Sustainable, Safe and Universal Water, Sanitation, Hygiene, Waste and Electricity Services in Health-Care Facilities

A/RES/78/130View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 125 Global health and foreign policy, published in 2023.

What subjects does this mandate have?

6 subjects

Electricity Health Centres Health Services Sanitation Services Waste Management Water Supply

What’s in this document?

13 operative paragraphs

Encourages all Member States to integrate water, sanitation, hygiene, waste and electricity in health-care facilities and to mainstream these efforts, as appropriate, into national health planning, programming, financing, monitoring and evaluation, and to empower the health workforce to demand, appropriately use and maintain such services, in accordance with national standards and contexts, including by:

Facilitating cross-sectoral engagement through intersectoral task forces, joint sector reviews and joint planning and funding;

Establishing, updating and implementing, according to national context, standards for safe, sustainable water, sanitation, hygiene, health-care waste, electricity and infection prevention and control, taking into consideration the impact of extreme events on health-care settings and integrating such standards into accreditation and regulation systems; and establishing accountability mechanisms to follow up on their efforts to reinforce standards and practice;

Developing, resourcing and implementing national road maps, so that every health-care facility can have and maintain safe and sustainable water and sanitation supplies, hygiene services and practices, waste management, and electricity services for all;

Ensuring adequate budgets and resourcing for water, sanitation, hygiene, waste and electricity services for all facilities across all relevant sectors, including for operation, maintenance and workforce capacity-building, with regular tracking and reporting;

Integrating harmonized water, sanitation, hygiene, waste and electricity indicators into national monitoring and evaluation systems, and regularly collecting, analysing, reviewing and disseminating data findings at the national level;

Developing and capacitating structures to enable local and national coordination mechanisms, where relevant, for the provision of water, sanitation, hygiene, waste and electricity services, including by engaging community health workers in supporting such efforts and linking between hygiene practices in health-care facilities;

Invites international and regional organizations, international and regional financial institutions and development agencies engaged in the provision of water, sanitation, hygiene, waste and electricity support, as appropriate, to enhance the coordination of their strategies and engage with the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund as the co-coordinators of global efforts on water, sanitation, hygiene, waste and electricity in health-care facilities alongside other core partners continuing to increase data coverage through the inclusion of global indicators in facility and programme surveys;

Urges Member States to strengthen international cooperation to support efforts to finance, build, strengthen and maintain capacity in developing countries to improve water, sanitation, hygiene, waste and electricity services in health-care facilities;

Recognizes that health financing requires global solidarity and collective effort, and urges Member States to strengthen international cooperation to support efforts to build and strengthen capacity in developing countries, including through enhanced official development assistance and financial and technical support and support to research, development and innovation programmes;

Encourages all relevant entities of the United Nations system to promote the optimum use of resources and to support developing countries, at their request, in the acceleration of efforts to improve water, sanitation, hygiene, waste and electricity in health-care facilities;

Requests the Secretary-General, in close collaboration with the Director General of the World Health Organization and the Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund, as well as core partners such as the World Bank and other relevant organizations, to strengthen and support, as appropriate, within their mandates, the existing global initiatives co-led by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund, to provide assistance to Member States, upon their request, towards the achievement of universal, safe, sustainable water, sanitation, hygiene, waste and electricity services in health-care facilities as a core measure to achieve universal health coverage, primary health care and the related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals;¹¹

¹¹See resolution 70/1.

Also requests the Secretary-General to provide, in consultation with the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund and other relevant international organizations, within existing resources, a progress report on the implementation of the present resolution in 2025 during the seventy-ninth session of the General Assembly, which will serve to inform States and the United Nations development system, and in this context invites all States to contribute to the report of the Secretary-General, including by providing data through the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund Joint Monitoring Programme on water, sanitation and hygiene in health-care facilities.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents