Produced by the DFAT-funded Water for Women Fund, this learning brief positions menstrual health as essential to gender equality, the Sustainable Development Goals, and community and climate resilience. Menstrual health affects nearly half the global population for up to 40 years of their lives, yet remains under-researched, under-acknowledged and underfunded.

The brief sets out the barriers to menstrual health equity — limited awareness, poor product access, inadequate facilities, unsafe disposal options, harmful gender norms and insufficient support — and shows how climate change compounds them through water scarcity, disasters and displacement, drawing on Water for Women partner experience.