WASH and Nutrition Webinar

Enrolment key: An enrolment key is required to join the webinar. Please write an email to request it at sarah.dib@giz.de, explaining briefly why this webinar is relevant to you/your work.

Contaminated water and poor sanitation and hygiene conditions cause diarrhoeal disease, environmental enteric dysfunction and worm infestations, and consequently are strongly associated with malnutrition due to poor appetite, reduced food intake, nutrient malabsorption, weight loss, and slowed physical growth and cognitive development in children. Poor nutritional status further increases susceptibility to infection, thereby creating a vicious cycle. The global framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seeks to end all forms of malnutrition and provide safe access to Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) for all by 2030. Given the strong causal link between WASH conditions and nutrition, WASH interventions - including those related to water supply (e.g. improving water quantity and quality), sanitation (e.g. safe excreta disposal) and hygiene promotion and education (e.g. handwashing, food, personal and environmental hygiene) - can inherently address crucial underlying drivers of child malnutrition and development. This calls for cross-sectoral coordination and collaboration to ensure that WASH is mainstreamed in policies to improve populations’ nutritional status and integrate nutrition outcomes in the design and targeting of WASH interventions.

This webinar organised jointly by DG INTPA F.3 and F.2 and hosted by the INTPA Academy shall provide knowledge and guidance for staff in EU Delegations and Headquarters on how to integrate WASH in Nutrition programmes, and vice versa, and to provide practical examples from EU/EUMS funded programmes.