Online course Public and Environmental Health in Emergencies

This course aims to instruct participants on how to critically design WASH responses to humanitarian crises while focusing on protecting public health.

This will be achieved through:

• An overview of the basics of environmental health and epidemiology
• An in-depth description of WASH approaches, including technical interventions, hygiene promotion and behaviour change, community engagement
• The design of an evidence-based and people-centred phased approach to humanitarian WASH interventions.

The learning objectives are to:

• Explain the link between public health and the environment in the WASH sector
• Select context-appropriate WASH interventions in emergencies, including health care facilities
• Analyse public health data/sources during different phases of a humanitarian crisis to assess the progression/regression of public health outcomes
• Design an adequate WASH response (incl. hygiene promotion and behaviour change programmes) during the different phases of a humanitarian crisis focusing on public health outcomes

Syudy subjects include:

• Introduction to WASH and public health in emergencies
• Design a WASH response to reduce risks of public health emergencies or to respond to public health crises
• Epidemiology in emergencies
• WASH approaches in response to disease outbreaks in emergency contexts
• WASH in health care facilities