuoy is at the centre of the positive social impacts that Unilever as a corporation can deliver. This is why we are embedding sustainability thinking into the day-to-day activities of our brand management and R&D teams. The Lifebuoy brand has been at the forefront of the piloting of tools such as Brand Imprint and social metrics. Both these tools are helping us think more carefully about the resources

we use, such as water, packaging, energy and raw materials, and the social and economic impacts of our brands in the countries where they are sold.

Ever since the launch of its first soap products over 100 years ago, Lifebuoy has helped make a positive difference to people’s health and well-being in the developed and developing world. But preventable diseases, resulting from poor hygiene and sanitation, still pose a significant health challenge. Every year more than 3.5 million children still die before the age of five because of diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections. Encouraging people to change their habits – by washing hands with soap before touching food and after going to the toilet – is essential, and central to all Lifebuoy brand activities. What makes doing good sustainable in the long run is the business benefits that Lifebuoy delivers year after year. It is one of the fastest-growing brands in our skin care business, recording double digit

growth every year in recent years, demonstrating its ability to offer an invaluable response to the demands of consumers in developing and emerging markets.

This first Lifebuoy Social Mission Annual Review is evidence of how seriously Lifebuoy takes its commitments. The report provides a review of our latest activities to support the Lifebuoy social mission – a mission that is absolutely integral to the brand.

Foreword from Ricardo Pimenta, Global Brand Vice President, Unilever Health Brands

POSITIVE Annual Review 2008 - 2009

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Through the Lifebuoy brand’s social mission programmes we aim to make a difference in people’s day-to-day lives – spreading positive hygiene messages through hygiene promotion activities. The projects instigated by our country teams are already making a difference and helping to save lives. The resources we provide to complement those supplied by the public sector are vital to ensure that we continue reaching people who need our help the most. Our commitment to the Lifebuoy social mission is evident in the steps we have taken towards making handwashing with soap central to the brand’s marketing efforts.

This report gives an overview of the work Lifebuoy has done in 2008 and 2009, partnering Lifebuoy together with public and private sector partners around the world, who share the brand’s commitment to promoting health and hygiene. Without these important partnerships it would not be possible to share our messages on such a large scale.

Before joining the Lifebuoy team, I worked for non-governmental organisations and in the public sector, and have lived in more than 20 countries around the world. I sought a platform from which I could make a real impact to people’s lives. I believe that Lifebuoy and Unilever as a corporation offers this platform, with clear, tangible deliverables that are relevant both for business and social benefits. Visiting some of the Lifebuoy brand’s social mission programmes in India, Indonesia and Vietnam has made me realise that we have already achieved so much, thanks to the right support and gives me the confidence that we can achieve a lot more. The commitment of our Lifebuoy teams across the world is exceptional and unique.

By Dr Myriam Sidibe DrPH, Lifebuoy Global Social Mission Manager

Our commitment to making a difference every day

THE LIFEBUOY BRAND’S SOCIAL MISSION IS TO BRING SAFETY, SECURITY AND HEALTH TO FIVE BILLION PEOPLE THROUGH THE ACTIVE PROMOTION OF HANDWASHING WITH SOAP. AND WHILE OUR PRODUCTS ALREADY PROVIDE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WITH ACCESSIBLE AND AFFORDABLE HYGIENE, AS THE WORLD’S LEADING HEALTH SOAP, WE KNOW THERE IS MORE THE BRAND CAN DO.

I AM CONFIDENT THAT THE LIFEBUOY TEAMS, TOGETHER WITH OUR PARTNERS, CAN CONTINUE TO BUILD ON OUR WORK IN THE FUTURE, TO MAKE A LASTING IMPACT ON PUBLIC HEALTH AROUND THE WORLD.

Key:

Countries where Lifebuoy was sold in 2009


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LIFEBUOY -• LAUNCHED IN THE UK IN 1894, Lifebuoy is one of Unilever’s oldest

brands, and has championed a message of health through hygiene for

more than a century

• One of Unilever’s founders, William Lever, launched the Lifebuoy brand

to help bring affordable hygiene to Victorian England at a time when

epidemics of typhoid, smallpox, cholera and diphtheria were a

constant threat.

• Today Lifebuoy products are sold in more than 34 countries in Asia and

Africa, and every second 91 families buy a Lifebuoy product, trusting

the Lifebuoy brand for their family’s health.

• Lifebuoy was the world’s first health soap when it was launched in 1894,

and it is still the world’s no.1 selling germ protection soap today*.

• The Lifebuoy Clinical Trial in 2007/8 demonstrated that by following

the Lifebuoy Way (washing hands at 5 key occasions during the day),

episodes of diarrhoea in target children reduced by 25% and target

children had 40% less days off school due to illness, compared with the

control group.

• Lifebuoy branded hygiene promotion activations, such as Swasthya

Chetna in India, Berbagi Sehat in Indonesia and Germ Fighters in Sri

Lanka have educated over 125 million people about the importance of

handwashing with soap.

* ACNielsen Scantrack and Retail Index Skin Cleansing Brand Volume Sales 12 months to August 2009


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encourage handwashing in health care facilities

around the world, achieving recognition despite

modest levels of funding

• International programmes to promote hygiene in

schools are also ongoing, many supported by UNICEF.

