Humanitarian WASH Coordination

Currently, more than 134 million people worldwide need humanitarian aid and, according to UNHCR, more than 60 million people flee due to crises and disasters. Many of them suffer from inadequate access to water, sanitation and hygiene. As a result, approximately 1.7 million people die every year in the aftermath of dangerous diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera and typhoid fever.

Focus

Since 2015 and on behalf of the WASH network, German Toilet Organization (GTO) started implementing programmes of the Federal Foreign Office's strategy for humanitarian aid in the areas of water, sanitation and hygiene. The focal points of this commitment are:

• strengthening international coordination and the WASH Cluster System
• supporting political processes such as the Grand Bargain
• promoting the localisation of humanitarian aid
• introducing market-based approaches and cash transfer programs
• integrating humanitarian aid and development cooperation

GTO is closely linked to the Global WASH Cluster (GWC) as a hub for the coordination of German humanitarian actors in the field of WASH: GTO actively participates in GWC working groups and organized the Annual GWC Meeting 2018 in Berlin.