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Add to Preferred SourcesGlobally, over 500 million women and girls lack adequate facilities for menstrual hygiene management (MHM). When there are no separate toilets for girls, no ways to safely dispose of used sanitary pads, or no water for washing hands, women and girls can face considerable challenges in maintaining their menstrual hygiene in a private, safe and dignified manner.
However, improving MHM is not just about sanitation. Poor menstrual hygiene caused by a lack of education, persisting taboos and stigma, limited access to hygienic menstrual products and poor sanitation infrastructure undermine the educational opportunities, health, and overall social status of females around the world. As a result, millions of women and girls are kept from reaching their full potential.
In Nigeria, 25 percent of women lack adequate privacy for defecation or MHM. In Bangladesh, only six percent of schools provide MHM education, and over one-third of girls surveyed claim that menstrual issues adversely affect their school performance. In Panama, school attendance is negatively impacted by inadequate MHM; girls in sixth grade are more likely to miss at least one day of school during the past six months, compared to boys in the same grade or girls in lower grades.
While human capital is measured using health and education indicators, these are in turn driven by many other factors, including access to water and sanitation.
Water projects can increase accumulation of human capital. Hardware approaches include provision of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities to schools and other public spaces; software approaches include raising awareness or behavior change on issues around menstrual hygiene and breaking the taboos. Both are proven to result in higher school attendance, improved reproductive health, and increased productivity – the building blocks of human capital.
Original source: World Bank
Published on 24 May 2019