IRC and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine published a Learning Brief to support health-sector decision-makers, practitioners and WASH actors with a structured approach to address WASH in healthcare facilities.
Published on: 09/07/2026
Improving water, sanitation and hygiene in healthcare facilities is not simply an infrastructure challenge, it is a fundamental health systems issue.
Reliable water, sanitation, waste management, and electricity services underpin infection prevention and control (IPC), patient safety, and quality of care. Yet, in many countries, these essential services remain project-driven and fragmented, leaving health facilities vulnerable and undermining Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and health security goals.
IRC and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine recently developed a Learning Brief to support health-sector decision-makers, practitioners and WASH actors with a structured approach to address WASH in healthcare facilities. The brief draws on global evidence and country experiences from Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Mali and is organised around the six WHO health system building blocks which provide the primary analytical lens. The brief introduces Eight Practical Steps for country-level implementation. The WASH systems building blocks offer additional institutional depth for diagnosing service delivery constraints.
The brief demonstrates that sustainable improvements in WASH in healthcare facilities are achieved not through isolated investments, but by strengthening the underlying systems that govern how services are planned, financed, delivered and monitored.
The brief is accompanied by a new Systems Academy course, which can be accessed free of charge.
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