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. 2017 Apr 20;14(4):442.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph14040442.

A Systematic Review: Costing and Financing of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools

Shannon M McGinnis  1 , Thomas McKeon  2 , Richa Desai  3 , Akudo Ejelonu  4 , Stanley Laskowski  5 , Heather M Murphy  6
Affiliations

A Systematic Review: Costing and Financing of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools

Shannon M McGinnis et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Despite the success of recent efforts to increase access to improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) globally, approximately one-third of schools around the world still lack adequate WASH services. A lack of WASH in schools can lead to the spread of preventable disease and increase school absences, especially among women. Inadequate financing and budgeting has been named as a key barrier for integrating successful and sustainable WASH programs into school settings. For this reason, the purpose of this review is to describe the current knowledge around the costs of WASH components as well as financing models that could be applied to WASH in schools. Results show a lack of information around WASH costing, particularly around software elements as well as a lack of data overall for WASH in school settings as compared to community WASH. This review also identifies several key considerations when designing WASH budgets or selecting financing mechanisms. Findings may be used to advise future WASH in school programs.

Keywords: WASH; cost; costing; developing countries; financing; school.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Systematic review article screening process and results for screens 1–5 for the review of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in schools costing and financing, 1990–2015.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Number of sources with WASH hardware costing data (including recurring costs) per country.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Number of sources with WASH software costing data per country.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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