These can have a major impact on young people’s

behaviour, but we still need to do more work to find

out which approaches work best with children

• Agencies that promote safe water and sanitation

including UNICEF, the UK Department for

International Development, WaterAid, Oxfam and

non-governmental organisations all over the world

generally agree that the promotion of hygiene is an

essential adjunct to their work. However, it is hard

to run effective behaviour-change programmes,

especially when hygiene is always under-resourced.

• Governments worldwide are taking up the

handwashing message, mostly in response to

pandemics such as SARS, bird flu and swine flu. They

still have to learn that handwashing is for life, not just

for emergencies.

HANDWASHING CAN HELP PREVENT:

Diarrhoea

Pneumonia

Swine flu

SARS

Trachoma

Worm infection

Neonatal mortality

School absenteeism

Sickness in AIDS Patients

Chronic malnutrition

SO WHAT CAN WE DO?

The private sector has a key role to play in handwashing. Soap marketers, such as those working on Lifebuoy, know what changes behaviour and understand how to design and deliver campaigns that reach vast and diverse populations. Marketers are masters at consumer insight, at creative design and at the rollout and management of big campaigns21. Those of us working in the health sector are depending on soap companies to work with us to help deliver handwashing to the millions that need it.

Though it takes her family a while to gather together

the money for medicine, she is eventually cured. But

because of repeated diarrhoea and respiratory illnesses,

Laxmi is malnourished, leaving her vulnerable to

infections.

BY THE AGE OF THREE SHE IS SO WEAK AFTER SUFFERING FROM MEASLES THAT AN INFECTION THAT IS NEVER EVEN DIAGNOSED CAUSES HER DEATH.

Laxmi’s is not an unusual story. Every year in developing

countries more than 10 million children die before their

fifth birthday1. But there is some good news. Child

survival has been improving in recent decades due to

better health care, continued economic development,

improved products and environments, and new cultural

expectations.

However, there’s still a long way to go. While most

people in emerging markets do have soap at home,

more than 80% fail to use it for washing their hands. As

a result, children face an onslaught of pathogens every

day in their own homes.

HANDWASHING HELPS: THE LATEST FINDINGS

It is a well known fact that effective handwashing can

prevent diarrhoeal diseases. Handwashing with soap is

thought to reduce diarrhoea risk by up to 50%2-4. And in

the last few years we have learned that handwashing

can do even more. It protects from respiratory infection,

reducing risk by an estimated 23%5 and a study in

Pakistan saw handwashing halve the risk of pneumonia

infections6. It protects against pandemic flu7, SARS8,

trachoma9, and parasitic worm infections10. It keeps

children in school11 and it can reduce the deaths of

newborn babies, according to a recent study from

Nepal12. Research has shown AIDS patients also have

significantly less diarrhoea when they wash their hands

regularly13, and a new study published this year in

the Lancet suggests that poor hygiene may be one of

the reasons for chronic and intractable malnutrition in

developing countries14.

A recent review by the World Bank suggests promoting

handwashing with soap may also be the single

cheapest health intervention there is, coming above

malaria and HIV control in terms of health benefits

against expenditure15.

Yet, even in developed countries with taps and towels,

handwashing isn’t the rule. We monitored a motorway

service station in the UK and found that of the 330,000+

people who used the toilets only 32% of men and 64%

of women washed their hands with soap. There is a

long way to go until handwashing with soap becomes a

universal habit.

CHANGING BEHAVIOUR

Handwashing behaviour is learned early in life, is highly

habitual, and is influenced by local cultural norms16 – so

by what everyone else is doing. Given the difficulty of

shifting established habits, we’ve found that we need

to use shock tactics to make an impact.

One approach that has been shown to work is to

disgust people, making them aware that there

is something nasty on their hands, by using a

demonstration kit or through advertising17-19. Since

people copy what others do it’s important to promote

the idea that everybody is doing it20. Public pledges to

handwash are likely to work, as are visible badges on

young people or on houses or public walls.

WHO’S FIGHTING FOR HANDWASHING?

After many years working to raise the profile of

handwashing, it’s finally getting global recognition. Key

initiatives include the following:

• The Global Public Private Partnership for Handwashing

with Soap shows people around the world that

handwashing with soap is important and that it can

be promoted in exciting new ways. It has also helped

establish Global Handwashing Day, which has had a

huge impact worldwide

• The Clean Care is Safe Care programme has been

rolled out by the World Health Organisation to

Handwashing state of the World

THE GRAPH ON THE RIGHT TELLS A VERY SHORT LIFE STORY. IT BEGINS WITH LAXMI’S BIRTH, IN A VILLAGE IN RURAL ANDHRA PRADESH ON THE SOUTH-EASTERN COAST OF INDIA. A HAPPY CHILD, LAXMI GROWS WELL UNTIL HER FIFTH MONTH WHEN SHE FALLS ILL WITH DIARRHOEA AND A BAD COUGH. SHE RECOVERS BUT AT NINE MONTHS CATCHES A RESPIRATORY INFECTION THAT TURNS INTO PNEUMONIA.

A report from Dr Val Curtis, Director of the Hygiene Centre at the

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

AVERAGE CHILD DEVELOPMENT

LAXMI’S DEVELOPMENT


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A brand on a missionTHROUGH LIFEBUOY, WE AIM TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN PEOPLE’S DAY-TO-DAY LIVES. WORKING WITH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR PARTNERS AROUND THE WORLD, OUR CHALLENGE IS TO TRANSFORM HANDWASHING WITH SOAP FROM AN ABSTRACT GOOD IDEA INTO AN AUTOMATIC BEHAVIOURAL PATTERN AT CRITICAL TIMES OF THE DAY.

