Leading global health organizations have unveiled a groundbreaking analysis outlining what donors, national governments, and the private sector need to invest to accelerate progress for menstrual health and hygiene (MHH). The report, Making the Case for Investing in Menstrual Health and Hygiene, is part of a growing effort to advance gender equality and contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Menstrual hygiene management in schools: midway progress update on the “MHM in Ten” 2014–2024 global agenda. Health Research Policy and Systems, January 2021.
Progress has been made in recent years to bring attention to the challenges faced by school-aged girls around managing menstruation in educational settings that lack adequate physical environments and social support in low- and middle-income countries.
To enable more synergistic and sustained progress on addressing menstruation-related needs while in school, an effort was undertaken in 2014 to map out a vision, priorities, and a ten-year agenda for transforming girls’ experiences, referred to as Menstrual Hygiene Management in Ten (MHM in Ten).
The overarching vision is that girls have the information, support, and enabling school environment for managing menstruation with dignity, safety and comfort by 2024. This requires improved research evidence and translation for impactful national level policies.
As 2019 marked the midway point, we assessed progress made on the five key priorities, and remaining work to be done, through global outreach to the growing network of academics, non-governmental organizations, advocates, social entrepreneurs, United Nations agencies, donors, and national governments.
This paper delineates the key insights to inform and support the growing MHM commitment globally to maximize progress to reach our vision by 2024. Corresponding to the five priorities, we found that (priority 1) the evidence base for MHM in schools has strengthened considerably, (priority 2) global guidelines for MHM in schools have yet to be created, and (priority 3) numerous evidence-based advocacy platforms have emerged to support MHM efforts.
We also identified (priority 4) a growing engagement, responsibility, and ownership of MHM in schools among governments globally, and that although MHM is beginning to be integrated into country-level education systems (priority 5), resources are lacking.
Overall, progress is being made against identified priorities. We provide recommendations for advancing the MHM in Ten agenda. This includes continued building of the evidence, and expanding the number of countries with national level policies and the requisite funding and capacity to truly transform schools for all students and teachers who menstruate.
Posted in Dignity and Social Development, Hygiene Promotion
Tagged menstrual hygiene
Following the start of a new four-year programme funded by Sida, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) launched the Sanitation Learning Hub website on 22 June 2020.
The website is divided into into three main sections:
Watch this video introduction to the new website.
Posted in Dignity and Social Development, Equality and non-discrimination, Hygiene Promotion, Sanitation and Health, Uncategorized, Web sites
Tagged behavior change, behaviour change, climate change, evaluation, gender, Institute of Development Studies, learning, leave no one behind, monitoring, Sanitation Learning Hub, sustainabilty
Welthungerhilfe (GWC member) and the GWN member WASH-United (the organisation behind Menstrual Hygiene Day) developed a generic comic strip, that provides young people between the ages of 10 and 14 with information about the coronavirus and preventative hygiene measures.
It is designed for universal application and can be used all over the world. The material development was guided by an expert from the Institute for Hygiene and Environmental Medicine, at Charité University-Clinic Berlin. The comics can support hygiene promotion activities, nutrition education and can be distributed alongside with food distributions or through community health workers.
Link – https://www.welthungerhilfe.org/coronavirus-comic
No chance for Corona
Although children and adolescents rarely fall seriously ill with COVID-19, they are nevertheless extremely affected by the pandemic. Instead of playing outside, going to school, doing sports and meeting friends, they are now locked up with their parents all day, often in very confined spaces. In addition, they are worried about their family, their friends and themselves.
Together, Welthungerhilfe and WASH United want to ensure that children and adolescents understand why their normal lives are being so drastically restricted and what they can do to protect themselves, their family and their friends from Corona. To this end, we have worked closely with an expert from the Institute for Hygiene and Environmental Medicine, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin to develop a comic strip that can be used around the world to educate children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 14 about Corona.
