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Contact GWCWith humanitarian emergencies occurring at increasing rates and affecting a growing number of people, evidence-based strategies and new solutions – including in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) – are vital to ensure people have their essential needs met, can live in dignity and are protected from WASH-related diseases.
‘Gaps in WASH in Humanitarian Response: 2021 Update’ reveals the most pressing WASH challenges facing communities affected by crises worldwide.
This gap analysis is informed by the most comprehensive global WASH data collection of its kind, with more than 1,700 people affected by crisis sharing their views and experiences along with almost 700 in-country WASH practitioners. In addition to this, a survey was conducted with 246 global WASH practitioners and a review of 614 academic articles and grey literature publications was completed.
The gap analysis identifies the priority gaps in humanitarian WASH systems and responses that are limiting the sector’s potential to meet essential needs, minimise WASH-related disease, restore life with dignity to people experiencing emergencies and strengthen their resilience.
We hope it will help set priorities for future WASH research, innovation, coordination and delivery, prompting stakeholders to further explore and seek to understand the root causes of the major gaps experienced by people affected by crisis.
Collaborative effort is now required for WASH actors to better understand why these gaps exist and to explore where more attention and investment needs to be focused. Ultimately, we hope that the gap analysis will lead to the development of new evidence, solutions and approaches to ensure that the gaps are addressed.
The 2021 Gap Analysis package consists of four interlinked reports: