Established in 2010 with funding from the UK Department for International Development, the Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity (SHARE) Consortium seeks to contribute to achieving universal access to effective, sustainable and equitable sanitation and hygiene by generating, synthesising and translating evidence to improve policy and practice worldwide. 

Our work has never been timelier. Recent estimates suggest that despite great progress since the dawn of the millennium, 2.4 billion people still lack access to improved sanitation. The dearth of this basic human right can have a profound effect on individuals’ health, wellbeing and livelihoods, and this is reflected in the new priority given to ‘adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all’ in the evolving Sustainable Development Goals framework.

Since our inception, we have developed research and synthesis on sanitation and hygiene that has contributed to changes in policy and practice at the national and global levels. These have resulted in changes in sector investments, intervention approaches, and applied research by others, resulting in health, economic and development benefits. We have successfully championed neglected research topics within the sector and we are proud to see some early areas of research developing into scalable and sustainable approaches.