NIGERIA – The Federal government of Nigeria, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has endorsed a National Roadmap on Hand Hygiene for All.

The Federal Government announced on its website that the new Roadmap gives direction for collaborative efforts to implement the Sanitation and Hygiene programmes under the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal six.

In addition, UNICEF supported the Market Assessment of Hygiene Products and Services in Nigeria to facilitate the implementation of the Roadmap hence the report of the assessment will be widely circulated to facilitate efficient decision-making on sourcing hygiene products and services at all levels.

The National Roadmap on Hand Hygiene for All aims to create a path for maximizing upcoming opportunities in the implementation of hand hygiene in homes, schools, healthcare facilities, and other spaces.

In addition, the new Roadmap will further increase the awareness of Nigerians on the developing initiative for inclusive hand hygiene in all human contexts of existence in Nigeria.

The mainstreaming of the roadmap into all development policies and programmes will also help to improve access to basic and improved sanitation and hygiene services sustainably.

Activities to realize these factors have been detailed to include short-term COVID-19 response needs to control the outbreak and medium-term activities to rebuild hand hygiene culture.

Sub-Saharan African facilities are falling behind in terms of hygiene services. Only 53% of healthcare institutions in the Least Developed Countries have access to a protected water supply on the grounds. In addition, one out of every ten health care institution worldwide lacked sanitation services in the data-available countries.

Nigeria’s Minister of Water Resources Alhaji Suleiman Adamu said the Nigeria Roadmap identified strategic goals and opportunities for investments to improve hand hygiene.

He further said that the new strategy provided actions across the three pillars of political leadership, enabling environment and inclusive programming at scale to increase supply and demand.

Adamu highlighted that the long-term approach called for the sustenance of hand hygiene culture while noting that the impact of adequate handwashing cuts across the whole Sustainable Development Goals Agenda.

He explained that the new roadmap has the potential to improve healthcare outcomes and subsequently increase the progress regarding equity, education, and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

At the same time, the Director, Water Quality Control and Sanitation, Ministry of Water Resources Mr. Emmanuel Awe said there was a need for political leadership to build momentum in all tiers of government.

Mr. Emmanuel Awe further said that a strong enabling environment was crucial, noting that a conducive environment would strengthen systems for financing and sustainably developing policies.

Meanwhile, the UNICEF Deputy Representative Ms. Rushnan Murtaza pointed out that the roadmap was a deliberate effort to guide the country in interventions that build on the efforts of the government in curtailing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ms. Murtaza underscored that the benefits of hand hygiene in preventing the transmission of infectious diseases were crucial, adding that hand hygiene had been proven to reduce deaths from respiratory and diarrhea diseases in under-fives.

“I understand that the Clean Nigeria Campaign at the National level has already incorporated the core strategies of the hand hygiene for All Roadmap into their campaign strategies,’’ she said.

Furthermore, she encouraged all Nigerian states and local government areas to key into the roadmap and integrate it with their state-specific open defecation-free roadmaps.

Dr. Edwin Isotu-Edeh, WHO Representative, lauded the efforts of the Federal Government in prioritizing sanitation and hygiene through the campaign for hand hygiene.

He noted that there is a huge gap in access to handwashing services among households in the country as reflected in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene National Routine Mapping report, adding that there is a need for behavior change to inculcate handwashing as the first line of defense in breaking disease transmission.

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