Blog

The ethics of using photos in the WASH sector

28/02/24

Sanitation and hygiene issues deal with difficult, hidden, and taboo areas of...

Financial innovation and partnerships for improved sanitation in Kenya

18/08/23

Access to micro-loans can be vital for people to achieve improved sanitation...

Integration of local government into SHAW’s total sanitation project

11/08/23

The SHAW project (2010-2014) was created to promote and facilitate a national...

Using immersive approaches to understand barriers in WASH

10/07/23

This piece originally appeared on the FINISH Mondial website and is reposted...

Has the status of Community Health Volunteers evolved in Kenya?

14/06/23

In 2016, I wrote about the key role of Community Health Volunteers...

Systems strengthening as the next gamechanger for sanitation

02/05/23

In 2016, I contributed a chapter on slippage from open defecation free...

Phased sanitation development 7 years on!

04/04/23

In this blog we reflect on the continued relevance of the phased...

The value of Community Sanitary Complex assessments in India

27/03/23

Open defecation remains a global concern, due to lack of safe, affordable,...

15 essential resources for sanitation financing approaches

15/03/23

In November 2022 the Sanitation Learning Hub (SLH) brought us together –...

Smart sanitation finance seven years on!

18/01/23

Seven years ago, our chapter “Promoting choice: smart finance for rural sanitation...

CLTS and sanitation marketing: experiences and learning from Malawi

17/01/23

In 2016, I co-authored a chapter on Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS)...

Ethics and traditional leaders in sanitation demand creation

11/01/23

In 2021, traditional leaders in Kaputa district in Zambia were instrumental is...

Our highlights from 2022

20/12/22

In 2022 in-country partnership development has been a core priority, with an...

Lessons from sanitation marketing field experiences in Zambia

25/10/22

Our 2015 chapter, “Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) and sanitation marketing: aspects to...

Reflections on privilege & inclusion as a Ghanaian development worker

24/10/22

Fresh from my undergraduate studies in 2012 at Ghana’s University for Development...

Time to get our shit together

18/08/22

Waterside communities are challenging contexts for sanitation programming. Sandy soils and high...

Doubling down on sanitation’s unfinished business: Scaling up rural sanitation in challenging contexts and changing climate

15/07/22

Accelerating progress in rural sanitation towards SDG 6 is possible. India’s Swachh...

Designing responsive solutions: Using evidence in area-wide programming

14/07/22

Accelerating progress in rural sanitation towards SDG 6 is possible. India’s Swachh...

Addressing menstrual health in Bangladesh

25/05/22

Globally, Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) is one of the most common terms...

Traditional leaders’ role in sanitation: Lessons from Kaputa, Zambia

24/05/22

Among other programmes, Zambia is rolling out interventions that are aimed at...

Sustained sanitation: How community organisations get shit done

20/05/22

Community-led sanitation initiatives are recognised and, to varying degrees, successful ways of...

Gender equality, nutrition & WaSH in pastoralist communities

11/05/22

In 1985, the global community convened in Nairobi to review and examine...

Human rights, discrimination and sanitation: A precarious reality for Travellers

10/05/22

About the author: Regan John is a Masters student at the University...

Levers of change for local government leadership in sanitation

22/03/22

The Sanitation Learning Hub (SLH) led research on local government leadership in...

Developing guidance for rural sanitation in challenging contexts

04/03/22

The Sanitation Learning Hub, WaterAid and UNICEF are collaborating on an evidence-based...

More than 6.2: Highlighting WASH in other SDGs

24/02/22

Research published by UCL in 2021 highlighted synergies between sanitation and all...

Hand hygiene for South Asia

10/01/22

Current status In South Asia, washing hands with soap and water still...

Participatory action for nutrition & WASH with pastoralist women in Afar, Ethiopia

11/11/21

It is fair to say that including significant community engagement in development...

New ideas to break through menstruation taboos in Nepal

29/10/21

In remote areas of Sudurpaschim and Karnali, Nepal, long traditions of taboos...

Assessing our own gender equality and social inclusion credentials

28/09/21

Earlier this year, the Sanitation Learning Hub team published a call for...

Integrating quality improvement approaches in health centres’ sanitation and hygiene promotion in Omoro District, Uganda

23/09/21

Poor WASH services compromise the ability to provide safe and quality healthcare,...

SDG 6 in 2021: K-shaped development?

10/08/21

The Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) of UNICEF and WHO has released the...

Prerakhs’ reflections on Community Leave No One Behind approach

07/07/21

Last year WSSCC’s India Support Unit piloted a new participatory approach called...

Translating face-to-face participatory workshops to an online setting

04/06/21

COVID-19 has changed the way many of us work all over the...

Call a period a period: Exploring the language and knowledge of menstruation

27/05/21

Period stigma and language Shame and stigma around menstruation are universal. Inappropriate, incomprehensible or...

