Spotlights Series

In our World Water Day 2025 edition, the RGHI Spotlight is shining on the work of RGHI-funded researcher Professor Sera Young and her teams at Northwestern University and Universidad Iberoamericana. Professor Young’s groundbreaking Household / Individual Water Insecurity Experiences Scales (H/IWISE) are used in over 50 countries, capturing the lived experiences of people struggling with water access.

Building on this success, RGHI is now funding Sera and collaborators to develop a complementary Hygiene Experiences Scale. This innovative approach will help us understand hygiene challenges from the user’s perspective, not just through counting infrastructure.

Current metrics only tell us if a handwashing station exists, not whether people have what they need for proper hygiene. Just as researchers discovered with water insecurity, hygiene experiences often reveal problems that remain invisible to traditional measurements.

The team’s work has the potential to reveal crucial insights that are missed or masked by current metrics, including how hygiene experiences differ by gender and age, where and when hygiene challenges exist despite adequate infrastructure, and what specific actions could most improve hygiene in different contexts.

Professor Robert Dreibelbis, RGHI’s Science Advisor, said “As climate change intensifies water scarcity and disrupts access to safe water, understanding the real-world experiences of hygiene becomes even more critical. Professor Young and her team’s research couldn’t be more timely. Better measurement can lead to better interventions, better policies, and better adaptation strategies for communities on the front lines of our changing climate.”

The RGHI Spotlights Series showcases researchers’ inspiring work on improving global hygiene and health outcomes. In each post, we highlight a project funded through an RGHI grant or fellowship, detailing its goals, progress, and potential impact. These spotlights celebrate innovation and collaboration in tackling some of the world’s most pressing hygiene challenges. To learn more about RGHI-funded research and its contributions to advancing hygiene and health worldwide, explore our research portfolio.