Journal article

Displaced adolescent girls and women face many challenges managing their monthly menstrual flow with dignity
and comfort in various challenging settings around the world, such as refugee camps, informal settlements, and
while in transit across geographies as they flee disaster or conflict. Menstrual hygiene management requires easy
access to safe, private water and sanitation facilities, along with appropriate menstrual materials and supplies, discreet

Legal principles and moral obligations that guarantee the basic needs of people living in humanitarian crisis situations (HCSs) predate inclusive development (ID). This review of the scholarly literature on access to water, sanitation and hygiene services (WASH) in HCSs links: (a) legal principles and moral obligations for WASH in HCSs, (b) technological, assessment and participatory instruments for WASH provision in HCSs, and (c) the social, relational and environmental dimensions of ID.

The use of cash transfers and market based programming (CT/MBP) to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of emergency responses is gaining prominence in the humanitarian sector. However, there is a lack of existing indicators and methodologies to monitor activities designed to strengthen water and sanitation (WaSH) markets. Gender and vulnerability markers to measure the impact of such activities on different stakeholders is also missing.

Kabul and Monrovia, the respective capitals of Afghanistan and Liberia, have recently emerged from long-lasting armed conflicts. In both cities, a large number of organisations took part in emergency water supply provision and later in the rehabilitation of water systems. Based on field research, this paper establishes a parallel between the operations carried out in the two settings, highlighting similarities and analysing the two most common strategies.

Cholera has been eliminated as a public health problem in high-income countries that have implemented sanitation system separating the community’s fecal waste from their drinking water and food supply. These expensive, highly-engineered systems, first developed in London over 150 years ago, have not reached low-income high-risk communities across Asia.

Background.  The Cholera-Hospital-Based-Intervention-for-7-Days (CHoBI7) is a handwashing with soap and water treatment intervention program delivered by a health promoter bedside in a health facility and through home visits to diarrhea patients and their household members during the 7 days after admission to a health facility.

Objective To investigate the concentration of residual chlorine in drinking water supplies in refugee camps, South Sudan, March–April 2013. Methods For each of three refugee camps, we measured physical and chemical characteristics of water supplies at four points after distribution: (i) directly from tapstands; (ii) after collection; (iii) after transport to households; and (iv) after several hours of household storage.

Background. The West African Ebola epidemic has demonstrated that the existing range of medical and epidemiological responses to emerging disease outbreaks is insufficient, especially in post-conflict contexts with exceedingly poor healthcare infrastructures. In this context, community-based responses have proven vital for containing Ebola virus disease (EVD) and shifting the epidemic curve. Despite a surge in interest in local innovations that effectively contained the epidemic, the mechanisms for community-based response remain unclear.

In humanitarian emergency settings there is need for low cost and rapidly deployable interventions to protect vulnerable children, in- and out-of-school, from diarrhoeal diseases. Handwashing with soap can greatly reduce diarrhoea but interventions specifically targeting children's handwashing behaviour in humanitarian settings have not been tested. Traditional children's handwashing promotion interventions have been school-focused, resource-intensive and reliant on health-based messaging.

Chlorine tablets are commonly distributed for household water treatment in emergencies. However, confirmed use after distribution ranges widely (from 7–87%), which raises concerns about chlorine tablet effectiveness, as measured by acceptance and appropriate use. To investigate chlorine tablet effectiveness, we conducted nine key informant interviews (KIIs) on tablet distribution in emergencies in general, five KIIs on chlorine taste and odor acceptance and rejection specifically, and a literature review on chlorine taste and odor concerns.