Hand Hygiene for All Global Initiative

The Hand Hygiene for All Global Initiative aims to implement WHO’s global recommendations on hand hygiene to prevent and control the COVID-19 pandemic and work to ensure lasting infrastructure and behavior. It calls for countries to lay out comprehensive roadmaps to ensure hand hygiene is a mainstay beyond the pandemic. It also proposes a framework for coordination and collaboration among global and regional partners, with the primary aim of supporting and growing country-led efforts and investments. The Global Initiative is designed around three stages: Responding to the immediate pandemic, Rebuilding infrastructure and services, and Reimagining hand hygiene in society. Each stage has three core dimensions: creating an institutional and policy environment that enables progress, ensuring the availability of hand hygiene stations, alcohol-based hand rubs, soap and water, and drawing on evidence-based behavior change approaches to encourage sustained hand hygiene practices.