All households in the world’s 46 least developed countries could have handwashing facilities by 2030 if the world invested less than US$1 per person per year, in hand hygiene.

This would provide basic protection against diseases, avert future outbreaks and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths.

The 2021 State of The World’s Hand Hygiene report launched today on Global Handwashing Day by WHO and UNICEF, highlights that an annual cost to governments of promoting handwashing with soap at home comes to just 2.5 per cent of the average government health expenditure in these countries — making it a highly cost-effective investment, providing outsized health benefits for relatively little cost. 

The report brings together dispersed data sets on hand hygiene access and underlying national policies and investments to highlight lagging progress; and calls member states and supporting agencies to action, offering numerous inspiring examples of change.  

Hand hygiene, one of the first lines of defence against the spread of infectious diseases, remains out of reach for billions of people who still lack hand hygiene facilities at home, school, or health care facilities. 

Globally, 3 in 10 people, or 2.3 billion, lack a handwashing facility with water and soap at home; 818 million children lack a handwashing facility with soap and water at school in 2020, and health workers in 1 in 3 healthcare facilities lack hand hygiene facilities at the points at which they provide care — placing them all at preventable risk of disease even at the best of times. Almost 2 billion people depend on health care facilities that don’t even have basic water services. 

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