WASH Officer

Analysis of data that includes two variables. It generally implies looking for relationships between the two variables. For example, whether sex and education are related or whether the practice of hand washing with soap is related to either sex or education.

Lack of improved sanitation is a global crisis directly impacting the health, education, productivity and economic status of a household and often becoming the catalyst towards propelling a family out of poverty.

Improved sanitation and hygiene education will speed the achievement of all MDG's, helping eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child-mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV and AIDS; malaria and other diseases; as well as ensure environmental sustainability.

The first challenge for most countries is to define what sanitation really means. The second challenge is to decide what aspects are most important. Sanitation as a whole is a "big idea" covering everything from safe collection, and disposal of human excreta (faeces and urine); to the management of solid wastes (trash or rubbish.) Each community, region or country must understand the most sensible and cost-effective way of thinking about sanitation, both in the short and long term, then establish appropriate national plans and priorities, and last but not least - implement!

The main objective of a sanitation system is to protect and promote human health by providing a clean environment and breaking the cycle of disease. In order to be sustainable a sanitation system has to not only be economically viable, socially acceptable and technically and institutionally appropriate, but it should also protect the environment and natural resources.

A measure that indicates whether items that are presumably part of a scale measure the same construct. It usually measures whether several items that propose to measure the same general construct would produce the same results. Internal consistency scores range from 0 to 1. An acceptable reliability score ranges from 0.65 to 0.70. Internal consistency scores of 0.95 or higher would mean that the items are redundant. Analysis may permit dropping items to obtain acceptable internal consistency scores.

WASH is foundational to our development model as an organization. When we work with communities to help them become self-sustaining, water, sanitation, and hygiene are some of the first things we look at and the first programs we implement. These elements need to be in place for education, health, and economic development to work.