Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor
We have been involved with Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) since it was established in 2004. WSUP is a tri-sector partnership between the private sector, civil society and academia. It focuses on addressing the increasing global problem of inadequate access to water and sanitation for the urban poor and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goal targets, particularly those relating to water and sanitation.
We are working in partnership with design agency IDEO and WSUP on a domestic sanitation project. We launched an open challenge on IDEO’s online community website, OpenIdeo.com, to encourage participants to submit ideas about how to tackle domestic sanitation in resource-poor settings. IDEO aims to bring together people and ideas about what people need, and what is technologically and economically viable.
The online challenge managed to gather 122 inspirations in just three weeks and eight final concepts at the end of the two month challenge. The final results of the challenge were announced in January 2011. The ideas generated will inform future pilots and prototypes as we test different systems.
The online challenge ran in parallel with a project team working on the ground in Kumasi, Ghana. The team brought together all the ideas and insights to identify overarching themes to inform the next stage of the project, which is to conceive, and then develop and deploy the solutions to sanitation and waste management challenges. The team is reporting back on what people need via Tweets and this blog.
One of the solutions being developed with IDEO and WSUP is to produce a domestic toilet and emptying service for households without connection to mains sewers or an installed septic tank. These toilets will probably be hired by communities or families, with franchised local operators providing the necessary servicing, such as emptying the toilets. We will run a pilot project in Kumasi, Ghana in 2011 to find out how the system will work best for the community and how to tailor the model to serve millions of the poor in developing countries.
International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene
Unilever is a founding sponsor of the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene (IFH) which was set up in 1997 to promote health and well-being through improved hygiene in the home and the community. IFH is a not-for-profit NGO which works with health professionals, government agencies and public health scientists to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases by better home hygiene. Its scientific material is available to all online.
IFH has developed a new approach to hygiene in the home and community known as ‘targeted hygiene’. This aims to break the chain of infection transmission at critical points, before germs spread any further, rather than relying on unfocused cleaning, however thorough. Hygiene is recognised as a cost-effective means to reduce the burden of infectious diseases within the European Union (EU), and protecting health by preventing infection is a more sustainable approach than treatment.
Increased care of people in their homes (rather than in hospitals) is one approach to reducing health spending, but for this to be effective, it must take account of the fact that gains might be undermined by inadequate infection control at home. Our homecare products such as Domestos (bleach-based cleaners) and Glorix (surface and bathroom cleaners) are designed to provide solutions for everyday hygiene needs in homes across the world. We seek to educate consumers on the correct use of products in order to protect themselves and their families.
Unilever commissioned IFH to review targeted hygiene as a possible framework for a sustainable approach to hygiene. IFH’s report, published in March 2010, was shared with the EU and industry groups.
In a study sponsored by Hindustan Unilever, IFH published a report on the risks and benefits of using mud or ash for hand washing, rather than soap – a practice that is common in low-income developing countries. The report concluded that mud and ash are more effective than water alone, but less effective than soap.
Other projects include a report on the global burden of hygiene-related infectious disease, and a briefing document on the Influenza A(H1N1) virus which we used during the influenza outbreak to provide guidance and practical advice to consumers through our Domestos websites and carelines.
British Skin Foundation
Comfort Pure works with many baby experts such as the National Childbirth Trust and its research into skin care is supported by the British Skin Foundation (BSF).
Working closely with the British Association of Dermatologists, patient support groups and many of the country's leading dermatology departments, the BSF is the only charity dedicated to supporting dermatologists and skin science.
To support their own research, companies and brands (such as Comfort Pure) approach the British Skin Foundation for an independent view. BSF dermatologists visit these companies’ laboratories, discuss skin health issues with their scientists and are given full access to product research and data.
A product carrying the BSF logo means that the British Skin Foundation has independently approved the research that has gone into it.