My WEDC

Gateway to managing your resources and events

Water Engineering and Development Centre

Equity and Inclusion in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

*Latest*

Specific themes

General Inclusion resources

Learning materials


WEDC Conference papers

Click on the links below to view selections of papers from WEDC International Conferences, with a particular focus. Most recent papers are listed first.


Essential reading

This list is regularly updated but please let us know if there is a document that should be added.

Compendium of accessible WASH technologies – low-cost options, for use at community level in rural sub-Saharan Africa. To access a full library of images see WaterAid's Compendium page.

Disability: Making CLTS Fully Inclusive
For French and Portuguese versions go to the Community-led Total Sanitation website

Mainstreaming disability and ageing in water, sanitation and hygiene programmes
A mapping study carried out for WaterAid UK

Inclusive WASH – What does it look like?
Checklist for WASH practitioners | en français | en español

Water and sanitation for all – article in Municipal Engineer – Themed issue on Diversity & Inclusion.

Infrastructure for All: Meeting the needs of both men and women in development projects. A practical guide for engineers, technicians and project managers. Reed, B., Coates, S., & Parry-Jones, S. (2007) WEDC.

Developing Engineers and Technicians: Notes on giving guidance to engineers and technicians on how infrastructure can meet the needs of men and women. Reed, B. & Coates, S. (2007) WEDC.

Water and sanitation for disabled people and other vulnerable groups: designing services to improve accessibility. Jones, H. & Reed, R.A. (2005) WEDC.

Inclusive design of school latrines: how much does it cost and who benefits? Jones, H. (2011) WEDC Briefing Note #1.

Inclusive design for WASH services – An annotated bibliography (categorises and describes over 50 documents related to access to WASH for women and girls, disabled adults and children, and schoolchildren).

Inclusive WASH and disability (adapted from the above but focuses on access for disabled people).

Women and girls in WASH

FISHER, J. (2008) Women in water supply, sanitation and hygiene programmes, Municipal Engineer, 161 (ME4), 223-229.

FISHER, J. (2006) For Her It's the Big Issue, Water Supply and Collaborative Council/UNICEF.

FISHER, J. (2006) What is good for women is good for all. WELL Briefing Note, 25, WEDC, Loughborough

FISHER, J. (2004) The Gender Millennium Development Goal. What water, sanitation and hygiene can do. WELL Briefing Note, 4, WEDC, Loughborough

Menstrual hygiene and perimenopause management

Bhakta, A., Fisher, J. and Reed, B.J. (2014) WASH for the perimenopause in low-income countries: changing women, concealed knowledge? 37th WEDC International Conference, Hanoi, Vietnam

De Lange, R., Lenglet, A., Fesselet, J.F., Gartley, M., Altyev, M., Fisher, J. and Shanks, A. (2014) Keeping it simple: a gender-specific sanitation tool for emergencies , Waterlines 33, 1, 45-54

Crofts, T. and Fisher, J. (2012) Menstrual Hygiene in Ugandan schools: Investigating Low-Cost Sanitary Pads , The Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 2, 1, 50-58

CROFTS, T. (2010) Will they cotton on? An investigation into schoolgirls' use of low-cost sanitary pads in Uganda Unpublished MSc, WEDC, Loughborough

Solid waste management and women

Obadina, A., Fisher, J. and Sohail, M. (2015) Informal waste workers on Lagos dumpsites: analysis of gender difference in sources of livelihood. 38th WEDC International Conference, Loughborough, UK

Obadina, O A, and Fisher, J. (2014) Socio-economic demography of waste workers on Lagos dumpsites: analysis of gender differences. 37th WEDC International Conference, Hanoi, Vietnam