To enable the sanitation and hygiene sector to innovate, adapt and collaborate in a rapidly evolving landscape, feeding learning into policies and practice.
3.6 billion people don’t have their own safe toilet. Living without a toilet and handwashing facilities can not only cause health issues for the individual, but the community as a whole. In addition to the health risks, a lack of access to sanitation facilities is a major cause of risk, anxiety, economic and psychosocial stress.
Coordination across the sanitation and hygiene sector is complex, with local and national governments, large development agencies, small NGOs all working towards a common goal in greatly varying contexts. Innovations and solutions are being trialled and are succeeding, but with limited opportunities to share learning and accelerate global progress.
Previously working as the CLTS Knowledge Hub, the Sanitation Learning Hub (SLH) team at IDS has over a decade of experience supporting participatory research and learning activities in the sanitation and hygiene sector. SLH has built longstanding relationships and trust with diverse partners across the sector.
SLH has deep roots in the history of participatory methods at IDS, with the involvement of Robert Chambers from the inception of the CLTS Knowledge Hub. SLH has developed Rapid Action Learning approaches that focus on timely, relevant and actionable research that is grounded in reality.
The programme strongly advocates for honest reflections on what is working and what isn’t working in the sanitation and hygiene sector. Activities are designed with the belief that, as a respected learning partner, SLH can provide a neutral, safe space for sector players to come together to share their lessons and challenges.
With Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2 pushing for safely-managed sanitation and hygiene for all, SLH consistently asks who is being included and who is being excluded, using the SLH platform to start and energise much-needed conversations.
SLH mainly achieves this through:
Examples of some of these activities include:
The programme activities are coordinated by a core team at IDS along with two in-country focal points based in Nigeria and India:
SLH collaborates with a diverse range of partners including local governments, development organisations and research institutions. Some of our partners include:
Over the course of the programme, SLH has worked with a variety of actors in the WASH sector, including:
Approximately 2000 (includes collaborators and workshop and event attendees)
The impact of SLH’s activities is varied and wide-ranging, for example from a SLH blog author being asked to present at a conference because of their piece, to SLH outputs and activities informing or influencing national level policies on sanitation and hygiene.
Examples of the SLH impact within priority topics include: