Predictors of community participation in sanitation facility improvement: Attitudes among female peri-urban residents of Quezon City

This dissertation examines the predictors of willingness to participate in sanitation facility improvement among female peri-urban residents in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines. Despite the link to good health and the presence of several low-cost technologies, adequate sanitation facilities remain in short supply for the peri-urban residents of Quezon City. Community participation has been identified as a necessary component to sanitation facility implementation, yet remains one of the most challenging dimensions. This study examines peri-urban women's intention to engage in sanitation facility improvements by expanding the Theory of Reasoned Action to incorporate attitudes that are external to the specific behavior in question. The framework employed in this study argues that there are three factors that serve as predictors of the intention to engage in community participation to improve sanitation facilities: satisfaction, need, and control.;Using a random, multi-stage sampling technique, 600 households were surveyed; 566 women consented to participate. The results on the outcome variables were highly skewed toward affirmative intentions to engage in participatory behavior, limiting the possible analyses. Logistic regression analyses were performed on the available outcome variables. Satisfaction with the privacy of sanitation facilities reliably predicts the intention to talk to government officials about improving facilities; expressed need and a measure of bahala na (a Philippine expression of fate) reliably predicts the intention to join an outside group to work to improve sanitation facilities. Despite statistical significance, the effects are quite modest and should be interpreted with care. The kind of future research that might be most helpful in informing policy formation around issues of community participation is discussed.