Empowering pastoralist women in Afar region, Ethiopia: the value of photovoice in Covid-sensitive research

04/05/21

There’s much that can be said about the intersection of poverty, gender...

Empowering marginalised youth for WASH in Sri Lanka

18/02/21

Amid the 2nd wave of COVID-19 hit Sri Lanka, the Youth Health...

Making progress towards inclusive sanitation and hygiene for sexual and gender minorities

02/12/20

As we move closer to the 2030 target for sustainable and safely...

Women’s empowerment through sanitation in rural India

24/11/20

One of the biggest sanitation challenges India is facing is to provide...

Making sanitation and hygiene safer: reflections 5 years on

24/11/20

In 2015 SLH published ‘Making Sanitation and Hygiene Safer: Reducing Vulnerabilities to...

Addressing climate risks for sanitation: Building from what we know

18/11/20

Climate change has emerged as a leading concern in the sanitation sector....

How can we improve handwashing for good?

14/10/20Mimi Coultas

COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on the importance of handwashing with soap,...

Rapid Action Learning and COVID-19

06/10/20Robert Chambers

A-ha! A moment etched in my memory: 20 or so researchers were...

Responding to COVID-19 through comprehensive WASH interventions: Experiences from two Indian states

28/09/20Satviki Varma

Since 2015, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) has been implementing a flagship...

COVID-19 in India and inequality in access to water, sanitation and hygiene

22/09/20Mukesh Kumar

On January 30th 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the present...

Turning learning and sharing into action at scale

16/09/20Sarah House

This blog is the last in a series of five on the...

What prevents us learning and translating it into action at scale?

16/09/20Sarah House

This blog is the fourth in a series of five on the...

Behind the scenes: Creating the new SLH website

26/08/20Alice Webb

After years of work on Community-Led Total Sanitation, the time had come...

Learning peer-to-peer for sub-national and field level actors

17/08/20Sarah House

This blog is the third in a series of five on the...

Words fail us: Racism in international development publishing

17/08/20Rebecca Sindall

This post originally appeared on Engineering for Change. Earlier this year, we...

Innovative approaches for inclusive community learning

15/07/20Sarah House

In this blog I share some innovative approaches used for inclusive learning...

“Learning about learning” in the sanitation and hygiene sector

09/07/20Sarah House

A few months ago, I was pleased to undertake a rapid topic...

Looking through the lens to leave no one behind: using the photovoice method in WASH

16/06/20Amita Bhakta

In this blog, I provide some lessons learned from using a method...

It’s time to address inequalities in menstrual health and hygiene

26/05/20Mimi Coultas

On any given day, 300 million people around the world will be...

Safety of sanitation workers should not be overlooked

28/04/20Ruhil Iyer

While the Covid-19 pandemic has driven many of us into our homes...

Covid-19 in low-income countries – we need rapid learning about effective handwashing initiatives

08/04/20Jamie Myers

Frequent and proper handwashing with soap is one of the most important...

Water, sanitation and hygiene in arid and semi-arid lands: What can we learn from the DREAM ASAL Conference 2019?

12/11/19Florencia Rieiro

From 29th September to 3rd October the DREAM ASAL (Development of Resilience...

Why are support mechanisms in rural sanitation programming important?

01/11/19Elaine Mercer

In this blog I give recommendations for introducing additional support mechanisms into...

Nine ideas for gender transformative WASH programming

27/06/19Elaine Mercer

Since this blog was published in 2019, the Sanitation Learning Hub have...

Practitioner tips: transforming harmful gender norms in WASH with traditional leaders

26/06/19Elaine Mercer

In many parts of the world, and in Africa especially, traditional leaders...

Crossing continents: what can India and Africa learn from each other?

11/04/19Robert Chambers

These reflections have been provoked by two occasions. The first was in...

Blog 3 of 3: Accelerating improved sanitation in Africa through market based approaches

19/03/19Jamie Myers

Last November UNICEF’s West and Central Africa Regional Office, Supply Division and...

Blog 2 of 3: Sharing the SHAWN Project Experience in Nigeria

12/02/19Zaid Jurji

Last November UNICEF’s West and Central Africa Regional Office, Supply Division and...

Blog 1 of 3: Opportunities for market shaping in West and Central Africa

06/02/19Jolly Ann Maulit

Last November UNICEF’s West and Central Africa Regional Office, Supply Division and...

Challenging gender norms to achieve sustainable sanitation

06/09/18Naomi Vernon

At the beginning of 2018, the CLTS Knowledge Hub based at the...

Reduction of stunting by CLTS in Mali: a case study to learn from

11/07/18Andy Robinson

Mali is renowned as the location of the one of the few...