The Lifebuoy brand team partners public and private

sector organisations around the world which share

our commitment to promoting health and hygiene. By

sharing our skills and experiences with our partners

through activities and education campaigns, we can

help build expertise in communicating the importance

of handwashing with soap – a task which is too big

for any single organisation to tackle alone.

OUR SOCIAL MISSION ACTIVITIES ARE BUILT UPON THE FOLLOWING THREE BELIEFS:

THE LIFEBUOYSOCIAL MISSION

ACTIVITIES INVOLVE SPREADING POSITIVE HYGIENE MESSAGES

THROUGH EDUCATION. OUR ACTIVITIES

FOCUS ON THREECORE AREAS:

Around the world, Lifebuoy handwashing initiatives

and hygiene promotion programmes reach people

where they live, work and play – in villages, schools,

shopping malls and hospitals.

To ensure that our messages make a difference,

we find ways to engage communities, ensuring

that consumers understand the important role that

handwashing with soap plays in keeping people safe

and healthy. Central to this is the need for our target

audience to experience effective handwashing to

instil good habits.

• THE WORLD HAS MOVED ON FROM PHILANTHROPY. We realise donations alone cannot not provide the sustained, continuous programme of support that the world’s most intractable problems – such as improving health and hygiene – normally require

• WE BELIEVE THAT BRANDS CAN BE A POSITIVE FORCE FOR GOOD. This is deep-rooted in the Lifebuoy brand history and Unilever’s ongoing commitment to social responsibility. We seek to invest in changing behaviour sustainably

• THE FUTURE LIES WITH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS. The private sector is best placed to provide expertise on marketing behaviour-change to large audiences, working with non-governmental organisations and governments to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals. These goals are a set of internationally-agreed targets designed to alleviate poverty, hunger and ill-health around the world, and improve education, gender equality and environmental sustainability through global partnerships by 2015.

It is important to raise the profile of

handwashing with soap, creating the right

environment for investment in behaviour-

change activities. Lifebuoy branded advocacy

activities in 2008/2009 included addressing

delegates at events such as the World Health

Organisation Child Environmental Health

conferences and the What If! Sustainable

Development Conference. The brand also

became a founding partner of Global

Handwashing Day in October 2008.

HYGIENE PROMOTION ACTIVATIONS

CAPACITY BUILDINGAND PARTNERSHIPS

ADVOCACY

1

2

3

>See page 16

>See page 22

>See page 26


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GLOW-GERM EXPERIENCE

A SIMPLE, LOW-COST DEVICE IS HELPING

LIFEBUOY DEMONSTRATE THE CLEANSING

POWER OF SOAP TO COMMUNITIES

ACROSS THE DEVELOPING WORLD. IN

LINE WITH THE BRAND’S COMMITMENT

TO MAKING ITS ACTIVATIONS

INTERACTIVE AND ENGAGING AS WELL AS

EDUCATIONAL, WE CAME UP WITH THE

GLOW-GERM EXPERIENCE.

It all starts with a basic black box, which we source

locally in the countries where activations are set to take

place. The box is then fitted with an ultra-violet (UV)

bulb.

At Lifebuoy-branded demonstrations, consumers are

given a special UV powder to rub into their hands, which

they then rinse with nothing but water. Their hands

appear clean to the naked eye but when placed under

UV light, traces of the powder are revealed, highlighting

how germs can remain on the skin despite hands

looking clean.

Consumers are then invited to wash their hands with

Lifebuoy soap before placing them inside the box

again. This time, no signs of the UV powder can be

seen – providing a powerful emotional reminder that

handwashing with soap provides greater protection

against germs than washing with water alone.

By reviewing existing knowledge and

insight, teams working on Lifebuoy have

identified key behavioural issues which

we address in our campaigns to drive

sustainable handwashing behaviour change

and which have helped us define the tools

necessary to achieve such change.

Featured in this report is a selection of case

studies highlighting some of the hygiene

promotion activations initiated by Lifebuoy

and supported by the brand’s advertising

and promotion budget.

LIFEBUOY HYGIENE PROMOTION ACTIVITIES ADHERE

TO THE FOLLOWING GUIDING PRINCIPLES:

• Activities educate through experience, demonstrating the importance of

handwashing with soap and how this should be done

• Lifebuoy is a family ally. It’s a vitality brand, helping families to stay healthy and

active for life, in line with Unilever’s global vitality mission

• Activities should include parents and children together, to foster lasting good habits

in handwashing.

ENCOURAGING HANDWASHING BEHAVIOUR CHANGE IS CENTRAL TO ALL LIFEBUOY ACTIVATIONS. GENERALLY PEOPLE WASH THEIR HANDS SPORADICALLY WHEN THEY ARE ABOUT TO COME INTO CONTACT WITH FOOD OR AFTER USING THE TOILET. SOAP ONLY TENDS TO BE USED WHEN HANDS ARE VISIBLY DIRTY, SMELLY OR FEEL STICKY OR UNPLEASANT.

Lifebuoy’s

hygiene

promotion

activations

1


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Activity: In partnership with local government bodies, the Swasthya Chetna programme continues to raise awareness about the importance of handwashing with soap to prevent disease, with the central message ‘Visibly clean is not really clean’. Lifebuoy teams visit each village involved in the programme three times, at a total cost of US$30 per village. Activities involve schoolchildren, parents and the wider village community.

