Health care waste management in immunization programs: guidance for proposal planning

As immunisation increasingly reaches more people, health care waste (HCW) also grows. Certain types of HCW can pose significant environmental and public health risks due to its toxic, infectious, and other hazardous properties. This guide encourages countries to address health care waste management (HCWM) through a coordinated effort across many entities within the Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Environment (MOE), other government units, local authorities responsible for waste management, partners, and even the privatesector.

This guide was designed to help you to prepare and plan your HCWM system, and to clarify
your country’s HCWM status to help you develop proposals for funding and investment from an
immunisation perspective. This guide includes the following information:

• An overview of HCWM policy and practice.
• A HCWM maturity model to assist a country and partners in a strategic assessment to determine where the
  country is in terms of HCWM maturity and to identify and plan activities to improve HCWM status.
• Examples of available tools and procedures for best and innovative practices, and promising technologies for improved HCWM.
• Recommendations for countries when preparing for applications for resource investment.