In November 2010, WaterAid hosted a Roundtable Meeting on Menstrual Hygiene Management with support from SHARE (www.shareresearch.org). This meeting involved participants from WaterAid, WSSCC, UNICEF, LSHTM, LJMU, WEDC and Columbia University. The briefing note from the meeting is here: www.wateraid.org/documents/plugin_docume...t__briefing_note.pdf

At the meeting participants shared their experiences of MHM involving research, implementation and advocacy. We then explored the critical gaps in knowledge that need to be addressed so that the case for menstrual hygiene can be more powerfully made to influence the sector, and convince those in the related fields of reproductive health and education, that menstrual hygiene is a key development priority.

Although there is a need for more robust evidence on impacts, another critical gap identified by the group was that information on successful MHM approaches is not easily accessible to practitioners who are looking to integrate MHM into their programmes. Existing information is scattered and there is no comprehensive resource to provide guidance on what works in different contexts that would encourage the replication of successful MHM approaches by others.

WaterAid is currently undertaking research as part of the SHARE initiative to develop guidelines for practitioners. The main objective is that, successful approaches to MHM in developing countries (mainly in Africa and Asia) are collected, reviewed and synthesised and made accessible to practitioners for replication in different contexts.

We'd be very interested to hear about any guidelines that have been developed by others or documentation of approaches.

Therese
(Regional Programme Manager South Asia - WaterAid)