WHO is seeking proposals from institutions for the retrieval, synthesis and evaluation of evidence on hand hygiene in community settings.
Interested institutions are asked in the first instance to submit a short one paragraph expression of interest by e-mail by Monday 22 August. Full application details can be found within the requests for proposals linked below.
Background
Hand hygiene is critical for public health protection, but in most low- and-middle income countries (LMICs) many people lack access to minimum requirements for practicing it[1], and in all regions of the world the practice of hand hygiene at critical moments is often limited[2],[3].
In response to increased demand for policy guidance on this issue in recent years, and under its mandate to address demand for guidance on areas of public health, the WHO is developing Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Community Settings. The guidelines will provide evidence-based recommendations to governments on how to improve hand hygiene in community settings, focusing on areas of persistent uncertainty or controversy in what constitutes effective hand hygiene and what government measures can be implemented to rapidly improve it. For the purposes of the guidelines, ‘community settings’ are defined as domestic (e.g. households), public (e.g. plazas and squares, parks, marketplaces, shopping areas and transportation hubs), and institutional (e.g. schools, prisons and places of detention, workplaces and places of worship).
WHO follows internationally-recognized methods and standards for guideline development to ensure that its guidelines are of the highest quality. A critical step in the guideline development process is retrieval, synthesis and evaluation of available evidence on questions of interest, to underpin the formulation of recommendations.
Questions requiring systematic retrieval, synthesis and evaluation of evidence have been identified under four priority topics:
- What constitutes effective hand hygiene?
- What are the minimum requirements for effective hand hygiene practice?
- What behaviour change approaches are conducive to sustained adoption of effective hand hygiene practice?
- What government measures can support sustained practice of effective hand hygiene?
Under each of these topics, questions have been identified that relate to areas of controversy or uncertainty in existing global guidance, respond to WHO Member State demand, and are not already covered in existing systematic reviews.
Teams are welcome to bid for multiple RFPs.
Requests for proposals:
Request for Proposal (RFP) for the retrieval, synthesis and evaluation of evidence on what constitutes effective hand hygiene and what are minimum requirements for its practice in community settings. This request for proposals (RFP) is for the retrieval, synthesis and evaluation of evidence on sub-questions relating to priority topics 1 and 2 (see background section above). Download the request for proposal
Request for Proposal (RFP) for the retrieval, synthesis and evaluation of evidence on what behaviour change approaches are conducive to sustained adoption of effective hand hygiene practice in community settings. This request for proposals (RFP) is for the retrieval, synthesis and evaluation of evidence on sub-questions relating to priority topic 3 (see background section above). Download the request for proposal
Request for Proposal (RFP) for the retrieval, synthesis and evaluation of evidence on what government measures can support sustained practice of effective hand hygiene in community settings. This request for proposals (RFP) is for the retrieval, synthesis and evaluation of evidence on sub-questions relating to priority topic 4 (see background section above). Download the request for proposal
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[1] Prüss-Ustün, A., Wolf, J., Bartram, J., Clasen, T., Cumming, O., Freeman, M.C., Gordon, B., Hunter, P.R., Medlicott, K. and Johnston, R., 2019. Burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene for selected adverse health outcomes: an updated analysis with a focus on low-and middle-income countries. International journal of hygiene and environmental health, 222(5), pp.765-777
[2] Wolf, J., Johnston, R., Freeman, M.C., Ram, P.K., Slaymaker, T., Laurenz, E. and Prüss-Ustün, A., 2019. Handwashing with soap after potential faecal contact: global, regional and country estimates. International journal of epidemiology, 48(4), pp.1204-1218
[3] Freeman, M.C., Stocks, M.E., Cumming, O., Jeandron, A., Higgins, J.P., Wolf, J., Prüss‐Ustün, A., Bonjour, S., Hunter, P.R., Fewtrell, L. and Curtis, V., 2014. Systematic review: hygiene and health: systematic review of handwashing practices worldwide and update of health effects. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 19(8), pp.906-916