Today marks World Hand Hygiene Day, and in its 18th year, the World Health Organization’s SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands campaign issues a call that is as clinically precise as it is morally urgent. Action Saves Lives. The 2026 campaign coincides with a binding indicator within the WHO’s Global Action Plan and Monitoring Framework on Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), which requires all Member States to establish hand hygiene compliance monitoring and feedback as a key national indicator in all reference hospitals by the end of this year. This is a deadline, and for Nigeria, it is a Federal Government of Nigeria Clean Naija target that demands an immediate, accountable and well-resourced institutional response.

The evidence base is precise. IPC interventions, including hand hygiene and access to high-quality Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services in health care facilities, can reduce the risk of health care-associated infections by up to 70%, with a high economic return on investment. In the maternal and newborn health context specifically, improved handwashing practices by birth attendants and mothers have been associated with a 19% and 44% reduction in neonatal mortality, respectively, data which speaks directly to the preventable burden carried by Nigerian families and health systems every day. These are figures that demand not reflection but action, not policy commitment alone but funded, monitored, facility-level implementation at scale.

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa has integrated WASH across the full continuum of care as a clinical and programmatic imperative. Through the WBFA Dettol Nigeria Hygiene Quest Programme and Curricula, supported by our social impact partners Reckitt Nigeria, across Phase I and Phase II 2022–2025, the programme reached 282,000 students across 716 schools, supported by 561 hygiene clubs and 1,122 peer hygiene ambassadors with Personal, Social, Health and Economic education integration. Community outreach engaged 48,110 people. 2,916 facility sessions reached 113,337 pregnant and lactating women directly. 5,144 health workers received infection prevention and surface hygiene training through the TEACH CLEAN curriculum. We look forward with purpose to the next phase of this work, anchored in the WHO’s Global Action Plan and aligned with Nigeria’s national IPC commitments.

Every two seconds, a woman gives birth in a healthcare facility without clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene, the very prerequisites upon which every IPC intervention depends. It is for this reason that I am proud to sign the pledge and advocate for the WaterAid Time to Deliver campaign, which places WASH infrastructure at the centre of respectful, safe and rights-based maternity care. Hand hygiene is a clinical act. It is also a question of equity, of whether the facility a Nigerian mother walks into on the most vulnerable day of her life is equipped with the minimum conditions required to keep her and her newborn alive. Action saves lives. Nigeria must act now.