In the countries we work in, many healthcare institutions still lack access to drinking water and sanitation facilities. Some do not even have soap for hand washing. This situation is especially dangerous for pregnant women and young children, who are particularly vulnerable to illnesses. To provide appropriate assistance when improving hygiene, sanitation and water supply conditions, we must be able to evaluate each institution’s needs as accurately as possible.

Terre des hommes (Tdh), working in partnership with Eawag-Sandec and CartONG, was mandated by WHO and UNICEF to create an evaluation and monitoring tool, afterwards by the Swiss Cooperation (SDC) for a version 2.0. This tool, named FACET (Facility Evaluation Tool), is a mobile application that can be used in healthcare centres and schools to define water, sanitation, hygiene and waste management needs in accordance with recommended standards recently published by WHO and UNICEF. Users answer a series of questions on a mobile telephone or tablet, and data from the completed questionnaire is uploaded to a dashboard for analysis.

Using FACET also helps to raise awareness among community leaders and water and health authorities about standards for environmental sanitation in health facilities (WHO). The survey results are intended to catalyse action plans and resource allocation for lasting service improvements. The tool is used by the Swiss Water and Sanitation Consortium, Caritas, Helvetas, Swiss Red Cross, EPER, Swissaid, Solidar and Fastenopfer.

The ideas and opinions presented on this page do not necessarily represent the ones of the donors.