Dutch Prince of Orange praises IRC/UNICEF’s school sanitation work

“At the very least, all governments should make it a target in this International Year of Sanitation to provide proper facilities in every school and child care centre, along with hygiene education and the class room to make sure that toilet and washing blocks are used and well maintained. How would we feel if our children went off for the day to fulfill their right to education in a place where basic human needs and functions were ignored? In this context, I highly commend the work of UNICEF worldwide, an organization that has been instrumental in bringing this book to fruition; and of its partner in my own country, the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre in Delft. School sanitation is one of the important approaches covered in these pages, and represents real hope for a healthier future for millions of the world’s citizens.”

His Royal Highness Prince Willem-Alexander, Chairperson, UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, in his Foreword to the book: The last taboo : opening the door on the global sanitation crises, by renowned authors Maggie Black and Ben Fawcett (Earthscan, UK/USA, 2008.

Lack of funding

In chapter 5 “Selling Sanitation to New Users” the authors use a few quotes from our 2004 School Sanitation and Hygiene education symposium “The Way Forward: Construction is not enough” , see http://www.irc.nl/page/16710. On p 141 they write: “In many countries, the problem of lack of school facilities is connected to lack of resources, or more accurately in some settings, it stems from political and bureaucratic failure to commit the necessary resources to early childhood development and primary education and a lack of priority in social policy generally to children’s wellbeing. Where there is an interest in children’s education, other issues are likely to be considered – teachers’ training, class size, text books, school equipment - before the minor matter of where children are to ‘go’ and how they are to keep their hands and bodies clean. Toilet blocks are not class rooms, so they do not come under the education budget; they are not considered as part of child health care concerns either, and they are left out of water and sewerage budgets too. As in so many contexts, sanitation in schools has fallen resoundingly into budgetary and departmental cracks.

Poor condition of facilities

When UNICEF and its international partner in school sanitation, IRC, first began to pay serious concerns to toilet blocks and water supplies in rural schools they found that, on the ground, the issue was typically regarded as a matter of construction. But as a visit to schools in any deprived environment will testify, if the facilities are not well built, and there is no commitment to maintenance, hygiene information, soap and the doctrine of ‘clean’, they soon become unpleasant. Even in the industrialized countries, the poor condition of facilities is a problem for many school children. Dilapidated toilet blocks in many urban areas are connected to violent and bullying behaviour in schools, including assaults on girls. Instead of helping children adopt good toilet practices and hygiene habits, filthy facilities and threats of harassment or attack are bound to act as disincentives to girls and younger children to use toilet blocks. Teaching the virtues of the enclosed toilet and hand-washing in schools is impossible in such circumstances. An entirely new, beefed up approach was required.

1999: start of the partnership

In 1999, UNICEF and IRC launched a new partnership for school sanitation and hygiene education (SSHE), and the momentum and character of school sanitation as promoted internationally began to be radically redirected. SSHE was seen as a way to reclaim millions of lost school days, make schools more attractive, and improve the cleanliness and personal habits of school-goers so as to entrench them for the future. In addition, given the difficulties of selling sanitation to the older generation , changing the behaviour of their school-going children was seen as a potential way of changing behaviour in the whole society, if not immediately then over time. This would be attempted by bringing communities and schools, parents and teachers, closer together.”

Source Black, M. and Fawcett, B. (2008). The last taboo : opening the door on the global sanitation crisis. London, UK, Earthscan and UNICEF. –224 p. : fig., photogr. - Includes refernces and index. - ISBN 9781844075447 (paperback) ISBN 9781844075430 (hardback), Paperback £18.99 (€25.41) http://www.irc.nl/page/38701