Reach: By the end of 2008, the Swasthya Chetna programme had reached more than 120 million people in 50,600 rural villages, making it the single largest private hygiene education project in the world, with investment of over US$5 million from Hindustan Unilever Ltd.

SPOTLIGHT: Swasthya Chetna, India

THE LIFEBUOY SWASTHYA CHETNA PROGRAMME, TRANSLATED AS HEALTH AWAKENING, LAUNCHED IN 2002 AS A RURAL HEALTH AND HYGIENE INITIATIVE IN INDIA, A COUNTRY WHERE MORE THAN 600,000 CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF FIVE DIE EACH YEAR FROM DIARRHOEA.

Activity: Working with an extensive network of partners including national and local government departments, non-governmental organisations, retailers and the media, the Lifebuoy Berbagi Sehat programme aims to help with hygiene infrastructure improvements and educate school children, and their mothers, to instil healthy hygiene habits. The three strands of the programme cover access to hardware (ie handwashing facilities and toilets), enabling hygiene environments and hygiene promotion.

Reach: The programme has expanded both geographically and in scope each year since its launch. Growing numbers of school teachers and community workers have also been used as hygiene champions to multiply the impact of the programme in communities. By the end of 2008, Berbagi Sehat had reached more than 1.1 million people, with investment of over US$600,000 from Unilever Indonesia (excluding media spend). Research carried out following one of the Lifebuoy brand’s interventions reported that 84% of people who had been involved with the campaign subsequently washed their hands with soap after using the toilet, compared to 58% in the control group.

A NATIONAL HEALTH SURVEY UNDERTAKEN PRIOR TO THE LAUNCH OF LIFEBUOY BERBAGI SEHAT HYGIENE EDUCATION PROGRAMME IN 2004 INDICATED THAT A HIGH PROPORTION OF PEOPLE IN INDONESIA NEGLECTED TO WASH THEIR HANDS WITH SOAP AT CRITICAL TIMES. THIS WAS DESPITE FIGURES REVEALING ALMOST 100% OF HOUSEHOLDS IN THE COUNTRY PURCHASED SOAP.

SPOTLIGHT: Berbagi Sehat, Indonesia

Activity: The Mahfooz programme reaches out to rural households and schools. As part of the campaign, groups of women have been invited to houses in their neighbourhood and provided with information about the importance of handwashing with soap. In schools, themed Germ Buster assemblies have taken place, with bandanas and soap products distributed to help reinforce the hand hygiene message.

Reach: By the end of 2008, the Mahfooz programme had reached more than 100,000 households directly.

SPOTLIGHT:Mahfooz, Pakistan

THE LIFEBUOY MAHFOOZ PROGRAMME LAUNCHED IN PAKISTAN IN 2005, WITH THE GOAL OF PROVIDING HYGIENE EDUCATION TO PEOPLE IN RURAL COMMUNITIES.

Activity: Working with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health, schools and local communities, each Germ Fighters school programme involves different activities to raise awareness of handwashing with soap. Art competitions, essay writing contests and drama productions, along with hands-on handwashing experiences ensure schoolchildren are engaged. Health and hygiene standards in participating schools are upgraded, with new toilets and water pipeline systems, and community clean-up activities organised.

Reach: By the end of 2008, the Germ Fighters programme had reached over 500,000 school children in over 500 schools. In every region where the programme has been activated, soap consumption has increased when measured 2-3 months following the activity, indicating that Germ Fighters has had an impact in changing household behaviour with regards to washing with soap.

THE LIFEBUOY GERM FIGHTERS CAMPAIGN STARTED IN SRI LANKA IN 2002, TO EDUCATE CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD HYGIENE HABITS.

SPOTLIGHT: Germ Fighters, Sri Lanka

hygiene

promotion

activations1

Continued


1918


Activity: Lifebuoy developed a complete influenza pandemic response package, with resources made freely available through the Lifebuoy.com website. Information was also deployed during the first wave of the pandemic across a variety of media channels, including TV, press, radio, instore and schools in all Lifebuoy geographies where swine flu had been detected. The key message during the pandemic’s initial phase was ‘Washing hands frequently with soap is one of the simplest and most effective ways to prevent swine flu – issued in the public interest by Lifebuoy’. To minimise any confusion for the public, and maximise consumer reach, wherever possible Lifebuoy teams worked directly with local Ministries of Health, broadcasting

combined public service messages.

Reach: During the first wave of the pandemic, the Lifebuoy Swine Flu response package was deployed across all key Lifebuoy geographies, including India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.

SPOTLIGHT:Lifebuoy responds to swine flu

Activity: In partnership with Vietnam’s Women’s Union, the initiative draws on many of the elements from the Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna programme. The programme is taken to women’s groups and primary schools educating them, through the use of activities such as the glow germ demonstration, that ‘Visibly clean is not really clean’. In a 2007 Ministry of Health survey, while 70% of respondents in Vietnam understood the need to wash hands with soap before eating, only 6.1% did it in practice. The programme activities seek to change these habits.

Reach: The programme was piloted in a single province in 2008, and in 2009 was rolled out to the whole of the Mekong Delta region, comprising 13 provinces and covering approximately 1,200 communes and 400,000 people.

THE LIFEBUOY BRANDED HYGIENE PROMOTION PROGRAMME IN VIETNAM STARTED IN 2008, AND AIMS TO CHANGE THE HANDWASHING HABITS OF 62 MILLION RURAL CONSUMERS TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF CHILD DEATHS CAUSED BY DIARRHOEA IN THE COUNTRY EACH YEAR.

