Building Resilience: Coordination guidelines for integrated WASH, health, and nutrition programming in crisis settings

This essential handbook provides comprehensive coordination guidelines for integrating Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) services with health and nutrition interventions during humanitarian emergencies. Addressing the critical need for enhanced multisectoral coordination, the guidelines respond to evolving global aid architecture characterized by reduced international funding and increased emphasis on government leadership and sustainable systems strengthening. Organised into seven chapters and a practitioners' toolkit, the guide is structured around four interconnected domains: stakeholder coordination, emergency WASH actions, resilience actions, and monitoring and evaluation. Four core coordination guidelines address WASH integration with health and nutrition at both national and community levels, providing step-by-step frameworks for effective emergency response. The approach emphasizes government leadership at all levels while supporting national and local officials, ministry staff, and public sector institutions alongside international humanitarian actors. Each guideline combines strategic framing with operational tools designed to guide assessment, planning, and implementation of WASH interventions that respond to complex crisis dynamics, including climate change, conflict, and pandemics. The methodology integrates immediate life-saving emergency actions (0-14 days) with longer-term resilience building (14-90 days), ensuring both rapid response and sustainable outcomes. Real-world case studies and practical tools demonstrate how coordination mechanisms can optimize the effectiveness, coverage, and sustainability of emergency WASH services while strategically linking them with health and nutrition outcomes. This resource serves humanitarian practitioners, government officials, and development professionals working across WASH, health, nutrition, and related sectors, providing a common platform for joint planning, implementation, and monitoring of integrated emergency interventions. Also available from Practical Action Publishing: The field manual edition - A practical, condensed companion designed for frontline use.

Nikolas Sorensen is the lead consultant for Initiative Six with the WASH Road Map. He has over 10 years of experience in WASH, humanitarian response, and global health programming, with a focus on resilience-building, sustainability, and innovative integration. He holds an MA in international Development studies from George Washington University and an MBA from Utah State University.

Dr. Marielle Snel is currently the Head of WASH with Solidarités International in Aden, Yemen, bringing more than 25 years of experience in humanitarian and development WASH work, with a focus on climate-resilient programming, public health, and coordination across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. She holds a PhD from the University of Sussex and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford.

James Ray is a global WASH practitioner with more than 20 years of experience providing strategic leadership in complex public health and humanitarian emergencies. He is a seasoned professional with a distinguished record in the design, implementation, and monitoring of emergency response and disaster relief programs. James holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in civil engineering, specializing in water and wastewater treatment.

Syed Yasir Ahmad is a Global WASH practitioner who has led emergency responses and public health programmes in some of the world’s most complex crises. With over two decades of field and leadership experience across 30+ countries, he focuses on translating strategy into practical, on-the-ground impact. He holds an MSc in Water and Waste Engineering from Loughborough University.