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Good practice Imported

Dignity Kits for Menstrual Hygiene Management — UNICEF/UMCOR Response in Aweil, South Sudan

South Sudan · Aweil · See the South Sudan profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 80% 37/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

UNICEF and UMCOR distributed reusable dignity kits with menstrual supplies to 18,863 schoolgirls across 476 schools in Aweil, South Sudan, while a national WASH assessment of 4,159 schools found only 19% with working toilets had menstrual-hygiene facilities.

18863 girls
Girls reached with dignity kits
476 schools
Schools covered
3 months
Project duration
40 %
Schools with no toilets (Aug-Dec 2020)
33 %
Schools with a functioning handwashing facility (Aug-Dec 2020)
19 % (316 schools)
Schools with working toilets that had menstrual-hygiene components (Aug-Dec 2020)
4159 schools
Schools surveyed by GESS (Aug-Dec 2020)

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
UNICEF South Sudan with UMCOR South Sudan, nested under Girls' Education South Sudan (GESS)
Period
2019 (kit distribution); GESS WASH assessment Aug-Dec 2020; GESS Phase 2 2019-2024
Keywords
menstrual health, period poverty, girls' education, WASH, humanitarian response

Context

South Sudan has some of the weakest school water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure in the world after decades of conflict, and girls frequently miss school during menstruation because of stigma, unaffordable sanitary products and a lack of private facilities.

Activities

Over a three-month project centred on Aweil Town, UMCOR South Sudan partnered with UNICEF to distribute reusable 'dignity kits' — sanitary supplies, soap and underwear — paired with a hygiene-education session, to 18,863 teenage girls across 476 schools.

Results

A government-led Girls' Education South Sudan (GESS) assessment, funded by UK aid and Global Affairs Canada, surveyed 4,159 of the country's roughly 5,500 schools between August and December 2020. It found 40% had no toilets at all, only 33% had a functioning handwashing facility, and of schools with working toilets just 19% (316 schools) had any menstrual-hygiene components such as disposal bins or soap. About a quarter of targeted schools could not be surveyed due to insecurity. The kit-distribution reach figures come from the implementing partner's own reporting; no independent evaluation links the distribution to attendance or dropout outcomes, and only individual testimonials are available.

Conclusions

This is best read as a short-term humanitarian response layered onto a large, still largely unaddressed systemic WASH and menstrual-hygiene gap, not a nationally scaled or independently evaluated programme.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Short (< 1 year)
Staffing & skills
UMCOR South Sudan as implementing partner, working under UNICEF South Sudan, nested within the Girls' Education South Sudan (GESS) programme

Conditions for success

  • Pairing physical kit distribution (sanitary supplies, soap, underwear) with a hygiene-education session
  • Building menstrual-hygiene-management components (disposal bins, soap) into school toilets, as recommended by the GESS WASH assessment

Common failure modes

  • Reach figures rely solely on the implementing partner's own reporting, with no independent evaluation linking distribution to attendance or dropout outcomes
  • Short three-month project duration with no documented ongoing or scaled follow-on
  • About a quarter of targeted schools could not be assessed for baseline WASH conditions due to insecurity

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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