An Eye to 2030: Making NTD Gains in Kenya Through WASH

Written by Stephen Hilton, Global Water 2020 on behalf of the NTD NGO Network’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Working Group

On World Water Day 2021 (22 March), the World Health Organization officially released its 2021-2030 Global Strategy on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). The Global Strategy is one of several official companion documents to the 2021-2030 NTD road map, which launched in January for World NTD Day 2021 and included, for the first-time, a cross-cutting indicator for WASH that countries must meet by 2030; that is: universal WASH access in all NTD endemic areas.

Today, WHO is celebrating the launch through an online event to catalyse new partnerships and inspire commitments across the WASH and NTD sectors, in terms of funding, policymaking and joint programming. The event features global, regional and national perspectives around successful WASH and NTD collaboration with an eye to 2030, including from Kenya where the Ministry of Health has been a true leader for this important, life-sustaining work.

To mark the launch of the Strategy, Global Water 2020’s Stephen Hilton, on behalf of the NTD NGO Network’s (NNN) WASH Working Group, caught up with Dr. Sultani Hadley Matendechero, Director of Kenya’s Division of Vector Borne and Neglected Tropical Diseases at the Ministry of Health. His department coordinates multi-sectoral programming to control and eliminate NTDs, such as soil-transmitted helminthiasis, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, and trachoma—diseases that remain prevalent throughout Kenya. Dr. Matendechero, who is a pharmacist by profession, has been a strong advocate for providing access to safe WASH services, which is essential for the control, elimination and eradication of all NTDs across the continuum of prevention, treatment, care and morbidity management.