The last mile: ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there’

11/06/18Sue Cavill

During the East and Southern Africa Regional Rural Sanitation Workshop organised by...

What has worked for Bangladesh?

30/03/18Suzanne Hanchett

Over the past two decades Bangladesh has achieved significant successes around national...

Innovating sustainable handwashing practices for Global Handwashing Day

21/11/17Jessica Turner

Admitting something isn’t working as well as you had hoped is challenging...

Leaving no country behind: Niger – a personal insight

29/10/17Susie Goodall

Niger is an incredible country, the largest (by area) in West Africa,...

An ongoing conversation: support versus subsidies for the most vulnerable

12/09/17Stacey Townsend

In the era of SDGs it is clear that there are no...

No more ‘pity’ in ‘pit emptying’!

03/05/17Nileshkumar Kshirsagar

‘Frankly speaking, earlier I had reservations about pit emptying and always considered...

Discovering sanitation realities through rural immersions

29/03/17Jamie Myers

At the end of last year the CLTS Knowledge Hub heard that...

Making shit a commodity: finding a fortune at the bottom of a leach pit

14/03/17Nileshkumar Kshirsagar

Leach pit emptying events should not remain stand-alone activity. Forward and backward...

India’s rural sanitation: from lose-lose to win-win

27/02/17Robert Chambers

Prime Minister Modi has set the 2nd October 2019 as the target...

Chickens don’t use toilets – why global WASH efforts should start focusing on animal feces

30/01/17Derek Headey

Those who have tried toilet training a pet dog or cat know...

Monitoring and evaluation – moving beyond the data graveyard

21/10/16Naomi Francis

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) has long been considered a necessary companion to...

Enhancing collaborative behaviours to achieve the SDGs

20/10/16Lillian Mbeki

Looking at achieving the sustainable development goals, Sanitation and Water for All...

CLTS in the Solomon Islands – the word is spreading…

29/09/16Tom Rankin

The Solomon Islands has a reputation for being laid back and the...

Using practical triggering tools to promote handwashing in Madagascar

10/08/16Bethany Lomas

Studies show that handwashing with soap can reduce the risk of contracting...

Shit will be fought with shit

07/06/16Nipun Vinayak

Hands of majority of motivators in Fatehgarh Saheb rise to a question...

Tracking the construction of latrines in Zambia

03/06/16Andy Prinsen

Monitoring is always an important part of the development process, especially in...

Rapid Action Learning units – real time learning and adaptation for Swachh Bharat Mission

26/04/16Andrés Hueso

On a recent visit to a village in central India, we felt...

The partial usage of toilets

22/02/16Jamie Myers

The partial usage of toilets is a frontier subject for Community-Led Total...

Why we should not set ‘targets’ for ODF

19/01/16Nipun Vinayak

The Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) is a revamped programme on sanitation launched...

Community-led Ebola action: adapting a community-led approach to the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone

09/11/15Jamie Bedson

Listening to the People On 7th November 2015, eighteen months after its...

Nutrition puzzles: the shit factor

11/05/15Ian Scoones

A few years ago I posted a blog titled ‘Nutrition Puzzles’. Today,...

Gender, violence and sanitation: practices and tools to make WASH safer

08/05/15Sue Cavill

Although the root cause of violence is the differences in power between...

Can smartphones solve India’s sanitation monitoring conundrum?

23/03/15Andrés Hueso

The new sanitation campaign in India, the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), is...

Empowerment is key to sustaining clean environment around schools

18/03/15Dan Kapatuka

Empowerment of primary school learners is an area that is needed to...

Ten arguments for why gender should be a central focus for universal health coverage advocates

23/12/14Kate Hawkins

To make universal health coverage (UHC) truly universal we need an approach...

What to do with infant poo? The blind spot of the blind spot

22/10/14Andrés Hueso

After a few years researching and working on sanitation, I feel (felt)...

Disability and sanitation: making WASH fully inclusive

29/08/14Jane Wilbur

He is married with two children and works hard to support his...

Using participatory design to develop latrine options in Malawi

29/07/13Ben Cole

Background In 2011, UNICEF Malawi decided to apply social marketing tools to...

From ridicule to respect: young women’s experience and advice on triggering in their own communities in West Bengal

12/06/12Robert Chambers

The Namkhana Block in 24 Parganas (South) District in West Bengal has...

Sanitation and hygiene: undernutrition’s blind spot

02/05/12Robert Chambers

The effects of undernutrition The undernutrition of babies, infants and children is...

Tackling fear and scepticism: advice and examples from CLTS trainings in South Sudan

14/02/12Philip Otieno

One of the challenges that I often experience when conducting trainings is...

Harnessing GIS mapping and social media for better sanitation & hygiene in informal settlements

17/10/11Samuel Musyoki

I know it is close to two months since I blogged last....

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