Water and Sanitation
Water and Sanitation
Sharing of experiences and thoughts on addressing climate change impacts on sanitation at a local level are critical to evolving the sanitation sector. SDG 6.2 calls for sustainable sanitation for all before 2030. Yet over 2 billion people still lack access to basic sanitation facilities. Ensuring good sanitation and hygiene practices for everybody means ending… Read more
Water insecurity is a significant, heavily gendered, and growing driver of poverty, vulnerability and risk. This paper explores the linkages between the social protection, water and gender sectors. It examines the ways in which water insecurity restricts female participation in social protection (and related education and employment opportunities) and undermines social protection efforts to promote… Read more
This rapid review focuses on identifying evidence on the secondary impacts of COVID-19 on women and girls in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It aims to enable a greater understanding of the unique circumstances of women and girls in the region, which could assist with the provision of effective support throughout the COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath…. Read more
This post was written by Mimi Coultas and originally appeared on the IDS website. On any given day, 300 million people around the world will be menstruating. This normal and natural biological process is a fact of – and fundamental to – life. Everyone who menstruates, including girls, women and non-binary people, has the right… Read more
Frequent and proper handwashing with soap is vital to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In response, the Sanitation Learning Hub have developed this Handwashing Compendium for Low Resource Settings. Bringing existing information from different organisations into one place, the compendium provides guidance, local examples of and further resources on accessible low-cost handwashing facilities, environmental cues… Read more
This blog offers advice for practitioners wanting to apply gender transformative approaches to WASH programming. This blog was written by Elaine Mercer for the CLTS Knowledge Hub and originally appeared on their website. It has been partly adapted from the workshop ‘Gender Transformative WASH’ (April 2019) that the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) co-facilitated with Dr Sue… Read more
Girls and women need effective, safe, and affordable menstrual products. Single-use products are regularly selected by agencies for resource-poor settings; the menstrual cup is a less known alternative. The authors reviewed international studies on menstrual cup leakage, acceptability, and safety and explored menstrual cup availability to inform programmes. The review indicates that menstrual cups are… Read more
The aim of this review was to present the recent evidence on the period poverty (lack of access to sanitary products, WASH facilities, dignity, and information about menstruation) impact on the economic empowerment of women. Improving menstrual health management (MHM, also known as ‘period poverty’) can substantially improve girls’ education, health and wellbeing. The literature,… Read more
This blog originally appeared on the Institute of Development Studies website, and is written by Elaine Mercer. Within the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector, gender issues are frequently reduced to the roles and experiences of women and within that often with a narrow focus on menstrual hygiene management. Although these issues are very important,… Read more
This resource, written by Aguaconsult and WaterAid, has been developed primarily for WaterAid staff and partners to help in the selection of the most appropriate management models for piped water supply systems in rural and small-town contexts. The guide is also being made available as an external resource for other organisations, including national governments and… Read more
This annual review assesses the outputs of the Increasing sustainable access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) programme, and how they contribute to expected outcomes and their sustainability. The review also includes updated recommendations for improving integration of gender into WASH programming and assesses the implementation of the… Read more