SHFund | Effectively Addressing the Sanitation, Hygiene and Menstrual Health Crises

Effectively Addressing The Sanitation, Hygiene And Menstrual Health Crises

A new dedicated Sanitation and Hygiene Fund for the most vulnerable and left behind

TIME TO ACT

Lack of sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health poses risks to individuals and hampers development. Our vision is that of the Sustainable Development Goal 6 target 2, to achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and to end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations.

1 IN 2

people

do not have access to safely managed sanitation services

Nearly

9%

of the world’s population still practice open defecation

More than

1 IN 3

people

do not have basic handwashing facilities at home

1 IN 3

schools

lack access to basic sanitation services

1 IN 5

health care facilities

lack access to basic sanitation services

Every day,
hundreds of

MILLIONS

of women and girls menstruate, many without the facilities to manage their menstrual health safely

At this current trajectory, the SDG 6.2 target of safely managed sanitation will be realized well beyond 2070. There is an urgent need to globally prioritize sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health.

To reach national urban and rural sanitation targets, many countries in Africa and Asia face funding gaps of 74% and 59% respectively. In 2019, less than 15% of countries had policies, costed plans or adequate financial and human resources to address their rural or urban sanitation gaps.

To deliver at the scale required to achieve sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health while leaving no one behind, WSSCC is transforming into the Sanitation and Hygiene Fund (SHF).

Long term investments in the Sanitation and Hygiene Fund will allow us to provide predictable support to countries to implement and accelerate costed plans and strategies for the achievement of SDG 6.2 through sustainable, country-led approaches.

The Sanitation And Hygiene Fund Strategy

The Fund will invest in country-led programmes to accelerate progress and sustainable impact in the following strategic areas:

Scaling-up household sanitation and hygiene services

Addressing Menstrual Health and Hygiene (MHH) gaps while promoting empowerment of women and girls

Increasing sustainable water, sanitation, hygiene and MHH services in schools and health care facilities

Supporting innovation towards safely managed sanitation, hygiene and MHH

The Fund aims to be capable of supporting health, education and gender outcomes through sustainable investments at scale and across eligible countries.

The role of partnership with countries, development partners, the private sector and civil society is crucial. Through these partnerships, governments and agencies can maximize their investments by leveraging additional investments and activities from households, partners and the private sector.

Impact

Sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health improve people's lives.

Health

Sanitation and hygiene are key to preventing or managing the outbreak of many deadly infectious diseases, including cholera, diarrhoea, Ebola and polio. Sanitation and hygiene are also key to reducing maternal and neonatal death, to curbing the spread of anti-microbial resistance, to preventing sepsis, and to reducing malnutrition and pneumonia. Many of the leading causes of child death under five years are related to inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.

The World Health Organization identifies lack of sanitation and hygiene in health care facilities as one of 13 emerging health threats of the next decade. Most health care-associated infections are preventable through good hand hygiene and handwashing.

Safe sanitation and hygiene is also central to containing the rapid spread of COVID-19 pandemic. Read our dedicated page on our COVID-19 activities.

Education

Lack of safe, gender-segregated sanitation and hygiene facilities at school puts children’s health and dignity at risk and significantly reduces the quality of the learning environment. It also means that some children, especially adolescent girls, will miss school. 130 million girls worldwide are out of school. While there are many contributing factors to school attendance, the prevalence of poor sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health plays a major role.

Women and girls

Women and girls are disproportionately affected by poor sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health. This negatively impacts their safety and dignity from sanitation-related gender-based violence, mobility, freedom of choice, health and their access to education, employment, and social and economic power.

Stigma, taboos, misinformation, and lack of knowledge about menstruation can also leave adolescent girls poorly equipped to make decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, contributing to a cycle of early pregnancy and marriage. Adolescent girls and boys need timely information.

Economy

Sanitation-related loss of productivity – such as missed work – costs some countries over 6% of their GDP and the lack of proper sanitation costs the world an estimated US$ 223 billion every year.

A WHO study shows that every US$ 1 invested in improved sanitation translates into an average global economic return of US$ 5.5, more than double the economic return on water spending.

Climate change

Climate change induced events such as flooding, which can rapidly spread bacteria through a community and contaminate ever-scarcer water sources, make climate resilient sanitation and hygiene solutions critical to saving lives and to protecting household investments in infrastructure. The Fund’s investments will be designed to strengthen climate resilience.

Invest

Given the extent of the sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health crisis, we need to act now, catalyze change, and accelerate collective and sustained commitment.

The Fund aims to fill a void in the international response to the sanitation, hygiene and menstrual health crisis and to give these important issues a mechanism to take its response to a new level.

At the core of the new architecture will be a funding model designed to be an efficient and effective mechanism that can operate at scale and deliver impact. The model is based on the following principles:

• Accountability and transparency
• Country-led; community-owned
• Serving those left behind, with a focus on women and girls
• Efficiency and value-for-money
• Collaborative
• Adaptive and resilient
• Innovative
• Sustainable

SHF Operating Model

The operating model will be supported by a suite of policies that define how funding is to be invested. These policies include Eligibility and Transition - which countries can receive funding support and how they will transition from this eligibility; Allocation and Prioritization - how the available funding will be distributed across eligible countries; Co-Financing – how the work of the Fund aims to leverage domestic public resources, and how it will help prepare countries to transition from the Fund’s support; and Fragility – how the Fund will work in fragile contexts.

Clear proposal and application guidelines are being developed alongside technical briefs on learning from a decade of WSSCC investments and learning in the sector to help governments decide on best implementation approaches in their context.