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Public Health Program

World Toilet Day

Sanitation Program

World Toilet Day is an official United Nations international observance held on 19 November to inspire action against the global sanitation crisis, coordinated by UN-Water and rooted in an unofficial observance founded in 2001 by the World Toilet Organization, a Singapore-based nonprofit started by Jack Sim, before the United Nations formally recognized it in 2013. The day exists to inform, engage and inspire people toward achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6, highlighting that billions of people worldwide still lack access to safely managed sanitation and hundreds of millions still practice open defecation.

Facts
Launch Year
2001 1
Sponsoring Body
UN-Water 1
Target Population
people worldwide who lack access to safely managed sanitation 1
Health Goal
inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis 1
Measured Results
the hashtag WorldToiletDay reached a maximum potential audience of over 750 million people on social media in 2017 1
Program status (class)
Ongoing 1
Classification
Program Kind
Sanitation or Water Program 1
Connections

Delivers Practice

Entity-backed identity for the program-kind enum value this public health program already carries, resolved to a health practice by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The program-kind fact itself stays on the program unchanged.

Sources
1. World Toilet Day, Wikipedia
  • History section
    On 19 November 2001, the NGO World Toilet Organization (WTO) was founded by Jack Sim
  • Lead section, sponsor sentence
    UN-Water is the official convener of World Toilet Day
  • Background section
    Worldwide, 3.4 billion people live without "safely managed sanitation"
  • Lead section, goal sentence
    to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis
  • Impacts section
    In 2017, the hashtag #WorldToiletDay had a maximum potential reach of over 750 million people on social media
  • Wikipedia 'World Toilet Day': annual UN observance, present tense; checked 2026-09-27.
  • Program classification, entity description sentence
    World Toilet Day is an official United Nations international observance held on 19 November to inspire action against the global sanitation crisis, coordinated by UN-Water and rooted in an unofficial observance founded in 2001 by the World Toilet Organization, a Singapore-based nonprofit started by Jack Sim, before the United Nations formally recognized it in 2013.
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