HANDWASHING + SOAP = SAVED LIVES. If it’s simple in theory, why is it so hard to practice?
The purpose of the Regional WASH Innovation Challenge will be to identify innovative solutions to promote handwashing with soap that can be implemented to scale in the South Asia region. The promotion will focus on:
This project will develop and promote a Hygiene Index (HI) that will serve as monitoring tool for the hygiene and sanitation performance of cities. The index will reveal how targeted interventions over the years have led to improvement in the hygiene and sanitation situation, thereby helping government stakeholders measure the current hygiene status of the cities. It will help policymakers identify the areas in need of improvement and the associated investments required. As of 2018, the survey for 25 cities is complete.
The State of Handwashing in 2017, a review of 117 handwashing-related research papers published last year, reveals some positive overall trends in the state of handwashing. From 2006 to 2016, the number of global deaths attributable to unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) decreased by 25 percent, while rates of unsafe sanitation and unsafe water (as well as child growth failure) declined significantly over the period spanning from 1990 to 2016.
On May 9th 2018, the Global Handwashing Partnership and IRC hosted a discussion focused on ways to use existing systems to improve scale and sustainability of hygiene promotion efforts. This discussion explores how handwashing behavior change efforts can work within existing systems to achieve behavior change at scale.
Global Waters Radio is a podcast series that takes listeners around the world to hear how USAID-supported water and sanitation improvements are creating healthier communities and laying the foundation for sustainable economic development.
Water Currents is produced biweekly by USAID’s E3 Water Office. Each issue contains recent news and articles on water sector issues, partner and donor updates, latest sector research, and a special focus on one topic. Please provide your feedback and suggestions by contacting the waterteam@usaid.gov.