SPOTLIGHT: Vietnam’s future in millions of clean hands

ONLY WEEKS AFTER THE FIRST CASES OF THE INFLUENZA A H1N1 VIRUS, COMMONLY KNOWN AS SWINE FLU, WERE DIAGNOSED IN MEXICO IN EARLY 2009, THE VIRUS HAD SPREAD TO MORE THAN 76 COUNTRIES. GIVEN ITS WIDESPREAD GLOBAL REACH, THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION DECLARED H1N1 A GLOBAL PANDEMIC, WITH THE GOAL THAT RECOMMENDED PREVENTATIVE ACTIONS WOULD HELP TO REDUCE THE IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC ON SOCIETY.

LIFEBUOY IS UNIQUELY POSITIONED TO PLAY A KEY ROLE AT TIMES OF SUCH HEALTH CRISES. THE LIFEBUOY BRAND MISSION STATES ITS COMMITMENT TO IMPROVING HEALTH AND HYGIENE, AND SAVING LIVES THROUGH HANDWASHING. THE RESPONSE BY LIFEBUOY TEAMS DURING THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC HAS PROVIDED THE OPPORTUNITY FOR LIFEBUOY TO LIVE UP TO THIS MISSION.

hygiene

promotion

activations1

Continued


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Lifebuoy Social Mission Stewardship – Building in-house capacity

On 18 November 2009, more than 150 people working with Lifebuoy in 21 countries took part in a unique online event, informing them about all aspects of the Lifebuoy Way of Life. . They received training on the key principles of handwashing, learnt how to work effectively with partners and how to deploy higher implementation standards of handwashing activities.

The aim of this event was to ensure that people working with the Lifebuoy brand fully understand the importance of handwashing with soap, and feel motivated and inspired about the Lifebuoy brand’s social mission. A Lifebuoy Handwashing Master Class was developed and made mandatory for all working on Lifebuoy.

Our capacity building initiatives adhere to the following key principles:

• We will share our expertise based on evidence that our programmes are effective

• We understand the need for local partners to own their campaigns. As a result the outputs of our training and capacity building are locally owned campaigns, into which public bodies can invest their own resources

• We recognise that we can learn skills from the public sector and it is important that the capacity building angle is a dual process.

We believe it is vital for Lifebuoy brand teams to partner with local and national governments to take the vision of universal handwashing forward. The more people hear about the benefits of handwashing with soap from varied sources, the better chance we have to establish social norms around handwashing.

UNILEVER LIFEBUOY – STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FOR HANDWASHING.

The Public Private Partnership for Handwashing was initiated in 2002 (see http://www.globalhandwashing.org) and is a collaboration between several organisations such as several organisations including Unilever, Procter & Gamble, UNICEF, Colgate, USAID and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, with the aim to promote handwashing with soap.

Capacity

building and

partnerships 2

Through the Lifebuoy brand’s 114-year heritage of running

hygiene promotion programmes we have built valuable

hygiene marketing skills. In order to share our knowledge

and skills with public sector partners, we have developed a

capacity building programme so that by working together our

campaigns can have a greater impact in promoting positive

behaviour change.

REACHING FIVE BILLION PEOPLE EFFECTIVELY WITH A HANDWASHING MESSAGE THAT WILL DRIVE BEHAVIOUR CHANGE IS NOT SOMETHING THE LIFEBUOY BRAND CAN DO ALONE. THEREFORE THE NEED FOR PARTNERS WHO SHARE OUR VISION AND GOALS IS KEY TO IMPLEMENTING THE BRAND’S SOCIAL MISSION.

Online Learning Module

Handwashing Master Class

Welcome to the

Start


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The opportunity:Project Champion’s mission is to make a contribution to Millennium Development Goal Four – reducing child mortality. We’re working with UNICEF to do this by designing, testing, packaging and making available an approach to encourage the habit of handwashing with soap among caregivers for the under-fives in poor communities in developing countries. The campaign focuses on making school-aged children a key route of influence into homes.

Project activities:Phase one of Project Champion was completed in late 2008, examining two key hypotheses. The first was that the project should take a global approach – a theory which was validated by desk research, expert interviews and literature reviews. The second hypothesis was that children could play a key role in influencing adult behaviour at home. We carried out a proof of principle study in rural Uganda to test this, with encouraging results. Within the public health sector children are often seen as agents of change, but this was the first study that actually measured the impact children have on health at home.

Our achievements to date and next steps: Findings from Phase one of Project Champion support the case for a global approach to encourage the habit of handwashing with soap in poor communities in developing countries. We believe a global approach to this initiative is valid, but marketing will need to be tailored to suit the different and diverse communities in which Lifebuoy has a presence.

Our research also offered direct evidence that children can influence more than just attitudes among the adults that care for them at home, helping to foster lasting good habits in handwashing.

Older girls are the most influential audience for this project, with two key behaviour-change catalysts having the biggest impact: handwashing with soap as a social norm, and the feeling of disgust at unclean hands. We’re certain that through education, older children can become valuable messengers of change in this vital area.

Deby Sadrach, Vice President Home & Personal Care Unilever Indonesia, officially opened the Health Expo preceding the In Safe Hands Workshop in Indonesia.

“The Lifebuoy brand has a social mission that has been deeply embedded in the brand ever since it was launched in Indonesia. Through the brand’s involvement in the public-private partnership activities and by sharing our marketing expertise, Unilever gets excellent opportunities to enhance the Lifebuoy brand’s social impact for positive behaviour change in the country. Going forward, we are committed to continue doing this, and widen further the impact towards more and more Indonesian families”.

