There is a need for improved access to feminine hygiene products and menstrual health education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many girls miss school or drop out due to lack of access to sanitary pads and clean water and sanitation facilities. This perpetuates gender inequalities. Solutions must be tailored to local contexts and needs but should aim to provide sustainable options, education, privacy, and means for women to access necessary products through their own entrepreneurship. Various organizations are working on addressing these issues through approaches like reusable pads and empowering women.

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Menstruation Education:
Feminine Hygiene in Sub-
Saharan Africa
Kaitlyn Sims

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The Problem
 There is a distinct need for ways to have safer, more socially
secure periods in developing nations, particularly those in Sub-
Saharan Africa
 Women and girls can miss multiple days of school or work per
month, causing girls to drop out of school and perpetuating gender
gaps in Sub-Saharan Africa
 Ultimately, this leads to significant educational and economic
inequality for women in African and other developing countries
(“What we do”)
 The combination of lack of access to feminine hygiene products,
social stigma surrounding menstruation, and lack of support from
those in positions of power to help women and girls combat this
issue has made this a global health crisis

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The Need: Clean Water
 290 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to clean
water (“Facts and Statistics”)
 Clean water is required for hand washing and reusable pad or
menstrual cup cleaning
 Over half of the developing world's primary schools don't have
access to water and sanitation facilities. Without toilets, girls often
drop out at puberty (“Facts and Statistics”)
 There was a call by the Water Council to include “menstruation”
and the needs of young girls and women under Goal 6.2 of the
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Spinks, 2015)
 The word was not included in the final set of goals that was approved in
September of 2015(“Sustainable Development,” 2015).

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The Need: Privacy
 Private toilets are a key element in societies where menstruation is
a private, often stigmatized matter
 Only 30 out of 54 schools surveyed had private bathrooms for girls
to use (“Advancing WASH”, 2015)
 In Madagascar, many villages do not have latrines, which can lead
to the spread of diseases like cholera and diarrhea, as well as
furthering problems for women during their menstrual cycles
 Global Sanitation Fund is trying to address women’s menstrual needs in
conjunction with programs to increase the number of open defecation
free (ODF) villages and communities
 Closed-pit latrines with hand-washing facilities allow women privacy
and better sanitation during their periods (Spinks, 2015)

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The Need: Sanitary Products
 Feminine hygiene products are often inaccessible in rural areas
or too expensive
 If they are unable to afford or unable to access pads, girls and
women often use unsanitary substitutes including cloth strips,
pieces of foam, leaves, toilet paper, or banana fibers (“What
We Do”)
 These all put women and girls at significant risk for infections
and can lead to further days of school or work missed

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The Need: A More Sustainable
Option
 Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to have the highest level of
population growth of any region through 2050
 The sanitary product industry is a $15 billion dollar industry
 Currently, 12 billion pads and 7 billion tampons go into landfills
annually (Johnson, 2015)
 Sustainable alternatives to current pads and tampons include:
reusable pads, period underwear, or other innovations
 Reduce future waste of the resources needed to produce and
transport those pads, including paper products and petroleum
 Reduce pressures on landfills

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The Need: A Tailored Solution
 Solutions to the issue of menstrual hygiene must to be carefully
crafted for the women and girls in each region
 For example, in Sierra Leone menstrual cups, tampons, and
reusable pads cannot be used
 90% of women and girls have undergone female genital cutting,
making inserting anything into their bodies incredibly painful
 Virginity is also highly valued, making young girls hesitant to use
these products for fear of reducing their chances of marriage
 Low access to clean water makes reusable pads unsanitary
 Women and girls also expressed a desire to actively work and
engage in business ventures to pay for their pads, rather than
receiving them for free (“Launchpad”)

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What is Being Done
 AfriPads employs Ugandan women to produce affordable,
reusable pads (“What We Do”)
 THINX donates one pair of AfriPads for every pair of THINX
sold (“Break the Menstruation Taboo”)
 LunaPads and DivaCup make donations to similar
organizations for every product purchased
 She 28 gives loans to women to buy machines so that they can
repurpose banana fibers into affordable, disposable pads (“Our
Work”)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKmt7PwYPCY

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What You Can Do
 Support a company that has shown a commitment to
supporting access to clean water and feminine hygiene
products
 Donate
 Encourage the United Nations to address the needs of women
when it comes to menstrual hygiene
 Talk about this problem, and help break down the menstruation
taboo

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References
 "Advancing WASH in Schools Monitoring." UNICEF, 1 Feb. 2015. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
 "Break The Menstruation Taboo | THINX Power Of Purchase." THINX. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
 Cox, John. "How the World’s Populations Are Changing, in One Map." Washington Post. The
Washington Post, 31 Oct. 2013. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
 “Facts and Statistics about Water and Its Effects.” The Water Project. Web. November 8, 2015.
 Johnson, Emma. "Can These Panties Disrupt a $15 Billion Feminine Hygiene Market?" Forbes. Forbes
Magazine, 28 May 2015. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
 "Launchpad: Sanitary Pads That Keep Girls Healthy and in School." LaunchPad. One Girl. Web. 3 Oct.
2015.
 "Our Work - Sustainable Health Enterprises." Sustainable Health Enterprises. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.
 Spinks, Rosie. "Trying To Add The 'M' Word (Menstruation) To The U.N.'s New Goals." NPR. NPR, 25
Sept. 2015. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
 "Sustainable Development Goals." SDGs & Topics: Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform.
United Nations, 2015. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
 "What We Do." AfriPads. Web. 3 Oct. 2015.