The “No chance for Corona” comic is currently being translated into more than 25 languages. On 13 April, the comic will also be available as an educational video to reach even more children and adolescents. The comic can be used, reproduced and disseminated for non-commercial purposes without limitation. Commercial use of the comic is prohibited. Changes to the comic are not permitted. We want to encourage you to use the comic and video as widely as possible. Please share the resource through your networks and contacts.
Corona knows no boundaries and affects all people, worldwide – including children and adolescents. The better we involve children and adolescents, the faster we will overcome this pandemic together.
To fight the coronavirus, wash your hands and support clean water access around the world. by Susan Barnett, USA Today, March 4, 2020.
We can’t build a wall around a germ. But we can wash our hands, and our government can help countries trying to improve their health facilities.
Never has my odd obsession with the lack of access to safe water, toilets and soap around the world become more relevant to the headlines.
Because nowhere is the absence of WASH (water/sanitation/hygiene) more abominable than in hundreds of thousands of health care facilities where infections are supposed to go to die.
With all this hand-wringing about the new coronavirus, two things need to happen.
First, this virus has no cure, no vaccine, no treatment other than resting, hydrating, cough medicine and pain relief. You get sick, you feel crummy. You wait it out and try not to get anyone else sick. But the better option is to not get sick in the first place.
There are only two ways to be on the offensive: Avoid sick people, which makes a big presumption that they and you know they’re sick, and — the single most important thing you can do — wash your hands.
Read the complete article.
How Sphere supports the response to the Coronavirus outbreak
Sphere collates emerging practice and evidence in the Coronavirus response and released a four-page document guiding you through the relevant parts of the Sphere Handbook.
The document outlines the underlying principles and the importance of community engagement, as well as a detailed review of the relevant technical guidance in the WASH and Health chapters.
Yael Velleman, WASH Working Group Co-Chair, Neglected Tropical Disease NGO Network, Director of Policy and Communications, SCI Foundation
Leah Wohlgemuth, WASH Working Group Co-Chair, Neglected Tropical Disease NGO Network, Technical Adviser, Sightsavers
One year on from the launch of the first-ever practical guide on WASH and NTDs collaboration, the co-chairs of the NNN WASH Working Group reflect on its impact
A year ago today, Dr. Mwele Malecela, WHO Director for the Department of Control of NTDs, unveiled the first-ever step-by-step guide for building NTD and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) partnerships to a crowded auditorium at the London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Research.
“WASH and health working together: A ‘how-to’ guide for Neglected Tropical Disease programmes” is the culmination of more than two years of collaboration between the World Health Organization and the NTD NGO Network (NNN), incorporating real-life program perspectives and tools to improve coordination between the NTD and WASH communities. On this inaugural World NTD Day, the toolkit is celebrating its one-year anniversary and the significant headway made since its launch.
2019 saw a burst of activities to disseminate the toolkit far and wide; it was translated into French and Spanish, transformed into an interactive online version, and featured in two webinars for the NTD and WASH communities. Blogs by WaterAid and the NNN highlighted the mutual benefits of the toolkit to the WASH and NTDs communities, and the toolkit was highlighted in a USAID Water Currents issue on the importance of WASH and NTD integration.
Interviews with The Carter Center’s Kelly Callahan, Director of the Trachoma Control Program, and Dr. Wondu Alemayehu, Technical Advisor at The Fred Hollows Foundation, demonstrated the value of the resource in the eyes of those who have worked towards NTD control and elimination for many years.
The toolkit also made a splash at a number of WASH and global health convenings, with workshops delivered at Stockholm’s World Water Week, UNC’s Water and Health Conference, and the 10th Annual NNN Conference.
More importantly, however, the approach set out in the toolkit was implemented in a number of countries. Inspired by this resource, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, which was also a major contributor to the toolkit’s content, developed a national framework to guide all government and non-government stakeholders on resourcing, planning and monitoring joint interventions, along with a woreda-level WASH and NTDs coordination toolkit.
Various tools including the situation analysis protocol and planning workshop were also utilized in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
More recently, the Government of Uganda formally adopted the toolkit as a whole and has begun a process of coordination, and adaptation of the toolkit to the national and local context.
The toolkit has also informed the design of WASH activities with the UK Aid funded Ascend programme in West and Central Africa, including coordination structures and joint planning processes.
As we look ahead to 2020—with the anticipated launch of the 2030 Global NTD Roadmap and complementary Global Strategy on WASH and NTDs, as well as renewed commitments to be made in Kigali this summer—nothing is clearer: cross-sector collaboration is essential to sustainably beating NTDs.
This World NTD Day, we’ll celebrate the progress made in 2019 following the launch of “WASH and health working together”, but know that as a global community, we still have much to do to build successful partnerships.
This will mean taking collaboration to the next level, by convening and supporting capacity building initiatives at the regional and national level, by supporting the development of country and local tools, and by documenting the use of the tools to ensure that the toolkit is continuously enhanced to achieve the ultimate aim: end the scourge of NTDs by 2030.
Posted in Hygiene Promotion, Sanitation and Health
Tagged neglected tropical diseases
Surveillance of water, sanitation and hygiene in schools: A practical tool. WHO; UNICEF, 2019. 
Adequate access to water, hygiene and sanitation (WASH) in schools is every child’s right, as recognized in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Protocol on Water and Health and the Ostrava Declaration on Environment and Health.
Access to WASH in schools in the pan-European region presents many and diverse challenges. A key step to improve the situation, bringing better educational and health outcomes, is high-quality surveillance to raise awareness and drive progress.
This publication provides a practical tool to support countries in strengthening surveillance of WASH in schools. The findings will inform the development of supportive regulations and improvement planning to safeguard children’s health, well-being, dignity and cognitive performance.
The tool also enables countries to use the data collected to facilitate policy dialogue and inform international reporting, including on progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal targets related to WASH in schools.
Posted in Hygiene Promotion, Sanitation and Health, Uncategorized
Tagged WASH in schools
The UN refugee Agency UNHCR and AFRIpads have just begun the largest rollout of reusable sanitary pad distribution and Menstrual Health Management (MHM) sensitization of refugees in Uganda. The project aims at benefiting some 150,000 women and girls in south-western Uganda. With this, UNHCR Uganda is putting critical spotlight on the challenges refugee women and girls face during their periods. In addition to providing the AFRIpads kit to refugee women and girls, they have been providing MHM capacity building since late September to equip hundreds of NGO field staff with the appropriate knowledge and tools dedicated to breaking taboo and stigma around the topic of menstruation.
The project is in response to a 2018 UNHCR and AFRIpads pilot study in South West Uganda, which found that:
Read the full press release and the announcement (with photos) on the AFRIpads website.
Posted in Africa, Hygiene Promotion, Research
Tagged AFRIpads, girls, menstrual hygiene management, refugee camps, sanitary pads, Uganda, UNHCR, women
Incontinence and WASH: Focusing on people in humanitarian and low- and middle-income contexts
Incontinence is the involuntary loss of urine and/or faeces
People of any gender, age or ability can experience incontinence: they cannot hold on to their urine and/or faeces (‘the involuntary loss of urine or faeces’), and need to manage their urine and/or faeces leaking out. Leakage can occur at any time, day or night (commonly referred to in children as ‘bedwetting’). Incontinence has a significant impact on the quality of life of life of those who experience it, and that of their family members and carers: 
“The children (in Zaatari refugee camp, Jordon) are really suffering. The problem is that the mothers have been trying to cope for so long that basically they’ve given up. Night after night of urine and they can’t keep them clean. It’s soul-destroying (Venema, 2015)”
Members of an informal email group on incontinence in humanitarian and development settings* have identified a lack of acknowledgement and support for people with incontinence. In response the group has been developing tools and collating resources to enable development and humanitarian professionals to create a supportive environment for people in low- and middle-income countries to manage their incontinence hygienically, safely, in privacy and with dignity.
We have identified that anyone who experiences incontinence has increased water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) needs compared to the rest of the population. WASH-related tools and resources have been collated on this webpage to help improve the knowledge and practices of the WASH sector
Read the complete article.
Posted in Dignity and Social Development, Hygiene Promotion, Uncategorized
Tagged incontinence
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