Innovations for Poverty Action organized a Stakeholders’ forum focusing on sharing learnings from the Soapy Water Handwashing Stations pilot study. The forum was organized within IPA’s strategic objective to organically inform policy and programming with rigorous research findings.

The focus of this forum was to: present results from the Soapy Water Handwashing Stations (SWHWS) willingness to pay and school pilot studies, and to share the next steps and scale up plans of the study. The key areas addressed by this pilot study include; the feasibility, durability, and community acceptance of the SWHWS PovuPoa handwashing stations. These research findings are key in supporting and promoting the future expansion of cost-effective handwashing solutions in different contexts.

This forum brought together researchers, policy makers, and different actors in the field of water, sanitation and hygiene, to reflect on the impact of innovative human centered handwashing systems. 

Research dissemination and continuous iteration of innovative handwashing technologies are critical to the success of evidence-based health policies and programming in Kenya. This event presented an opportunity for implementing and research partners to consider the impact and relevance that these learning and networking forums have to offer in the design of future national and county health strategies and to shape future research agendas.