WASH First: Scaling up WASH SDG efforts: the first line of defence against COVID-19 - Indonesia SUMMARY
The WASH First programme in Indonesia started in September 2020 and will run until November 2021. It is part of the scaling-up efforts of the WASH SDG Consortium. Its main objective is to prevent further spread of COVID-19. Plan International Indonesia started the implementation in West Lombok District (NTB province) and Kupang City (NTT Province), both neighbouring locations to the ones of the WASH SDG programme. These areas have been hit hard by the pandemic. Plan International Indonesia will 1) Raise awareness of the people living in the target areas on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19, (2) Provide the people living in the target areas with access to hygiene kits (including menstrual hygiene products), disinfected equipment, soap and  personal protective equipment to enable them to practice good hygiene practices, (3) improve access to water facilities by rehabilitating water points. Since the announcement of the first COVID-19 patient in Indonesia on March 2, 2020, the number of people affected by the virus has continued to increase. However the government has not declared a national lockdown. Jakarta is the only region that is implementing large-scale social restrictions consisting of a period of restriction to the return of socio-economic activities that benefit the wider community. In the NTB Province, one of the program locations, up to 30 October 2020 there are 3,950 positive patients with COVID-19 and 219 deaths. In the province of NTT the number of positive cases in NTT is 679, 7 of which have died. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed underlying inequalities and has exacerbated the situation of the most marginalized groups, including women and girls. Everyday barriers consist of physical accessibility, barriers to implementing basic hygiene measures, affordability of healthcare, limitations on health insurance and discriminatory laws and stigma. The marginalized groups are often excluded from communications on public health, decision making and information on accessibility of basic services, resulting into a limited understanding of risks and the ability to carry out preventive measures . The overall goal is the promotion of health-related hygiene practices to prevent further spread of COVID-19 in at-risk countries through awareness raising and improved access to WASH services. It aligns fully with the WASH SDG programme that is working towards enhancing sustainable and equitable access to and use of WASH for all. This programme will focus on specific objectives focusing on high at-risk and most marginalised populations (for which a full results framework has been developed). 
 :• Result 1: Enhanced understanding of individuals, communities, health workers, schools and WASH service providers about mitigation measures against COVID-19 transmission
• Result 2: Population at risk of COVID-19 have sufficient and constant access to commodities and consumables (handwashing facilities, disinfection equipment, soap, hygiene kits including menstrual health products and personal protective equipment (PPE))
• Result 3: Population at risk of COVID-19 have safe (considering safeguarding and security) access to water and sanitation services through the construction of new and repair of non-functional water and sanitation facilities or through temporary/mobile supplies/services Plan International Indonesia has been working in Indonesia since 1969 and in NTT and NTB province long-term child sponsorship programme and a number of grants including the WASH SDG programme are being implemented. These programmes are built on a successful Community led Total Sanitation approach that promotes gender equality and social inclusion.  The WASH First programme will build on the capacity and experience of the already existing WASH programmes, which have proven to be successful due to strong partnerships and collaboration with a wide array of government and non-government stakeholders  such as POKJA AMPL (Drinking Water and Environmental Health Working Group), the STBM Secretariat, the National AMPL Network, SPEAK, Persani (DPO) YPCII and HAKLI.  The programme will be closely aligned with, and scale-up, interventions started under the existing WASH SDG programme, with a modified operational strategy to ensure safety and compliance with the government protocols applicable in the zonal system (red, yellow, green). Existing partnerships with the provincial government of NTB and NTT, district government of West Lombok and city government of Kupang will be strengthened in order to facilitate a rapid start of implementation. The programme intends to reach 350,000 people, including poor families, child-headed households (or girl-married households), female-headed households, families with nursing mothers and families with people living with disability or elderly members. Families who have a member(s) under COVID-19 surveillance, who have been confirmed infected will also be included in the target beneficiaries.222 The activities per intervention strategies are the following:

1: Awareness raising (campaigns and mass media campaigns) on COVID-19 Gender sensitive and socially inclusive awareness-raising will be used to expand public outreach campaigns and support for community-based COVID-19 transmission prevention through STBM-MHM:
• Develop of inclusive IEC/BCC materials on STBM-MHM and COVID-19 (including short film production)
• Produce a STBM-MHM public campaign (involving local leaders, religious leaders, government
officials, influencers, public figures) through different channels (radio, social media, local/national TV)

