World Health Organization WASH and NTDs Toolkit

Staff at Unlimit Health have worked as part of the NTD NGO Network (NNN)’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) working group alongside the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO’s 2015 global strategy on WASH and NTDs addressed the need for a joint approach between WASH and NTD programmes to ensure that investments in WASH reached the people most in need. Collaborative approaches across different sectors can be challenging when professionals from these sectors have separate budgets, work in separate countries and have different objectives. The collaboration between WHO and the NNN is a direct response to this challenge, putting the theory behind the global strategy into practice.

The two organisations drew on practical experiences and tested methods to create “WASH and health working together: a ‘how to’ guide for NTD programmes”. This is a step-by-step document aiming:

To build partnerships between local WASH agencies, businesses and groups, local health groups, behaviour change and communication experts.
To build an adaptive and flexible approach to programming.
To ensure the sustainability of programmes.
To support clinical and public health interventions for NTD control.

The toolkit aims to provide clear, easy to follow steps from agreeing a joint vision, to joint implementation. It will help the SCI to aid governments in building partnerships with key stakeholders (including national and local agencies, behaviour change experts and local health groups) and to shape an adaptive approach to programming in unserved populations.