Health Policy Approaches to Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) Infrastructure

Abstract

As part of the Sustainable Development Goals introduced by the United Nations in 2015, SDG 6 aims to achieve environmentally sustainable and equitable water, sanitation, and hygiene accessibility for all. WASH-focused policies produced by health organizations use SDG 6 to guide their strategies for investments in WASH infrastructure from many different angles (i.e., capacity-building, policy and advocacy, direct financial support), but there is still a lack of transparency in the roles and responsibilities of key health organizations due to the complexity behind WASH-related problems. This research investigates the WASH strategies of four leading organizations (UNICEF, WHO, Joint Monitoring Program, World Bank) that analyzes both the apparent investment roles and associated WASH infrastructure as well as the fundamental driving values that each organization displays in their strategies. Through an inductive qualitative study design, thirty-seven publicly available strategy documents and two in-depth interviews were collected and analyzed. The results were summarized into two parts: code frequency analysis and thematic analysis. The code frequency analysis revealed variable WASH infrastructure investment preferences but similarities in capacity-building and policy and advocacy roles between UNICEF and WHO, predictable roles in WASH monitoring for JMP, and direct financial support for the World Bank. The thematic analysis demonstrated that most of the policies (~60%) included in the study showed integrated values such as equitable WASH access in tandem with the conservation of the natural environment. However, ~30% of the policy was defined by singular values of either human health, the natural environment or social equity and only a very small percentage integrated all three of these values. In order to more thoroughly achieve the integrated nature of SDG 6, the policies of these organizations should aim to become more integrated if they are to meet the WASH demands of global populations.