**8. Conclusion**

The CHC Model 'works'. Community Health Clubs are indeed capable of stimulating public health action cost-effectively. The Model deserves to be replicated in other countries in Africa as soon as possible to alleviate poverty and tackle many preventable diseases in a sustainable, holistic and integrated way. A national Environmental Health program using Community Health Clubs as a vehicle for change in every village, can be reasonably predicted to deliver a wide range of community-led hygiene behavior changes which will ultimately improve family health, social capital and living standards throughout the country. What is badly needed is a clear vision by Governments to adopt the CHC model systematically and invest in building the capacity, not only of the curative wing of Ministry of Health but also the Environmental Health systems which can prevent disease. Countries which adopt the Rwandan approach at national scale are more likely to meet at least Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Targets by 2030.

**53**

**Author details**

AHEAD.

Agrippa Chigono2

Zachary Bigirimana<sup>5</sup>

Juliet Anne Virginia Waterkeyn1

1 Africa AHEAD, South Africa

2 Africa AHEAD, Zimbabwe

4 Africa AHEAD, Tanzania

5 Africa AHEAD, Uganda

*Comparative Assessment of Hygiene Behaviour Change and Cost-Effectiveness of Community…*

Both in Rwanda and Zimbabwe the Ministry of Health's Environmental Health Department was a partner in the implantation of the Programme. In Rusizi District of Rwanda, the intervention and monitoring through Ministry of Health in partnership with Africa AHEAD was funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In Mberengwa District, Zimbabwe Action Contre la Faim (ACF) in partnership with Zimbabwe AHEAD, funded by the European Commission. We also recognized the contribution of Community Health Club members, their committees and their

\*, Regis Matimati<sup>2</sup>

The corresponding author was the original designer of the CHC Model and all co-authors have been associated with research or implementation of the CHC program in Rwanda and Zimbabwe, as employees, volunteers or Trustees of Africa

3 College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Rwanda, Rwanda

6 Institute of Tropical Medicine and International Health, Charité, Germany

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

7 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom

\*Address all correspondence to: juliet@africaahead.com

provided the original work is properly cited.

, Amans Ntakarutimana<sup>3</sup>

, Julia Pantoglou6

, Andrew Muringaniza2

,

, Joseph Katabarwa4

, Anthony Waterkeyn1

,

and Sandy Cairncross7

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89995*

facilitators who participated in these interventions.

**Acknowledgements**

**Conflict of interest**

*Comparative Assessment of Hygiene Behaviour Change and Cost-Effectiveness of Community… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89995*
