Save the Children and health and hygiene company RB have launched a programme as part of their ongoing partnership to help eradicate child deaths from diarrhoea.
Save the Children’s Stop Diarrhoea programme, funded by RB, formerly known as Reckitt Benckiser, operates in India, Pakistan and Nigeria and is aimed at preventing unnecessary deaths. For the first time the programme will fully implement the World Health Organisation and Unicef’s seven-point plan to ensure comprehensive diarrhoea control.
As part of the partnership, which was first launched in 2003, RB and 19 of its suppliers have developed two products. These are a low-cost germ protection bar, used for cleaning and washing hands, and a toilet powder, to make pit latrines more hygienic.
RB will not make a profit from the project, which is being piloted in Pakistan and Nigeria before being rolled out into India by the end of the year, with the revenue being reinvested into the Stop Diarrhoea programme. The products will also be produced locally, to encourage entrepreneurship and reduce the overall carbon footprint and transport costs associated with their manufacture.
The two products have been described as “breakthroughs in science and technology”.
Save the Children’s partnership with RB has raised £23.5m to date, and reached 1.5 million children.
Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children, said: “This groundbreaking innovative partnership between Save the Children and RB will harness the research and expertise of RB with Save the Children’s on-the-ground experience to stop children dying of diarrhoea. It will pioneer how the private sector and NGOs can accelerate change for children."
Rakesh Kapoor, chief executive of RB, said: “RB has a purpose to make a difference by creating innovative solutions for healthier lives and happier homes. We believe that businesses like ours have a responsibility of delivering value to the society beyond the returns to the shareholders.
“We have used our core R&D business to develop products to help stop children dying from diarrhoea. This is the first time RB has developed and tested products specifically for consumers at the bottom of the pyramid.”
