Online capacity building workshops on Hidden WASH are now available to book for organisations across the WASH sector

This half-day capacity development workshop uses empirical findings from Ghana and the UK to introduce the ‘hidden’ WASH needs of perimenopausal women aged in their late 40s and 50s, expanding current understandings of equity and inclusion.

We have more in common as researchers, and there are many areas where our paths cross and we seldom notice. Let’s make conscious efforts to work across our silos, not within, to truly leave no one behind.

It is fundamental that we start using a rights-based approach to support the welfare of sanitation workers.

The one-day workshop enabled the research leads to reflect on the project and the processes of doing the research, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The final day of the Sanitation Workers Forum focused on participation in workshops to establish how labour rights can be effectively connected to sanitation, and how those working to support sanitation workers to realise their rights can learn lessons from other sectors.

Recognising sanitation workers and giving them the protections and benefits they are entitled to should be a priority moving forward.

The second day of the Sanitation Workers Forum explored intersectionality, the challenges of COVID-19, occupational health and safety, and sanitation worker representation.

A recognition of manual scavenging as a form of modern slavery, representation of the different individuals involved in sanitation in different contexts and a reflection on the history of sanitation work are key learnings to take forward.

Our new paper in the Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, The hidden WASH needs of perimenopausal women, reveals the experiences of women in Ghana who are at the time when their periods will permanently stop, at the menopause, taking a journey through a stage called the perimenopause.