Celebrating World Toilet Day

With 2.4 billion people still lacking access to improved sanitation and almost half of all under-five child deaths attributable to undernutrition (50% of which the World Health Organization estimates are associated with infections caused by poor WASH), this year’s theme: ‘Better Sanitation for Better Nutrition’ is incredibly timely.

SHARE has always been interested in exploring the links between poor WASH and nutrition. In 2013, we published the first ever systematic review of the effects of WASH on childhood undernutrition, which found suggestive evidence that WASH interventions positively affect height-for-age scores in children under five years of age. We’ve also published several policy briefs summarising existing evidence on the links between WASH and nutrition and attended.

As such, we were delighted to be invited to the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to participate in their celebration of World Toilet Day for the second year running. Organised by the United Nations and held on 19th November, World Toilet Day is a day dedicated to raising awareness about the people in the world who don’t have access to a toilet, despite the fact that it is a human right to have clean water and sanitation. On this day people are encouraged to take action and help promote the idea that more needs to be done.

Not only was this an excellent opportunity for SHARE to talk to interested DFID staff members about the salience of sanitation and hygiene to improving nutrition outcomes globally and to share with them some of our latest research findings on this and associated topics, but it also allowed us to network with like-minded colleagues. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting representatives from Loowatt, Unilever, WaterAid UK and WSUP and hearing about their new technologies, latest research and ground-breaking initiatives seeking to increase access and usage of safe sanitation facilities globally.