The provision of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) is recognized as both a key intervention and a necessary component for the prevention and provision of care for all neglected tropical diseases. USAID’s Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Program in the Bureau for Global Health contributed content and suggested this topic as a way to highlight the first-ever World NTD Day on January 30, 2020.
On January 30, 2020, the inaugural World NTD Day will kick off a decisive year in the fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). NTDs are a group of ancient diseases that threaten 1.6 billion people living in the poorest and most marginalized communities worldwide. What sets NTDs apart is the way they blind, disable, or disfigure people, taking away not only their health, but also their chances of staying in school, earning a living, or even being accepted by their family or community.
CONTEXT
Niger is an emerging democracy landlocked in the increasingly unstable Sahel region. It consistently ranks at or near the bottom of the United Nations Human Development Index. USAID assists the Nigerien government and local partners to create economic opportunities and increase civic and political participation for Nigerien youth to help undermine extremist messages and encourage stability in Niger and the region.
APPROACH
The WASHplus project supported healthy households and communities by creating and delivering interventions that lead to significant improvements in access, practices, and health outcomes related to water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and household air pollution (HAP). This multi-year project (2010-2016), led by FHI 360 in partnership with CARE and Winrock International, was funded through USAID’s Bureau for Global Health. If was implemented in Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nepal, Zambia
The U.S. Government Global Water Strategy identifies poor hygiene and the lack of adequate water and sanitation as a leading cause of disease and death worldwide and a contributor to the spread of many neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).
The USAID Neglected Tropical Disases (NTD) program has programs to eliminate and/or control NTDs in 24 countries. Even as NTDs are eliminated through mass drug administration, the reinfection of these diseases will remain a problem if behaviors and the environment remain unchanged. STH, schistosomiasis, and trachoma are all clearly linked to inadequate sanitation, contaminated food and water, and poor hygiene, providing an opportunity for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) related approaches to help change behavior and the environment.
Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are critical in the prevention and care for all of the 17 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) scheduled for intensified control or elimination by 2020. Provision of safe water, sanitation and hygiene is one of the five key interventions within the global NTD roadmap. Yet to date, the WASH component of the strategy has received little attention and the potential to link efforts on WASH and NTDs has been largely untapped.
This toolkit provides step-by-step guidance to Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) program managers and partners on how to engage and work collaboratively with the WASH community to improve delivery of water, sanitation and hygiene services to underserved populations affected by many NTDs.
