Key Considerations

Advocacy

• Advocate for the fulfilment of WASH core commitments for children, based on the universal human right to water and sanitation, as per General Assembly Resolution 64/292 (2010), Article 11 on the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living  of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and General Comment 15 on the Right to Water (E/C.12/2002/11).

• Advocate for and engage with relevant authorities and partners for parties to conflict to stop attacks on water and sanitation infrastructure and personnel in line with international human rights and humanitarian law[82].

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Coordination and Partnerships 

• As sector/cluster lead/co-lead for WASH:  identify gaps; support effective advocacy, timely responses to filling critical gaps; establish monitoring and evaluation and knowledge management processes; consider specific needs related to gender, disabilities and age.

• In the case of a disease outbreaks, clarify at an early stage the roles of WASH sector and UNICEF on infection prevention and control measures in health care facilities, in close coordination with the health sector.

• Collaborate with the private sector, in the framework of Child Rights and Business Principles.

Quality Programming and Standards

• Conduct multisectoral assessments, planning, programming and monitoring to address public health risks and malnutrition by creating barriers along the main pathways for pathogens to infect humans.

• Foster a multisectoral and integrated approach to contribute to reducing WASH-related risk factors at community/household level and in public health, education, protection facilities.   Collaborate with Health, Education, Child Protection, Gender and Disability sectors when planning WASH facilities for health centres, schools, temporary learning spaces, child-friendly spaces and protection centres. 

• Consider the use of cash transfers to deliver WASH responses: implement needs assessments, market analyses, and organization of cash/vouchers management tools.

• Target those who are most in need and hard-to-reach. Aim to close equity gaps in line with the “leave no-one behind” agenda.

• Aim for higher standards of service provision where feasible, starting with meeting at least the Sphere standards and indicators and aiming for higher JMP service levels. Water quality and quantity should aim to meet WHO guidelines, national standards, or equivalent.

• Promote household toilets and bathing facilities as the ideal for user safety, security, convenience and dignity when feasible because of the demonstrated links between ownership and maintenance.  Alternatively, provide gender-segregated communal/shared facilities with context-appropriate safety features such as door locks and lighting.

• Ensure that water and sanitation systems (incl. their locations, technologies and service delivery mechanisms) 1) are resilient to extreme weather events (risks must have been assessed and appropriate interventions identified and implemented); 2) use renewable energy where possible; 3) do not aggravate climate impact (do not harm).

• Engage in solid waste management on a case-by-case situation at household, institutional or community level, including medical and menstrual health and hygiene waste.

• WASH requires specific approaches in urban environments. Higher density, limited visibility of at-risk groups and diverse ownership of assets affects the choice of response options and methods of delivery.

• Systematically engage affected communities, with specific attention to women and girls, to plan and implement: 1) preparedness and preventive action at community level; 2) needs assessments and WASH response, including identification of water point locations; design and adaptation of bathing and laundry facilities; identification of priority hygiene items to include in hygiene kits; design and adaptation of key hygiene messages to the local context. Establish feedback mechanisms to give affected people, especially women and girls, more control over the response and its impact on them.

• Ensure that adolescent girls and women are provided with an option to choose preferred menstrual health and hygiene materials and sanitation facility designs.

• Ensure that all at-risk groups, including women and girls, older people, people with disabilities and others with specific protection concerns feel safe and are protected from discrimination and GBV when collecting water or using toilets and bathing facilities, day or night, through participatory planning and regular beneficiary feedback mechanisms. Equip and train WASH personnel to refer GBV survivors.  If there are no GBV actors available, train WASH staff on the GBV Pocket Guide.

• Engage persons with disabilities at all stages when designing accessible WASH facilities.

• Using safe and confidential feedback mechanisms based on affected populations’ preferred methods of communication, systematically use their views to review, inform and correct WASH interventions.

• Ensure that communities participate in decisions that affect their lives and have access to safe and confidential complaints mechanisms.

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Linking Humanitarian and Development

• Engage in multi-hazard risk assessment, planning and programming for WASH, in line with the Sendai Framework and other global standards and guidance on disaster risk reduction.

• Ensure that in contexts affected by conflict, fragility, or major challenges to social cohesion, WASH interventions are underpinned by a conflict analysis and are conflict sensitive.

• Ensure WASH data on water points and water infrastructure is stored in a robust manner (backed up digitally and off-site) that can be used for disaster recovery and rehabilitation programmes.

• Engage in Post Disaster Needs Assessment and recovery strategies for sustainable and resilient solutions.

• Strengthen humanitarian-development-peace linkages by moving from temporary to longer-term and durable solutions (e.g. establishing cost-effective water and sanitation infrastructure as soon as possible and keep water trucking to a minimum).

• Design WASH interventions that are resilient to current and future climate impacts and promote adaptive and environmentally sustainable WASH systems, using solar power where possible.

• Train communities and build national and local capacities for local water and sanitation system management that can remain after the emergency response.

• Align target and result figures with the JMP and UNICEF standards for coordination, water, sanitation, hygiene and WASH in schools, health centres and other institutions to help countries keep track of achievements towards SDGs during emergencies.

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