2018 in Review: The GHP’s Favorite Moments
December 20, 2018
In our final Soapbox of 2018, we shared highlights of our work to improve hand hygiene. This year was one of many firsts for the Global Handwashing Partnership. We had our first integrated Global Handwashing Day theme, our first Think Tank in Asia, and we worked with our partners on a host of other projects to improve handwashing programming and advocacy.
We held our 2018 Think Tank in Manila, Philippines, with the goal of disseminating best practices for hygiene behavior change, and collaboratively designing solutions to handwashing design, measurement and behavior change. At the event, 67 handwashing practitioners from 13 countries shared their ideas, success stories and challenges.
On October 15th, people celebrated our Global Handwashing Day theme, “Clean hands-a recipe for health”. The integration of hand and food hygiene expanded collaboration opportunities, with thousands of events and hand hygiene advocacy moments across the globe. This year, we also undertook a participatory 10-year review of our celebrations. We learned that Global Handwashing Day has been a platform for collaboration, advocacy and awareness raising. Read more on our findings here.
The Crowd 360 Hub, hosted by FHI 360, is a virtual launch space to accelerate global health campaigns. This year, we partnered with Crowd 360 to share 23 stories of Global Handwashing Day impact from 22 partners and communities across the globe. Learn more here.
The Global Handwashing Partnership is committed to knowledge management to improve handwashing programming. This year, we completed a review and redesign of our knowledge resources, to make them easier to search, and to allow our partners to upload content to the site. Submission guidelines and other useful information can be found here.
We welcomed eight new member organizations this year, and launched a partnership with Global Health Corps, a next generation global health leadership accelerator program. These organizations are working to improve handwashing in diverse sectors: social enterprise, maternal and natal health, technology, global development and more. Read about our new members and partnerships.
This year’s Call to Action on WASH in healthcare facilities was an exciting advocacy moment for hand hygiene advocates. The Global Handwashing Partnership co-hosted and disseminated new learning events and resources to share learnings on hand hygiene. Read more and search by category on our Resources Hub.
This year, we also designed fact sheets and research summaries, to contribute to the knowledge and practice of handwashing programs. These resources highlight research themes such as access and coverage, and show how handwashing relates to issues like healthcare-associated infections and school absenteeism. Read more here.
With the prominence of hygiene in SDG 6, the call to advocacy is stronger than ever. We designed this advocacy toolkit to bring all handwashing champions on board. It highlights the importance of handwashing advocacy, as well as practical steps and considerations for advocacy, and re-usable tools for handwashing advocates. Read more here.
2018 Global Handwashing Day celebrations were enriched with banners, factsheets, infographics, toolkits, virtual campaigns, a Crowd 360 Hub, and host of other resources for hand hygiene promotion and advocacy. Learn more here.
Here at the Global Handwashing Partnership, every day is a day for handwashing. Our website, home to our Resources Hub, is rich in reports, kits, learning materials and links to useful platforms, to encourage all stakeholders to commit to hand hygiene policy and implementation. Join us in learning and advocating for handwashing, here.
In 2019, the Global Handwashing Partnership will continue to pursue our two strategic objectives: improve the enabling environment by supporting advocacy; and strengthen programs through learning and knowledge management. If you are interested in collaboration or have feedback to improve our knowledge management, please write to us.