The National Capital District Provincial Health Authority (NCDPHA) has signed a Terms of Reference (ToR) with WaterAid Papua New Guinea, working in partnership to implement the “WaSH Improvement for Maternal Health” project currently underway across NCD.
The signing ceremony marks the continuation of long-standing support provided by WaterAid to the NCDPHA, an organization well-established in the healthcare and infrastructure landscape.
WaterAid PNG Country Director Annemarie Paul explained that while WaterAid’s portfolio spans three core platforms including health, schools, and communities, this specific collaboration focuses heavily on one of the organization’s key deliverables: Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WaSH) in public health.
According to Ms. Paul, this initiative builds on a recent foundation laid out when WaterAid began providing targeted support to the Government of Papua New Guinea through the National Department of Health (NDoH), with a primary focus on the NCDPHA through the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in Maternal Health (WIMH) project.
“We are not new in this space,” Ms. Paul noted, highlighting that WaterAid has collaborated with the National Department in previous years to support the health ministry with official WaSH Care Guidelines.
The current project serves to operationalize those guidelines, with the NCDPHA serving as a vital launchpad.
Moving forward, WaterAid’s support will focus heavily on governance and institutional strengthening.
The organization plans to work alongside the PHA to integrate essential WaSH components into the clinical governance of the existing provincial committee on Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), recognizing how heavily clean water and sanitation underpin effective infection management.
Furthermore, the WIMH project will see the two entities working hand-in-hand to develop specific Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for WaSH and IPC within healthcare facilities.
The provincial WaSH IPC committee will then be responsible for cascading these guidelines down to local healthcare facilities, a process that begins fundamentally with capacity building.
To effectively roll out these programs, WaterAid is building the capacity of both the PHA and the government using the World Health Organization’s (WHO) WASHPIT tools which is a facility improvement framework developed by the government and the WHO to successfully integrate WaSH into IPC spaces.
In addition, WaterAid trained 21 NCDPHA staff members over the last two years as Trainers of Trainees (TOTs), with the aim to use the WASHPIT tool to develop customized facility improvement plans.
These plans provide a framework to prioritize action across five key WaSH domains:
Water
Sanitation
Hygiene
Environmental Cleaning (both internal and external, focusing on empowering staff to enforce infection control)
Waste Management
Operationally, WaterAid is working with the PHA at Nine Mile to establish critical extra WaSH water storage systems.
The partners are also evaluating options to expand the facility to ensure reliable running water is constantly available, with the ultimate goal of establishing a functional vetting and maternal services center at Nine Mile.
Closing her remarks, Ms. Paul reaffirmed WaterAid's long-term commitment to the government across multiple sectors.
In the health sphere, she stressed that WaterAid stands committed to a partnership model of co-planning and co-designing alongside the NCDPHA and other health authorities.
