Project profile — WinS for Girls - Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene In Schools for Girls

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (i) reduced social and physical barriers to safe and stigma-free menstrual health management in schools and in education sectors in 12 countries; and (ii) strengthened global advocacy for effective menstrual hygiene management through water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in schools programming.

The WinS for Girls project is being implemented in 14 countries: 10 countries funded by the Government of Canada (Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Zambia, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, and Bolivia). Additional funds have been leveraged to enable programming in 3 more countries (India, Pakistan, and Indonesia). Nepal is receiving technical support through this project and is implementing WinS for Girls programming with other resources. Results achieved by UNICEF with the support of the Government of Canada include the following: Menstrual Hygiene Management Working Groups have been established under the leadership of the Ministry of Education in 14 countries and these Working Groups have held forums on menstrual hygiene issues (6 forums on average). This demonstrates good progress towards increased leadership of Ministries of Education, with a view to reducing barriers to safe and stigma-free menstrual hygiene management in schools and in the education sector, more broadly, by the end of the project. Good progress has been demonstrated toward achieving the expected result of increased capacity of global WinS for Girls Network members on menstrual hygiene management (MHM) research and programming. A web-based learning program has been developed for local menstrual hygiene management research partners in the 14 countries and over 80 people have participated in this e-course. While the completion of the web-based learning program took longer than expected, it was modified in response to the needs of the participants: additional modules were added and the pace of the course was adjusted. This tool will contribute to the expected result on strengthened global advocacy for effective menstrual hygiene management (MHM) through WASH in Schools programming by the end of the project. The 3rd annual Menstrual Hygiene Management Virtual Conference was held in October 2014, with 753 participants, and was successful in sharing school-based menstrual hygiene management programs, findings on scale and impact, as well as recommendations about how new menstrual hygiene management programs can be developed by practitioners. A 1 day face-to-face meeting on “Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) in 10: Advancing the Menstrual Hygiene Management Agenda in WASH in Schools” was held with stakeholders from international organizations, civil society, and the private sector, and mapped priorities for advancing this agenda over the next decade. Other learning products have been developed, such as a special issue on menstrual hygiene management in the academic journal Waterlines in January 2015 to highlight the evidence for WASH in school for girls.