Chris Nsubbugga, Handwash Coordinator, Water & Sanitation Programme Africa, received In Safe Hands training:

“Since taking part in the In Safe Hands programme, we have found a common campaign idea to promote handwashing with soap in the East Africa region – ‘Hands to be proud of’. It’s a great concept and we would never have reached this stage without the support from In Safe Hands and the Lifebuoy brand. I found the immersion exercise during the workshop really useful. Being able to go out into the community, talk to consumers and understand their needs enables us to find out so much about them.”

In Safe Hands: SharIng marketing expertise with the public sector

The opportunity: The biggest challenge faced by national handwashing campaigns is getting people to adopt handwashing with soap as a permanent habit, and few public sector officials responsible for such campaigns have experience of developing effective behaviour-change communication techniques. By providing marketing training to such professionals and sharing Unilever’s experience in driving behaviour change, we see an opportunity to significantly increase the effectiveness of handwashing behaviour-change campaigns.

Programme activity: In Safe Hands was designed by Unilever’s Marketing Academy and the Lifebuoy brand team, and has been implemented successfully in Vietnam, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Indonesia.

Through the programme, senior decision makers and policy formers are educated on the role and value of marketing in achieving behaviour change, including taking part in live consumer immersion exercises to see how effective marketing activations can really make an impact on communities. Upon completion of the training, Unilever teams support public sector organisations to develop real-life handwashing campaign communications.

Our achievements to date: More than 300 public sector professionals have taken part in the In Safe Hands programme. As a result, several Lifebuoy-backed national handwashing campaigns are now at various stages of development:

• In Uganda and Tanzania, a ‘Hands to be proud of’ campaign is being rolled out, tailored for each country to suit the local context. Over US$700,000 has been raised to run the campaign.

• In Kenya a national taskforce to promote handwashing with soap has been established, led by the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, and supported by partners including UNICEF, Water & Sanitation Programme Africa, PLAN International and CARE. A communication campaign is currently in development, and the Kenya team is aiming to raise over US$800,000 to run the campaign.

• In Indonesia, the Public Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap has requested Lifebuoy’s support in developing an effective communication campaign. The communication brief is currently being drafted.

PROJECT CHAMPION:

ENCOURAGING HANDWASHING BEHAVIOUR AT SCALE THROUGH AN ONGOING PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN UNILEVER AND UNICEF

THE IN SAFE HANDS PROGRAMME IS ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT PRIVATE SECTOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FOR HANDWASHING WITH SOAP.

Capacity

building and

partnerships 2

Continued

Unilever-UNICEF partnership


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ADVOCACY IS A CENTRAL ELEMENT OF OUR EFFORTS TO PROMOTE GLOBAL HANDWASHING WITH SOAP BECAUSE IT HELPS TO SET THE RIGHT ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR THE HANDWASHING PROGRAMMES WE SUPPORT, EXTENDING OUR REACH AMONG INFLUENTIAL AUDIENCES AND SPREADING THE MESSAGE THAT HANDWASHING WITH SOAP CAN BRING MUCH-NEEDED HEALTH BENEFITS TO COMMUNITIES. WE BELIEVE THAT – THROUGH THE LIFEBUOY BRAND - WE HAVE A VALUABLE PART TO PLAY IN PROMOTING THE IMPORTANCE OF HANDWASHING WITH SOAP, AND ALSO HIGHLIGHTING THE ROLE THAT PRIVATE SECTOR PARTNERS CAN PLAY IN THIS AREA.

Advocacy

Although the last decade has seen great progress in raising handwashing on the agenda for governments and private sector organisations, the full benefits of handwashing with soap are still not appreciated or understood in many parts of the world. Policies and programmes on handwashing promotion are still not widely practised – and that’s an issue we seek to address.

Lifebuoy brand teams are dedicated to advocating handwashing with soap, and deliver presentations about our work, research and goals at high profile meetings and conferences around the world. As a founding partner of Global Handwashing Day, the Lifebuoy brand is helping to raise the profile of the issue to the whole world.

3

GLOBAL HANDWASHING DAY Launched in 2008, Global Handwashing Day is an annual event backed by the Public Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap, of which Unilever, through its Lifebuoy brand, is a founding partner.

THE OPPORTUNITY:The annual celebration of Global Handwashing Day is designed to foster and support a global and local culture of handwashing with soap, raising awareness of its benefits, and shining a spotlight on the state of handwashing in each country taking part.

In the long term, we hope Global Handwashing Day will become a powerful platform for advocacy aimed at policy makers and key stakeholders, and an occasion for public commitment to action that will instil behaviour change at scale.

PROGRAMME ACTIVITIES: The Lifebuoy brand works with over 50 partners across the globe to bring the health and hygiene message to millions of consumers in countries selling Lifebuoy.


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GLOBAL HANDWASHING DAY 2009

In 2009, over 85 countries celebrated Global Handwashing Day including 23 Lifebuoy markets.

COUNTRY HIGHLIGHTS IN 2009In Vietnam the Lifebuoy team launched the global ‘Germ Fighter Drawing Contest’ across the country and organised a Guinness World Record attempt.

In Indonesia, 1,609,000 people participated in Lifebuoy activities on Global Handwashing Day. The team generated $284,200 worth of PR coverage.

