Maseru, Jul. 10 — The World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have released an updated country progress tracker that shows how countries are advancing efforts to improve water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH) and waste services in health-care facilities.
The tracker, now covering 107 countries, Lesotho included, up from 75 two years ago, underpins global monitoring against the 2023 United Nations General Assembly Resolution on WASH, waste and electricity in health-care facilities.
According to WHO, the tracker provides the most comprehensive picture yet of how countries are taking forward the eight practical steps to improve WASH services in health facilities, from establishing national standards to developing costed roadmaps, strengthening health information systems and building workforce capacity.
“This data shows that nearly every country is taking action,” said Maggie Montgomery, Technical Officer at WHO. “We see strong momentum on developing national standards and conducting baseline assessments, but critical gaps remain. Only 17% of countries have secured sufficient financing to improve and sustain these essential services. That means patients, staff and communities continue to face unnecessary risks.
Half of healthcare facilities worldwide lack basic hygiene services with water and soap or alcohol-based hand rub where patients receive care and at toilets in these facilities, according to the latest Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report by WHO and UNICEF. Around 3.85 billion people use these facilities, putting them at greater risk of infection, including 688 million people who receive care at facilities with no hygiene services at all. . . .
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