Access to Sanitation is a Human Right — And Women Entrepreneurs Are Making a Difference

More than 2 billion people worldwide do not have access to basic sanitation, denying them the basic human right of living their lives with dignity and holding them back from progress. Business leaders and change-makers around the world are developing solutions to expand access to sanitation in their communities, but they often need support to bring their models to scale. 

In this series sponsored by Kimberly-Clark, we’ll take a closer look at the Women in the Sanitation Economy Innovation Lab — which aims to cultivate and catalyze women-led, early-stage businesses that provide sanitation solutions to communities in need. Launched by Kimberly-Clark and its Kotex brand in partnership with the Toilet Board Coalition, the Innovation Lab recently completed its first pilot that included five startup businesses from Kenya, the U.S. and the U.K., along with Kimberly-Clark employees from around the globe who served as mentors to the female entrepreneurs. 

As we move through this series, we’ll take a closer look at the startups and their ideas, explore how mentor-mentee relationships helped move these models forward, and discuss lessons learned that can help to scale access to sanitation worldwide.