In India 15,000 children washed their hands at the same time to attempt to break the Guinness World Record. The event was co-ordinated by the Lifebuoy brand, WHO and the Indian government.

In Cambodia, Lifebuoy teams organised school events across the country to generate coverage in three national newspapers and 4 popular consumer magazines.

In Uganda, the Public Private Partnership for Handwashing, UNICEF and the Government of Uganda joined the Germ Fighter drawing contest and got 13,000 schools across the country to participate.

Advocacy

GLOBAL HANDWASHING DAY 2008 The inaugural Global Handwashing Day was celebrated in more than 75 countries, including 23 Lifebuoy markets.

COUNTRY HIGHLIGHTS IN 2008

In South Africa, Lifebuoy brand teams worked with the Department of Water Affairs (DWAF) to host a handwashing event as well as organise a “clean up” of schools across the country.

In Sri Lanka, the Lifebuoy brand teamed up with government Public Health Inspectors to create a handwashing pledge for school children. To help spread the word they travelled around schools in a Lifebuoy branded bus educating children on the importance of handwashing with soap.In Malaysia the Lifebuoy team organised a month long handwashing campaign which reached 62,000 children across the country.

Activities included handwashing pledges and educating children about handwashing techniques.

GUINNESS WORLD RECORD IN BANGLADESH

Lifebuoy teams in Bangladesh worked with the Department of Public Health Engineering, UNICEF, the World Health Organisation and other coalition partners to bring the Global Handwashing Day message to 75,000 schools across the country. The activities reached more than 15 million children, and gained media coverage from all five national TV channels, 26 national newspapers, and a wealth of regional publications.

As part of the day’s events, the Lifebuoy team and its partners broke the Guinness World Record for the most people washing their hands with soap at the same time - and made a significant step towards a long-term working relationship with Lifebuoy’s partners in Bangladesh.

LIFEBUOY GERM FIGHTER DRAWING CONTEST

Global Handwashing Day revolves around schools and children, with activities designed to increase their participation in handwashing with soap. To raise awareness of the Global Handwashing Day campaign and its important hygiene messages among children, the Lifebuoy team launched its global ‘Germ Fighter Drawing Contest’ in 2009. School children aged between 5 and 12 across many Lifebuoy countries participated.

To date, the Lifebuoy team in Indonesia has received over 15,000 entries and 13,000 schools in Uganda entered the competition, with several other countries still collating the poster entries. The prize is a visit to the UN palace in Geneva, Switzerland, supported by the Water Supply Sanitation Collaborative Council.

2

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE

Continued

Paul Polman

adressing

Unilever

employees

on Global

Hadwashing

Day


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• AWARENESS OF GERMS AND LIFEBUOY

BRAND SALIENCE

One of the ways in which the impact of the

Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna programme has been

evaluated in India is to measure the awareness

of germs, the association of diseases with poor

hygiene and Lifebuoy brand salience. The table

below shows the impact of the programme

following its implementation in 9 states

across India.

• LIFEBUOY BRAND EQUITY

The equity of the Lifebuoy brand has been tracked

in countries where social mission activities have

been ongoing, with significant improvement

recorded in brand attributes in these countries.

For example, in Vietnam brand attributes

were found to have been improved, such that

agreement with the statements:

Pre-Intervention Post-Intervention

Awareness of germs 52% 83%

Associating germs with disease 35% 57%

Lifebuoy Brand Salience 28% 51%

+ Cleanse the skin deeply to

remove invisible dirt

+ Is a brand that you

can trust

increased from

65%-> 85%

increased from

65%-> 97%

IMPACT EXAMPLES FOR 2008-09

TRACKING FROM 2010 ONWARDS

Lifebuoy Way of Life: Tracking social and business Impacts

IN 2008-2009, THE IMPACT OF LIFEBUOY PROGRAMMES HAS BEEN TRACKED USING A VARIETY OF MEASURES, INCLUDING AWARENESS OF GERMS AND DISEASES ASSOCIATED WITH POOR HYGIENE, AND BRAND EQUITY MEASURES FOR LIFEBUOY.

Social Mission Metrics essentials: Inputs and Outputs

Goals Inputs Outputs Impacts

In 2010, a complete measurement framework

will be established that will track the impact of

Lifebuoy Social Mission programmes on societies

and business. The overall success of these

programmes – and therefore the success of the

Lifebuoy Social Mission - will be measured by the

impact that Lifebuoy activities have on changing

handwashing behaviours over a 5 year timeframe.

Tracking progress will help to achieve our goals by

identifying whether we are on plan to deliver the

Lifebuoy Social Mission and business target.

THE PILOT

The Lifebuoy brand has been selected by Unilever

to pilot the new Unilever Social Mission Framework

& Metrics, establishing an activated tracking

mechanism in every country. These metrics have

been developed in 2009 by a central team,

including representatives from the Lifebuoy brand

and external consultants. The framework has

also been reviewed by external partners, such as

UNICEF and the World Food Programme, to ensure

compatibility with existing external frameworks.

SIMPLE PRINCIPLE

The metrics are based on a simple principle: what

we put in (the inputs) and what we get out (the

outputs).

For inputs: this means tracking expenditure

made by the Lifebuoy or Unilever brands and any

external collaborators.

For outputs: this means tracking the short-

term and long-term effects of our mission on

our business and on society. These outputs

will include the PR value generated by social

mission activities, brand equity, sales results and

awareness of germs and salience to the

Lifebuoy brand.


