GATE

Menstrual Friendly Public Toilets

Multi-City Menstrual Friendly Public Toilets (MFPT) Project

Since 2022, the GATE Program at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health has partnered with researchers at six institutions around the world to generate evidence and champion groups to encourage the improvement of “menstrual friendly public toilets”. Cities in the global MFPT study included: New York City, USA; Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; Barcelona, Spain; Kampala, Uganda; Manila, Philippines; and Osaka, Japan. 

In each of the six cities, the research teams explored the issue of MFPT through a two-part approach: field-based audits of public toilets and qualitative key informant interviews. Audits assessed the menstrual friendly characteristics of existing public toilets. Key informant interviews with diverse stakeholders in public and private sectors, as well as non-governmental organizations, explored challenges and opportunities for improving MFPT in each city. The study findings will be published in 2025, with a new “Menstrual Friendly Public Toilet” Toolkit available for use around the world.

Key Resources

Menstrual-Friendly Public Toilet Toolkit

The toolkit provides a resource for citizens, students, researchers, and anyone interested in gaining insight into MFPTs in their context. It is flexible, allowing for use by actors in public health, sanitation, urban planning, menstrual health advocacy, or community members, and includes an adaptable set of tools to evaluate the menstrual friendliness of public toilets in an urban or other context. There are two key activities: a toilet audit and key informant interviews.

Publications

  • Coming soon!

 

The multi-city menstrual friendly public toilets study was conducted in six cities with global partners.