Female-Friendly Public and Community Toilets: A Guide for Planners and Decision Makers

October 2018

The guide explains why toilets must be female friendly, before detailing the essential and desirable features needed to make them so. It draws recommendations and practical steps from existing literature, expert opinion and analysis of experiences from around the world. Essential features of female-friendly public and community toilets include: safe and private, cater for menstrual and other hygiene management requirements, accessible to all, affordable and available when needed, well maintained and managed and meet the requirements of caregivers and parents. The guide also provides recommendations on how to increase gender sensitivity in planning and constructing or upgrading of public and community toilets so that they meet the requirements of women and girls.

Who might find this resource useful and why?

Who: The female-friendly public and community toilets guide is designed for use by local authorities in towns and cities who are in charge of public and community toilets. It’s also useful for national governments, public and private service providers, NGOs, donors and civil society organisations who play a role in delivering these services.

Why: In addition to a lack of household toilets, in many low- and middle-income countries there are often also too few public and community toilets. Those that do exist are usually not planned, designed or managed to be female-friendly or accessible to all. This guide is for planners and decision makers aims to help local authorities, planners and others responsible for sanitation provision to better understand the requirements of women and girls using public and community toilets. The guide will support them to meet these requirements, with practical suggestions for planning, implementation and operational processes.

 

Additional details

PublisherWaterAid
ThemesGender, Hygiene, Menstrual health and hygiene
LanguageEnglish

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