Menstrual Hygiene Management in Schools:
A Multi-Setting Approach for Applied Learning and Improved Practice
Project Purpose
The onset of menstruations poses multiple challenges for school-girls: many are uneducated about
menstruation and how to manage it; many girls do not have the support or resources in schools to provide
strategies for coping; and a lack of facilities, water, and soap for cleaning and management may convince girls to
miss or reduce participation in school. There is a need to better understand education impacts of girls who are
menstruating. Few studies have focused on education impacts, like concentration, class participation, and
catching-up after missed classes. The project aims to understand the scope of education impacts and challenges
across settings in order to foster a broad movement towards mitigating challenges posed by menstruation
among adolescent girls.
Moreover, this research program aims to inform a ‘basic package of interventions’ for girls who are
menstruating in school. Using an in-depth qualitative approach, recommended intervention strategies will be
informed by girls themselves and will be tailored to specific cultural and environmental contexts.
This research program will utilize a coherent theoretical and methodological approach in four different
countries: Bolivia, Philippines, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. An in-depth look across these settings will enable
identification of school-specific challenges that are consistent across settings and the development of schoolbased approaches that can be scaled globally.
Project Objectives
The research has three central aims and corresponding activities:
1) To investigate and understand the range of challenges faced by school girls during menstruation—as
well as the determinants of those challenges—across a range of settings and cultural contexts;
2) To compare and contrast the varied challenges and determinants across cultural contexts to identify
points of intervention that may ameliorate the challenges of menstruation for girls in schools;
3) To inform a set of school-based interventions that can be implemented and sustained at scale across a
range of settings.
Project Outputs
1) Reports for Partners: Country-specific reports will be generated for all countries where a research is
conducted.
2) Menstrual Hygiene Management in Schools Report: The MHM in Schools Report will contain chapters
from each of the countries as case studies and synthesis of key issues across all participating study areas.
Key areas of intervention will be recommended. Methods of data collection and tools used will be included
in an appendix.
3) 'Basic Package of School-based Interventions' Model: The 'Basic Package of School-based Interventions'
Model will suggest components of a “one, two, and three star” model for schools to strengthen the
school infrastructure, culture, and activities at school regarding menstrual hygiene management. An
accompanying monitoring tool will be provided to help practitioners, government officials, and teachers
evaluate schools along the model and understand where improvements can be made.
Collaboration and Research Team
This project is a multi-team partnership between researchers at Emory University’s Center for Global Safe
Water (CGSW) and practitioners and policy makers at UNICEF.