Our Hygiene work

Handwashing with soap is recognised as an easy, effective and affordable method to protect and prevent disease transmission. However, handwashing practices in humanitarian criseas are often found to be deficient and less effective than expected with many socio-cultural, technical and financial factors likely contributing to the problem.

Our WASH Gap Analysis and Problem Exploration Report on Handwashing identified priority challenges in the area of hygiene including:

• the limited adaptability of existing hygiene promotion programmes,
• the poor condition and design of existing handwashing stations,
• the limited availability or lack of soap.

The Gap Analysis also further highlighted the challenge of poor menstrual hygiene provision in emergencies.

We have also produced a Challenge Candidate List, which provides a summary of the key challenges presented in the Problem Exploration Report on Handwashing.

We have prioritised innovations looking to address these particular hygiene challenges.