Source: Concern Worldwide, GOAL, Tearfund, Population Services Intl., Action Contre la Faim, Oxfam, Save the Children
Country: Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone
Key messages
- The benefits of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are clear and well understood; improved WASH has direct impacts on health, education, dignity and gender equality, and therefore has impacts on long-term development and prosperity.
- Yet the reality is that the Ebola-affected countries have some of the worst WASH coverage in the world. And this has had fatal impacts: poor WASH has limited infection prevention and control and exacerbated the impact and reach of the Ebola outbreak.
- The recovery process needs to radically strengthen public health services, and WASH must be a crucial part of that. This clearly requires a focus on WASH in health centres.
- WASH improvements are also needed in schools, slums and more broadly in communities.
- Improvements must go beyond WASH hardware into clear plans for effective community-led engagement, involvement them in managing services and so ensuring sustainability.
- Communities must be equipped to hold WASH providers accountable for service provision
This paper provides specific recommendations for the Ebola Recovery Pledging Conference, July 2015.