Linking Toilets and Nutrition for Stronger, Healthier Lives - Voices and Views

Published on the 17th November 2017, this Voices and views article on Capacity4Dev provides a short analysys of the challenges to link Toilets and Nutrition for Stronger, Healthier Lives.

The role of water, sanitation and health (WASH) in tackling undernutrition has been on development and humanitarian professionals’ radar for more than two decades. Yet fully multi-sectoral approaches remain rare, despite undernutrition contributing to 860,000 preventable deaths a year in girls and boys under five.

In this blog it is explained how work to dismantle the silos is already underway. Effective advocacy has raised the political profile of WASH and has led to increasing discussion at donor and government levels.

Supported by the European Commission, the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement has 57 member countries and three Indian States committed to reducing child undernutrition, and is working to embed links between nutrition and WASH. One of the main objectives of these initiatives is to bring WASH representatives at the table when nutrition policy is written and viceversa – nutrition representatives present when WASH is on the table.

Notwithstanding these commitments, there are signs that this necessary coordination and representation may not be happening to a satisfactory degree. WaterAid and SHAREanalysedthe national nutrition and WASH policies of 13 countries, mostly members of SUN in Africa, to assess how well integrated they are. Some countries, like Nepal, Madagascar, Timor-Leste and Zambia, have nutrition plans which specify WASH-related objectives, and in Nepal’s case go as far outlining specific indicators, activities and budget, and jointly delivering WASH and nutrition interventions to the same target groups. Others, however, such as Kenya, Tanzania and Liberia, still have some way to go, including defining activities which promote hygiene and identifying targets, budget and who is responsible for delivery.

The blog provides a summary of the reasons why this multi-sectoral work is complex but also some considerations on the “good practices” in WASH initiatives that could be replicated at the ministerial, policy and implementation level. Finally, the article summarizes DEVCO’ contribution to the sector, presenting a short interview to Antoine Saintraint, Head of Sector for Water in DEVCO.