Abstract
The Republic of Côte d’Ivoire is an emerging country that plays a central role geographically and economically in West Africa. The country has been described as an “the Ivory Coast Economic Miracle” due to its stable government and economic development under the first President, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, for more than 30 years since independence in 1960. The climate of Côte d’Ivoire is diverse, with tropical humidity in the south and aridity in the north. In addition to coffee and cocoa produced in the humid southern region, agricultural products from the semi-arid and arid savanna region in the north have also supported the country’s economic growth. Composed of more than 60 ethnic groups, Côte d’Ivoire experienced a civil war that divided the country into north and south for almost a decade since 2002.
In 2012, after the end of the civil war, the Ministry of National Education introduced the course entitled “Education for human rights and citizenship (EDHC)” to revise the educational curriculum, which had been suspended due to the civil war, with the aim of promoting a transition to a culture of peace. The EDHC, developed mainly in cooperation with international organizations, proposed a participatory and inclusive approach based on the four values of the culture of peace, with the addition of a health dimension. The hygiene education was then stipulated to be taught as part of the EDHC curriculum. In 2014, during the postwar reconstruction period, Ebola virus disease (EVD) has spread across West Africa, but unlike other neighboring countries, there were no confirmed cases of EVD in Côte d’Ivoire. This is presumably because the Government of Côte d’Ivoire has taken preventive measures, including a large-scale hygiene campaign which had been effective.
What kind of hygiene education has been implemented in schools in Côte d’Ivoire and what effect have they had on students’ hygiene behavior? Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire’s second largest city, is the northern center of the country, where Harmattan, with dust from the Sahara Desert, blows during the dry season, and was once the center of a civil war that divided the country into north and south. In this study, the interviews were conducted with university students from various backgrounds at the National University in Bouaké where diverse cultures intersect and coexist. Considering hygiene education at school as “formal hygiene education” and hygiene campaigns conducted outside of school as “out-of-school activities”, based on the narratives of university students’, this study clarified the reality of formal hygiene education and out-of-school activities, and analyzed their effectiveness and sustainability. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between formal hygiene education and people’s hygiene behavior.