2: Direct information sharing and messaging
• Strengthen the community volunteers’ capacity (posyandu volunteers, ECCD teachers, CBCPM
committee/parenting class facilitators) on gender sensitive and socially inclusive STBM-MHM and
COVID-19 training
• Support the implementation of STBM-MHM and COVID-19 IPC in the local community centres (ECCD
and parenting class centres)
• Strengthen the capacity of local leaders, community volunteers and local health workers on COVID-19
protocols and inclusive STBM-MHM
• Provide behavioural change training for teachers, peer educators and student-parent committees to
implement inclusive STBM-MHM and safe back-to-school procedures
• Implement campaigns on child-friendly, inclusive and COVID-19 preventive STBM-MHM in schools
• Conduct webinar to share best practice of inclusive and STBM-MHM in schools during the pandemic

3: Improving access to safe drinking water and water supply for handwashing, as
well as menstrual health and sanitation (including safe disposal of waste)
• Rehabilitate of WASH facilities in puskesmas (using a human-centred design approach to ensure
universal and inclusive access that includes DPOs)
• Strengthen gender and socially inclusive WASH in health care facilities (HCFs) to allow continued safe
operation and safeguard health workers and service users
• Promote gender and socially inclusive WASH in schools and inclusive MHM to support school transition
and anticipate safe re-opening
• Provide hardware that is accessible in health care facilities, posyandu, schools and early childhood
education centres
• Strengthen the capacity of community health centre (puskesmas) workers on safely managed
sanitation and HCF-based infectious COVID-19 solid waste management
• Socialisation and online-offline training on repurposing BOS (School Operational Fund) for STBMMHM
in schools with a prior advocacy and engagement with the local district/city office for education
(dikbud)

 4 and 5: Improving access to safe handwashing facilities:
Access to hygiene products such as soap, disinfectant, PPE and menstrual hygiene products
Access to safe handwashing facilities and hygiene products and sufficient and constant access to
commodities and consumables such as handwashing facilities, disinfection equipment, soap, hygiene kits
including menstrual health products and PPE will be achieved through:
• Distribution of PPE and hygiene kits for health care facilities
• Development of IEC/BCC materials on inclusive COVID-19 IPC for HCF
• Access to hygiene and MHM kits for marginalised groups
• Distribution of PPE and hygiene supplies and MHM kit for schools and madrasahs (soap, reusable
menstrual pads, disinfectant, face shields, transparent cubicles, non-medical masks)
Intervention strategy 

6: COVID-related coordination meetings with local government and other stakeholders
In the STBM approach, government capacity building is very important to ensure sustainability. The enabling environment component is also written in the Theory of Change of the WASH SDG subprogramme. As this proposed new programme aims as far as possible to replicate best practices from the
this programme, the following institutional capacity building strategies will also contribute to this new programme.
Develop a guidebook on the implementation of gender sensitive and inclusive STBM-MHM, in
collaboration with AMPL working groups, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education and
Culture
2. Train for inclusive budgeting (for STBM-MHM and COVID-19) for village government and district/city
governments officials
3. Offer technical capacity building for local government officials (AMPL working group, COVID-19 task
force) to implement STBM-MHM in the target district/city
4. Hold regular coordination meetings with district/city stakeholders for improved implementation of
STBM-MHM Financial sustainability : 
Local government and stakeholders have been involved during implementation leading to ownership of the program, especially the district working groups  to ensure the sustainability of the program.

Institutional sustainability: Plan will conduct capacity building for Sub-district Community Lead Total Sanitation Teams to encourage district government’s policy to institutionalize GESI-CLTS policy in their own planning.  

Ecological sustainability: The District Disaster Management Body and the Public Works Agency in the membership of POKJA AMPL will be involved to ensure sustainability of WASH Facilities, by providing  guidelines to build facilities that are resilient to disasters and environmentally save,

Social sustainability: Natural leaders are engaged in the communities assisting in the WASH First at community level.  Vulnerable groups such as women, girls, PLWD, the elderly and children, targeted through different channels (schools, community health centres ) have been engaged from the beginning to ensure effective outreach to disability groups is incorporated in the design and implementation. Interventions have been designed to address the needs of girls and women.