Integrating psychosocial and WASH school interventions to build disaster resilience

This paper reviews the key disaster risk management (DRM) frameworks used for protecting children's wellbeing in disaster settings and identifies a lack of consideration for (1) psychosocial and (2) water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) needs. It also demonstrates that these two domains are meaningfully linked, as access to adequate WASH provision may protect psychosocial wellbeing and promote community resilience. As support in both domains is vitally important to children's wellbeing, these gaps warrant immediate attention. Schools are uniquely situated to support these needs as part of disaster risk management and resilience building. Therefore, we consider the ASEAN Common Framework for Comprehensive School Safety (ACFCSS), which is an adaptation of the Comprehensive School Safety Framework (CSS) implemented in schools across the ASEAN region.

While the CSS explicitly considers WASH, it only briefly considers psychosocial support; the ACFCCS lacks consideration of both domains. It argues revisions of the ACFCSS should prioritise the inclusion of psychosocial and WASH support and consider the role of schools beyond their capacity as educational institutions. It presents an adaptation of ACFCSS with an additional framework pillar to guide this revision. Overall, it advocates for an integrated approach to DRM in schools based on an evidence-based, interdisciplinary perspective. The paper provides a series of evidence-based recommendations for DRM frameworks to consider, especially for those that intend to safeguard the wellbeing of children.