Author: Charles Ogu
Clean hands can save lives but are we doing enough to make this simple act accessible and achievable for every person, everywhere? On Global Handwashing Day 2025, Ducit Blue Solutions calls attention to the critical role of innovative hand hygiene in advancing healthcare quality and patient safety. In a world where nearly two billion people still lack access to basic handwashing facilities, hand hygiene is both a global challenge and a gateway to healthier futures.1
Why Global Handwashing Day Matters
Global Handwashing Day, marked every October 15th, is a worldwide advocacy event highlighting the importance of hand hygiene in preventing illnesses and promoting wellbeing. The campaign, themed “Be a handwashing hero,” emphasises that everyone from children to decision-makers can champion clean hands. Good hand hygiene, using soap or alcohol-based rubs, can reduce transmission of diseases and bring broad social and economic benefits. 10
The Unfinished Work: Data and Impact
The need is urgent: an estimated 2 billion people worldwide cannot wash their hands with soap and water at home, and one-third of health facilities lack hand hygiene resources .6 In low- and middle-income countries, only 9% of healthcare workers in critical units comply with recommended hand hygiene practices compared to 64.5% in high-income settings.10 Unhygienic conditions contribute to high rates of healthcare-associated infections, with up to 15 out of every 100 patients in acute-care hospitals in resource-constrained regions contracting illnesses during their stay. 8
Proper handwashing can reduce diarrheal diseases by 30% and acute respiratory infections by 20%, directly improving population health and lowering death rates from preventable diseases.3 The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted handwashing’s life-saving potential but also exposed persistent gaps in access and behavior.
Challenges to handwashing in Africa and Practical recommendations
Despite being one of the most cost-effective public-health measures, handwashing with soap remains unevenly practiced across Africa because of gaps in infrastructure, supplies, behaviour, finance and governance. Closing those gaps requires coordinated action that combines low-cost hardware, reliable supply chains, behaviour-change design and routine measurement.6
A. Lack of functional handwashing facilities
Millions of households either have no handwashing station or have one without soap or water. In 2022 globally, 75% had a basic facility but 17% had facilities missing water or soap and 8% had none, gaps concentrated in low-resource settings including many African countries. 6
Recommendations
Promote affordable, locally appropriate handwashing stations (e.g., pedal basins), combined with subsidies or vouchers for the poorest households. Link installation to local micro-entrepreneurs who supply and maintain stations. Monitor with household spot checks.
B. Irregular or unaffordable soap supply
Even when a station exists, soap may be absent due to cost, market disruption or prioritization of other household needs. Studies show ‘no soap available’ is a common reason for non-compliance. 4
Recommendation:
Support local social enterprises and women-led microbusinesses to produce low-cost soap; use bulk procurement for schools/clinics and conditional cash transfers or social marketing to ensure sustained purchase. Link to school procurement contracts to create predictable demand.
C. Behaviour & social norms (habit formation)
Knowledge alone doesn’t guarantee practice. Cultural norms, time pressure, alternative priorities, and lack of cues reduce routine handwashing at critical times. Behavioural interventions that use nudges, child-focused school programs and social marketing work best when combined with supply.12
Recommendation:
Implement integrated behaviour-change programs using formative research, nudges (visual cues, songs), school curricula and community champions. Pair messaging with visible improvements in infrastructure so residents can act on the message.
Innovation and Advocacy: Ducit Blue Solutions’ Approach
Ducit Blue Solutions, with its vision of world-class healthcare solutions, integrates innovation, research, and advocacy to overcome barriers to hand hygiene. Recall that, the organisation has undertaken health campaigns teaching proper handwashing techniques at health care facilities and co-creating “tippy taps” in schools and communities, providing locally-relevant solutions to facilitate regular handwashing. 2
Innovation is key, portable sinks like the “HappyTap,” creative community engagement, and context-driven R&D have transformed hand hygiene promotion in resource-limited environments. Ducit Blue Solutions draws from these advances, developing products and strategies tailored to the realities of underserved markets, from urban clinics to rural households, whilst advocating for sustainable solutions to address gaps identified.
Scaling Change Through Partnership
Sustainable impact requires cross-sector collaboration. Ducit Blue Solutions partners with governments, global organisations, and local stakeholders to strengthen Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) infrastructure, embed hand hygiene in health worker training, and advocate for inclusive health policies. By making hand hygiene a cornerstone of quality improvement and patient safety, it catalyzes progress toward universal health coverage and resilient health systems.
The Road Ahead: Call to Action
Achieving universal hand hygiene is a collective responsibility. As Ducit Blue Solutions marks Global Handwashing Day, the organisation calls for renewed investment, disruptive innovation, and bold advocacy because clean hands should be within everyone’s reach.
References
- (JMP), W. J. (2025). Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in households 2000-2025: special focus on gender and bathing. Retrieved from UNICEF DATA.
- DBS. (2023). Health Promotion Campaigns. Retrieved from Ducit Blue: https://www.ducitblue.com/health-promotion-campaigns/
- Ejemot-Nwadiaro, R. I. (2021). Hand-washing promotion for preventing diarrhoea. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews.
- Endalew, M. B. (2022). Limited handwashing facility and associated factors in sub-Saharan Africa: Pooled prevalence and multilevel analysis of 29 sub-Saharan Africa countries from Demographic and Health Survey data. BMC Public Health.
- UNICEF. (2023). Fact sheet: Global Handwashing Day. Retrieved from UNICEF: https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/fact-sheet-global-handwashing-day-unicef-warns-3-10-people-do-not-have-basic
- UNICEF. (2023). Progress on Household Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene 2000-2022: Special Focus on Gender . Retrieved from UNICEF Data: www.data.unicef.org/resources/jmp-report-2023/
- UNICEF, &. W. (2021). State of the World’s Hand Hygiene. UNICEF and WHO.
- WHO. (2022). Global report on infection prevention and control: executive summary.
- WHO. (2023). Monitoring water, sanitation and hygiene. Retrieved from World Health Organization (WHO): https://www.who.int/teams/environment-climate-change-and-health/water-sanitation-and-health/monitoring-and-evidence/wash-monitoring
- WHO. (2025). Retrieved from World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/teams/integrated-health-services/infection-prevention-control/hand-hygiene
- WHO&UNICEF. (2025). Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Community Settings. World Health Organization (WHO).
- Yetunde Ataiyero, J. D. (2023). The barriers and facilitators to hand hygiene practices in Nigeria: A qualitative study. American Journal of Infection Control
