WASH Approaches

Partnership and WASH Oxfam has a long history of working with government, non-government and community-based partners to ensure humanitarian WASH needs are addressed.  Oxfam…

Climate change is already having significant negative effects on the lives and livelihoods of people living in countries affected by conflicts and disasters. It…

MEASURING WHAT MATTERS High quality WASH responses are critical to saving lives, preventing harm and supporting a life with dignity. The humanitarian community invests…

An Introduction to Community Engagement in WASH The humanitarian sector has been strengthening its focus on and commitment to community-centred responses in recent years.…

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) emergency responses affect markets, intentionally or not. WASH hygiene supplies (such as soap) and services (such as latrine desludging)…

This practical field guide brings together lessons learned from Oxfam’s past interventions in the prevention and control of cholera, and other related guidance. The…

Oxfam is widely recognized as a leading organization supporting people affected by humanitarian emergencies to access water, sanitation, and public health service and resources.…

The impact of climate change on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) responses in humanitarian crises is becoming increasingly evident, with rising global temperatures and…

Hearing the voice of the vulnerable People may be differentiated by many factors such as their age, gender, caste, class, wealth, ethnic group, religion…

Our strategy sets out our global WASH vision, goal and objectives until 2025. Vision  Women, men, and children affected by disaster, conflict, and the…

Monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning is identified as a gap by the Global WaSH Cluster’s technical working group in WASH markets (Global WASH Cluster,…

Oxfam defines an accountable humanitarian programme as one in which the people affected by it are the most influential decision-makers throughout the lifetime of…

Oxfam’s malaria and dengue programming promotes an evidence-based approach, targeting regions where malaria or dengue carries the greatest risk of mortality and morbidity. A…

WASH Tweaks is our flagship programme to make WASH infrastructure and programmes more suitable for users. The Problem Our research has found that on…

Introduction Children under five years can represent up to 20% of the population. In some cases children under 181 years may represent over 50%…

Public Health: Disease Outbreak Preparedness & Response Planning For Acute Watery Diarrhoea (Awd) & Cholera PART I: PREPAREDNESS Objective: Increase communities’ capacity to respond…

This checklist provides a quick reference for Oxfam WASH personnel and partners, to get a quickunderstanding of how different WASH activities impact the environment…

This briefing paper presents findings from Oxfam’s recently commissioned research on climate predictions for 2040 and 2050 in the Middle East, the Horn, East…

In 2018, Oxfam launched a new approach to better understand the perceptions and beliefs of crisis-affected communities, particularly in relation to diseasen outbreaks. Given…

Within the humanitarian sector, there is a misconception that public health promotion (PHP) involves little more than the distribution of nonfood items (NFIs), mass…

This technical brief looks at the ways WASH market systems are affected by humanitarian crises and the ways in which humanitarian actors can work…

This checklist can be used as an aide-memoire for rapid WASH assessments. General  Water Sanitation Excreta disposal Solid waste disposal Drainage

Fostering community-led solutions and ensuring community ownership of the response

Why gender matters in humanitarian WASH responses In any crisis — whether natural disaster, conflict, displacement or outbreak — the effects are rarely the…

This paper presents Oxfam in Kenya’s experience with the e-voucher system as a market-based approach for the distribution of WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene)…

This report presents findings from a research project undertaken by Oxfam in collaborationwith the FCDO’s Humanitarian and Stabilisation Operations Team. The project examines theimpact…

These two short guidance documents are designed to support the integration of a community engagement approach across Oxfam’s WASH programming. Together, they outline both…

Water and sanitation initiatives can have significant environment impacts as they consume natural resources and generate waste that can be detrimental to the environment…

Introduction Strong community participation, often channelled through beneficiary groups or committees, is the backbone of Oxfam‟s approach to Public Health programming. It facilitates community-led…

Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) is an emerging waterborne virus endemic in regions with poor/limited sanitation and hygiene, including large parts of Asia, Africa and…

Location data is now extremely easy to collect using smartphones. There are also many sources of high quality location data online. Using freely available…

Introduction At the height of the emergency response, Oxfam GB was supporting 149,613 people1 with water, sanitation and hygiene promotion in more than 46…

This guidance note covers why it is important to make accurate estimates of the number of peoplewe have reached in our interventions and how…

These competency matrix lists, as minimum requirements, the skills that an Oxfam Public Health Promoter and Engineer emergency staff member is expected to have…

This guide is a compilation of best practices and key lessons learned through Oxfam’s experience of community engagement during the 2014–15 Ebola response in…

Market based maintenance for sustainable water supply 1. Problem/Gap being Addressed: Two thirds of rural water systems in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs)…

Mainstreaming of protection in a WASH programme ensures that: WASH staff should: Health and Safety All WASH staff have responsibility for health and safety:…

Mainstreaming of gender is about not making assumptions that a disaster will have the same impact on women and men, and that the needs…

Drought causes temporary water shortages whilst aridity is a state of chronic water deficit. It is important to recognise this difference and to realise…

Cholera response is most effective where preparedness measures have already been put in place. It is vital to be aware of the national guidelines…

Assessments Health Data WASH staff should access and interpret data on key disease trends, whether collected directly from affected communities, through co-ordination activities and/or…

Listening to affected communities is the backbone of Oxfam’s rights based approach to WASH programming. Community members are acknowledged as primary change agents and…