A school without water or private toilets is a school that girls struggle to attend, especially during menstruation. RFLD’s policy brief, Women, Water and Article 15 of the Maputo Protocol, gives particular attention to water in schools. This article looks at the figures for sub-Saharan Africa and at the countries that are starting to act.
Schools in sub-Saharan Africa
The WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme published its report on water and sanitation in schools in 2024, with a special focus on menstrual health. For sub-Saharan Africa in 2023, it found that only 45% of schools had basic drinking water. That is the lowest figure of all world regions.
Half of the region’s schools (50%) had basic sanitation. Only 37% had basic hygiene services. The global averages were far higher, at 77% for basic water and 78% for basic sanitation.
Menstrual health in the classroom
UNICEF’s “10 Fast Facts” on menstrual health in schools, released in May 2024, show how little support girls receive. In sub-Saharan Africa:
- only 1 in 10 schools (11%) have bins for menstrual waste;
- only 1 in 8 schools (12%) provide menstrual materials.
Globally, only 2 in 5 schools (39%) provide menstrual health education. Only 30 countries have nationally representative data on the main menstrual health indicators. The gap in data mirrors the gap in services.
The consequences are clear. The Joint Monitoring Programme’s 2025 report found that girls aged 15 to 19 are less likely than adult women to take part in school or work during menstruation.
What African standards say
The African Commission’s Guidelines on the Right to Water in Africa, adopted in 2019, address schools directly. Guideline 21.2 calls for separate sanitation facilities for girls and boys in schools. The preface describes water for menstrual hygiene as “a necessary precondition for the right to education of women and girls”.
The African Children’s Charter, Article 14(2)(c), commits States to “ensure the provision of adequate nutrition and safe drinking water” for children. The Maputo Protocol’s Article 15 covers women and girls. Together, these texts leave no doubt that water in schools is a legal duty.
2026 brought fresh attention. The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child chose universal access to water and sanitation for every child in Africa as the theme of the Day of the African Child. In March, the African Commission adopted Resolution 658, which launches work on Guidelines on the Right to Sanitation in Africa with a specific focus on women and girls.
Countries that are acting
Several countries in RFLD’s network offer examples:
Ghana budgeted GH¢292.4 million in its 2025 Budget, read on 11 March 2025, for free sanitary pads for girls from Primary 5 to Senior High School. The programme was launched in Accra on 24 April 2025. It has become a reference point in West Africa.
Niger built menstrual health into its water and sanitation sector programme, ProSEHA 2016 to 2030. It uses two national indicators: pupils’ access to menstrual hygiene equipment, and access in health facilities.
Senegal set up an inter-ministerial platform on menstrual health under the Ministry of Water and Sanitation. Côte d’Ivoire adopted a national reference guide on menstrual health in 2019.
Cameroon, with UNICEF support, provided sanitation facilities in 109 public schools between 2022 and 2025, reaching over 82,000 pupils. Over the same period, 3,457 women and adolescent girls received guidance on menstrual hygiene.
The scale of need remains large. A 2021 regional symposium on menstrual health in West and Central Africa, organised by UNICEF and UNFPA, reported that about USD 36.5 million had gone into menstrual health and hygiene in the region since 2012. In Nigeria, the 2021 WASH-NORM survey found that only 16% of schools had basic WASH services.
What RFLD recommends
The brief asks States to make every school and every health facility a safe place for women and girls. That means water, separate and lockable toilets, menstrual facilities and lighting. It asks the African Commission to make sure that the new Guidelines on the Right to Sanitation address menstrual health, through open consultations with women’s organisations in all regions.
World Toilet Day, on 19 November 2026, is one moment in RFLD’s advocacy calendar to push for these changes. Read the summary of the brief for the full set of recommendations.
About the report
This article draws on RFLD’s report Women, Water and Article 15 of the Maputo Protocol, published on 4 October 2026. Read the summary, download the English edition or the French edition.
