Without good hygiene practices, such as toilet use, handwashing with soap, water treatment, food hygiene, and menstrual hygiene, the benefits of other poverty reduction strategies will be undermined, and human dignity will be compromised.

The State of Hygiene in Southern Africa study was commissioned to gather evidence regarding: the status of hygiene practice in the region; the enabling environment and institutional arrangements for the promotion of hygiene behavior change; and key policy and programme bottlenecks for the prioritisation of hygiene.

Despite its perceived importance, the evidence suggests that community engagement in all sectors of humanitarian response is often limited and rarely monitored or evaluated. Sanitation projects seem to involve the community only in the construction phase as a paid labour force, or as a cash-for-work initiative.

Cambodia’s access to basic water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) remains low compared to other Southeast Asian countries despite improvements over the last decade. There is limited documentation about the WASH experiences of women with disabilities in Cambodia, for which this publication recommends paying greater attention to the issue.

Key messages within this eight-page brief:

Ensuring everyone has access to appropriate WASH facilities is one of the most fundamental challenges in international development. Researchers and funders need to consider carefully where there is the need for new primary evidence, such as impact evaluations, and for new evidence syntheses, such as systematic reviews. 3ie evidence gap maps are collections of evidence from impact evaluations and systematic reviews. They highlight where there are sufficient impact evaluations to support systematic reviews and where more studies are needed.

This article is an overview of a study that investigated the effect of community sanitation coverage versus individual household sanitation access on child health and drinking water quality. Using a census of 121 villages in rural Mali, the research team analysed the association of community latrine coverage (defined by a 200 meter radius surrounding a household) and individual household latrine ownership with child growth and household stored water quality.