Key takeaways
- Strategic advocacy for increased prioritisation and funding is critical to accelerate progress on MHH
- MH Day is the perfect opportunity for strategic advocacy. It’s ideal to engage political decision makers and the media
- Strategic advocacy requires patience. It often takes a long time to get results
Half the world population menstruates for a significant part of their lives. Whether women and girls can manage their periods safely, hygienically, and without shame significantly affects their physical and mental health, educational outcomes, income-earning opportunities, and overall ability to participate in society.
In short: menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) is not a “nice-to-have“, not a “cherry on the cake“, but foundational for the well-being and opportunities of billions of people, and the overall social and economic development of nations.
One should therefore assume that MHH is a global priority, alongside other issues prioritised by means of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But it isn’t. MHH was not included in the SDGs. To date, there is only one foundation who has a dedicated strategy for MHH. MHH is, as our MHH Funding Tracker shows, significantly underfunded. The result of decades of neglect: a staggering 500 million women and girls who face significant challenges every month during their period because they lack the resources, information, and support they need.
This neglect needs to end. That’s why WASH United engages in year-round strategic advocacy for MHH.
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<h2 class="heading-style-h4">What we mean by strategic advocacy</h2>
With strategic advocacy, we mean advocacy vis-à-vis political and other decision-makers and key funders, aimed at increased prioritisation of, and funding for, MHH.
Strategic advocacy comes in many shapes and forms, and includes many different tactics. It can happen in public or behind the scenes. It can mean making decision-makers aware of the importance of MHH, e.g., by highlighting the linkages to issues that are relevant to them, such as girls’ education or overall economic development. It can entail providing technical support to government agencies to inform policies, strategies, and action plans. It can mean engaging parliamentarians and the media around Menstrual Hygiene Day to push Ministries and high-level political decision-makers to step up action on MHH.
One important tool in our strategic advocacy toolbox is organising events. Through events, we create stages where organisations and individual decision-makers position themselves on MHH. This, in turn, provides us and other advocates with a basis to push them to walk the talk. Over the years, our efforts have borne significant fruit, including the integration of MHH in the current Action Plan on Gender Equality of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and increased investment in MHH from actors including the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the World Bank, and USAID.
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<h2 class="heading-style-h4">What’s next: Women Deliver 2026</h2>
The Women Deliver 2026 Conference in Melbourne is the next big milestone in our strategic advocacy work. Women Deliver is the biggest global conference on gender equality, and presents a great opportunity to engage key funders from the gender equality, SRHR, and health spaces to increase the prioritisation of MHH. For that purpose, we are organising a side event called ‘Menstrual health and hygiene: bloody critical for gender equality’. In the event, existing champions – including the Gates Foundation, UNICEF, The Case For Her and Obama Foundation – will share why and how they prioritise MHH. This will hopefully inspire other funders in the room to consider prioritising MHH.
So, please keep your fingers crossed and stay tuned! We’ll give you an update on how Women Deliver 2026 went right after the conference.
