Government reports from 2016 and 2017 identified that Ugandan schools are not meeting the national standards for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in schools (WinS). For this reason, in 2017, the Ministry of Education and Sports adopted the Three Star Approach for WASH in Schools. The Three Star Approach (TSA) was developed by GIZ and UNICEF and has been implemented in countries around the globe. The approach recognizes that national standards are often very far from the reality in many public schools. The intention of the TSA is to provide schools with tangible activities that they can realistically do as their next step to improve WinS. By meeting all of these TSA criteria, one step at a time, your school will reach national standards. The criteria is designed with the intention to be feasible for schools to implement using the resources that are already available to them. Sanitation for Millions in collaboration with the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has developed this manual to complement and provide guidance for each school to implement the TSA.

This manual provides an orientation on the Three Star standards and how they are measured, the annual WinS monitoring cycle, and technical guidance on aspects of water, sanitation and hygiene.