In order to carry out the survey, UNICEF Country Office (CO) selected a Georgian company (ACT Research) and an international consultant to conduct the WASH in preschools survey. The survey was conducted during December 2011. The international consultant, assisted by UNICEF CO and ACT team, adapted the UNICEF WASH at Schools monitoring package to Georgia’s specific context and prepared the quantitative and qualitative tools. There was collaboration provided to guide sample planning, selection and coding of data. The consultant supervised the pre-testing of survey tools, trained ACT field coordinators on the survey tools and then analysed the survey data before writing the following report.

ACT prepared the stratified and coded sampling data base, carried out interviews, focus groups and observations, administrated data entry, data cleansing and data weighting as well as data processing and formatting.

The technical report, prepared by ACT research, provides details on the methodology and materials used for WASH survey.

Information about the following key issues was collected in the course of the survey, focus groups, and interviews with principals:

• General Preschool Information;
• Water (Source and Quality);
• Sanitation;
• Hygiene Behavior of Children and their Caregivers;
• Waste Disposal and Drainage;
• Operation and Maintenance.

In order to achieve the survey goal, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were applied. The following instruments were prepared and field tested to conduct the quantitative and qualitative research:

1. Questionnaire for face-to-face interviews with pre-school principals (554)
2. Questionnaire for observations of preschools infrastructure (554)
3. Questionnaire for observations on the hygiene behavior of the preschool children and caregivers (277)
4. Focus Group guides for parents and for teachers (18 FGs).

Quantitative instruments combined had a total of 1,321 variables with specific details appearing above in parenthesis.

18 focus groups were conducted for the qualitative survey. Caregivers and assistant caregivers of preschools along with parents of the children were identified as target segments. These paint a more personalized tale of the actual situations and challenges faced by preschools. Focus groups with assistants, caregivers, and parents were conducted in: Tbilisi, Batumi, Akhalkalaki, Zestafoni, Tsalenjikha, Ozurgeti, Telavi and Kvemo Kartli (the last was held in Tbilisi).

For the quantitative survey, a baseline study was conducted to collect information about the number of the preschools in all municipalities of Georgia, their location and administration staff. The information was compiled and checked through the data maintained by the Statistical Department of Georgia and official websites of municipalities (Sakrebulos). Based on these resources, the number of preschools across Georgia had reached 1,277 by the end of 2011. 1,226 of them are public preschools and 51 are private.

The following criteria were applied for stratification:

1. Regions – 11 strata were assigned to all of the parts and the capital city
2. Settlement type - 2 strata were selected – town and village type settlements (rural and urban)
3. Ethnic belonging – 2 strata were identified here. Municipalities that are densely populated with ethnic minorities fell under one group and municipalities with a mainly Georgian population fell under the second group.

Simple random sample was the sampling method for each strata. Remaining elements of each strata were put in random order and submitted to the field work staff to replace any non-responses.

Of the targeted 554 preschools there were a couple of methods for data collection. 554 face-to-face interviews with pres-chool principals were conducted. The same number (554) of observations was made on the infrastructure of the targeted preschools.

Not all preschools were directly targeted for specific hygiene assessments. Observations on the hygiene behavior of children and caregivers were made in 50% of preschools (277), where principals were interviewed.

The quantitative survey was nationwide. It was conducted in 11 regions: Tbilisi, Adjara, Guria, Imereti, Racha Lechkhumi, Kakheti, Mtskehta-Mtianeti, Samegrelo Zemo Svaneti, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Kvemo Kartli, Shida Kartli.

Fieldwork was conducted from December 6 to December 26, 2011. Non-responses were recorded in the survey and came to total of 4.8%.