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The Lifebuoy

Rewind and Recap

Everyone is doing it!Use the power of social norms. Make handwashing with soap seem ubiquitous; don’t talk about how rare the practice is, as this will make people wash less.

The Yuck factor!Disgust is the evolved motivation for hygiene, the key motivator, so use it!

Frame it!Make sure you frame your message positively. Don't use fear or disease threat.

It’s good manners! Mums teaching kids good manners is what good mums do.

Get the habit!Handwashing is everyday behaviour and highly habitual. Target kids: get people early, before they've formed bad practices.

Provide rewards. A strong emotional reinforcer helps instill habits.

Make it easy! How you can change the situation so people don't have to work hard to handwash. For example, keep a small piece of soap nearby; create special moment in routine for handwashing.

The power of the pledge!Create a club. Make the handwashing with soap pledge public.

Badge it!. Become a handwashing person/household. Wear the name proudly!

Reminders! Use signs, wall-writing, billboards, anything in a public space, where it can be seen and reinforce the behaviour.

TOPhygiene and health lessons

learned from 2008-2009: 10


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The biggest challenge ahead is to lay the right foundations in

2010 for the Lifebuoy brand and its partners to achieve the

vision of changing the hygiene behaviour of 1 billion people by

2015. This will be the biggest contribution of the Lifebuoy brand

and its partners to the Millennium Development Goal 4, which

aims to reduce child mortality by two thirds by 2015. To see

how you can get involved, contact us: [email protected]

Our next steps

The Lifebuoy Way of Life Challenge –

Join us and let’s change the hygiene behaviour of

1 Billion people by 2015

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2. Curtis V, Cairncross S. Effect of washing hands with soap on diarrhoea risk in the community: a systematic review. Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2003;3:275-81.

3. Ejemot R, Ehiri J, Meremikwu M, Critchley J. Hand washing for preventing diarrhoea. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2008(1).

4. Fewtrell L, Kay D, Enanoria W, Haller L, Kaufmann R, Colford JM. Water, sanitation and hygiene interventions to reduce diarrhoea in developing countries; a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2005;5(1):42-52.

5. Ensink J. Health impact of handwashing with soap. WELL Factsheets. London; 2004.6. Luby S, Agboatwalla M, Feikin D, Painter J, Billhimer W, Altaf A, et al. Effect of handwashing

on child health: a randomised controlled trial. The Lancet 2005;366(9481):225-33.7. Jefferson T, Foxlee R, Mar CD, Dooley L, Ferroni E, Hewak B, et al. Physical interventions to

interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses: systematic review. BMJ 2008;336:77-80.

8. Fung ICH, Cairncross S. Handwashing against SARS: a review. submitted. 2006.9. Emerson PM, Cairncross S, Bailey RL, Mabey DCW. A review of the evidence for the “F” and

“E” components of the SAFEstrategy for trachoma control. Tropical Medicine & International Health. 2000;5 (8):515-27.

10. Fung I-H, Cairncross S. Ascariasis and handwashing. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 2009;103 215-22.

11. Bowen A, Ma H, Ou J, Billhimer W, Long T, Ninz E, et al. A cluster-randomized controlled trial evaluating the effect of a handwashing promotion program in Chinese primary schools. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2007; 76. (6):1166-73.

12. Rhee V, Mullany L, Khatry S, Katz J, LeClerq S, Darmstadt G, et al. Maternal and birth attendant hand washing and neonatal mortality in southern Nepal. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2008 162(7):603-8.

13. Huang D, Zhou J. Effect of intensive handwashing in the prevention of diarrhoeal illness among patients with AIDS: a randomized controlled study. J Med Microbiol 2007;56(5):659-63.

14. Humphrey JH. Child undernutrition, tropical enteropathy, toilets, and handwashing. Lancet. 2009;374:1032-35.

15. Jamieson D, Bremen J, Measham A, Alleyne G, Claeson M. Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2006.

16. Curtis V, Danquah L, Aunger R. Planned, motivated and habitual hygiene behaviour: an eleven country review. Health Education Research. 2009;24(4):655-73.

17. Drummond RP, Stevenson R, Case T, Oaten M. Can the emotion of disgust be harnessed to promote hand hygiene? Experimental and field-based tests. Social Science & Medicine. 2009;68 1006-12.

18. Scott B, Schmidt W, Aunger R, Garbrah-Aidoo N, Animashaun R. Marketing Hygiene Behaviours: The Impact of Different Communications Channels on Reported Handwashing Behaviour of Women in Ghana Health Education Research. 2007;22(4):225-33.

19. G Judah, R Aunger, WP Schmidt, S Michie, S Granger, Curtis. V. Experimental Pretesting of Hand-Washing Interventions in a Natural Setting. . American Journal of Public Health. 2009;99(S2).

20. Perkins HW. The Social Norms Approach to Prevention. San Francisco.: Jossey Bass,; 2004.21. Curtis V, Garbrah-Aidoo N, Scott B. Masters of Marketing: Bringing Private Sector Skills to

Public Health Partnerships. American Journal of Public Health. 2007; 97 (4):634-41.

References

By Anuj Rustagi, Lifebuoy Global Brand Director


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Lifebuoy Germ Fighter Drawing Contest entries - Global Handwashing Day 2009

This report has been created for on-screen use, so may not be suitable for printing. For a high resolution version, please contact the Lifebuoy marketing team.

Documents

Lifebuoy Way of Life Annual Review 2008-9PDF