Soap Entrepreneurs - Kyembo Epicentre - The Hunger Project, World Water Day

WASH: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

World Water Day 22 March, 2014

THP Perspective: Access to clean water is widely seen as the challenge of the 21st Century, and is a critical component of good nutrition. Traditional top-down, service delivery approaches have not produced sustainable results or led to the behavioural changes necessary, particularly in halting open defecation – a major cause of water-borne disease and malnutrition.

Safe sanitation is a gender issue – men rarely see it as a priority, yet around the world women are forced to get up before dawn to relieve themselves without risking sexual assault – a profound violation of human rights and basic human dignity. Lack of safe sanitation facilities is a reason why thousands of girls are kept out of school.

Key Interventions:

  • The Hunger Project communities, and particularly The Hunger Project’s trained women leaders, place high priority on WASH and mobilise their communities in mass-action campaigns for total sanitation.
  • CLTS: community-led total sanitation is the methodology developed at IDS.

Key messages:

  • Investing in sanitation is one of the most efficient investments for poverty reduction.
  • What medical discovery has saved more lives than any other? Soap.

Global Campaigns and Initiatives:

Key agencies:

Key reports and data sources:


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