Authored By: Amorei Coetzee
University of Western Cape
ABSTRACT:
Period poverty, defined as inadequate access to menstrual hygiene products, water, sanitation, and information, remains a pervasive gendered inequality in South Africa. Climate change is a significant and understudied aggravating factor. In marginalised South African communities, climate impacts intensify the financial and infrastructural barriers that already prevent millions of women and girls from managing menstruation safely and with dignity. This article argues that climate change exacerbates period poverty, with clear legal consequences under the South African Constitution and international human rights law. Drawing on constitutional jurisprudence and key international instruments, the article demonstrates that the state has a legal duty to adopt gender-responsive climate adaptation measures that include menstrual hygiene. The article situates menstrual hygiene within broader patterns of structural inequality intensified by environmental degradation. It concludes that South Africa must recognise menstrual hygiene in climate adaptation, provide free products to indigent communities, and ensure climate-resilient WASH infrastructure.
- INTRODUCTION
Period poverty remains a pervasive form of gendered inequality.1In South Africa alone, an estimated seven million girls struggle to manage their menstruation with dignity.2 This problem disproportionately affects underprivileged communities, where economic insecurity, inadequate infrastructure, and entrenched gender bias converge to produce long-lasting menstrual inequity. While scholarship and advocacy have increasingly addressed the socio economic and cultural roots of period poverty, far less attention has been paid to the role of climate change as an intensifying force. Climate change is not gender-neutral, and its impacts amplify existing structural inequalities and significantly worsen period poverty in marginalised communities.3 This article argues that climate change intensifies period poverty in underprivileged communities, creating and expanding barriers to dignity, equality, health, water, and education. The article demonstrates that the state must integrate menstrual hygiene into climate adaptation and WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) planning to fulfil constitutional and treaty-bound duties.
2. UNDERSTANDING PERIOD POVERTY AS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE
Period poverty implicates numerous fundamental human rights. The World Health Organisation (“WHO”) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (“UNICEF”) define adequate menstrual hygiene as access to safe absorbents, water, sanitation, privacy, and disposal facilities.4 Without these basic elements, menstruators, particularly those in underprivileged communities, face heightened risks of infection, stigma, absenteeism, and exclusion.5 Although no international treaty recognises a standalone right to menstrual hygiene, several instruments provide implicit protections. Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (“ICESCR”) guarantees the right to the highest attainable standard of health, which encompasses menstrual health and sanitation. The United Nations General Assembly recognises access to water and sanitation as essential for the realisation of all human rights.6 The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (“CEDAW”) General Recommendation 34 requires states to ensure rural women’s access to adequate sanitation, implicitly including menstrual hygiene.7 The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (“Maputo Protocol”) further protects sexual and reproductive health rights with clear gender-equality obligations.8 South African constitutional law reinforces these entitlements. The right to dignity, described by the South African Constitutional Court as foundational to the constitutional order9, is compromised when menstruators cannot manage their cycles safely.10 Equality is undermined when menstruation becomes a barrier to participation in school, work, or public life.11 Rights to health care services, sufficient water, and education are similarly implicated.12
- HOW CLIMATE CHANGE EXACERBATES PERIOD POVERTY 3.1 Water scarcity and the collapse of WASH infrastructure
Underprivileged communities are disproportionately harmed by climate-induced water scarcity. Droughts and extreme heat events, increasingly frequent in South Africa,13 strain already fragile municipal water systems. As a result, menstruators cannot wash reusable products, maintain hygiene, or access private sanitation facilities, conditions essential for menstrual health and hygiene.14 Adequate menstrual hygiene requires sufficient water.15 For underprivileged menstruators, this often means reverting to unsafe coping strategies, including prolonged use of pads, makeshift absorbents, or unwashed cloths.16
3.2 Declining household income and rising menstrual product costs
Climate change significantly undermines livelihoods in low-income communities. Agricultural workers, disproportionately women, bear the brunt of climate-induced crop failures and reduced earnings.17 With shrinking income, households prioritise food, fuel, and shelter over menstrual products.18 As Crawford and Waldman note, menstrual insecurity intensifies during economic shocks, forcing women to forgo products, miss school or work, or resort to unsafe alternatives.19 Climate change thus deepens economic pathways to period poverty in communities least equipped to absorb financial shocks.
3.3 Climate-induced displacement and humanitarian precarity
Extreme weather, flooding, storms, and wildfires frequently displace marginalised populations living in informal settlements or flood-prone rural areas. Displaced menstruators often lose access to menstrual products, safe sanitation, and privacy.20 Studies confirm that displaced women face heightened risks of infection, indignity, and violence when managing menstruation without adequate facilities.21 Climate displacement, therefore, transforms long-lasting period poverty into severe menstrual crises.
3.4 Education disruptions and gendered absenteeism
Inadequate school sanitation already contributes to absenteeism among girls in underprivileged communities.22 When climate disruption damages school infrastructure, disrupts water supply, or leads to temporary closures, menstrual management becomes even more difficult. The right to basic education, which is immediately realisable in South Africa, requires the state to ensure that climate conditions do not deprive menstruating learners of access to schooling.23 Climate change exacerbates pre-existing disparities: girls from poor communities are more likely to miss school during menstruation when facilities are inadequate, while climate shocks make those facilities even less reliable.
3.5 Intersectionality: compounding layers of vulnerability
Intersectional feminist analysis highlights how climate impacts interact with socio-economic status, gender, geography, and culture to intensify menstrual inequities.24 Underprivileged menstruators, especially rural women, adolescents, and those in informal settlements, experience the most severe combined effects of patriarchy, poverty, and environmental degradation.25 Climate impacts compound these vulnerabilities, deepening menstrual insecurity in a structurally unequal landscape.
- LEGAL IMPLICATIONS AND THE WAY FORWARD
Climate policies that fail to account for menstrual hygiene create gender-differentiated harms in already vulnerable communities.26 For instance, water-restriction measures that do not include menstrual exemptions disproportionately burden low-income menstruators who cannot purchase bottled water or reusable alternatives.27 Section 27 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, obliges the state to realise socio-economic rights progressively through reasonable measures. This includes foreseeing and addressing climate impacts on menstrual health and hygiene. Failure to integrate menstrual hygiene into climate planning constitutes an unreasonable limitation of rights and a neglect of constitutional duties.
South Africa’s current interventions remain inadequate. The Sanitary Dignity Programme distributes products to indigent learners, but implementation is inconsistent, and climate resilient WASH infrastructure is lacking.28 International treaty obligations under the ICESCR, CEDAW, and the Maputo Protocol require gender-responsive climate adaptation measures, including menstrual hygiene measures. Therefore, a rights-compliant, climate-responsive framework must include the formal recognition of menstrual hygiene as essential to dignity, equality, health, and water rights. Free provision of menstrual products to underprivileged menstruators, including in emergencies, together with the integration of menstrual hygiene into all climate adaptation, WASH, and disaster-risk frameworks. Targeted investment in climate resilient school and community infrastructure is essential. This approach acknowledges menstrual hygiene not as an optional welfare issue but as a legal obligation and climate-justice imperative.
- CONCLUSION
Climate change is a driver of period poverty in underprivileged communities. Its impacts, water scarcity, declining household income, displacement, infrastructural breakdown, and educational disruption, interfere with the enjoyment of fundamental rights. Menstruation does not pause for climate disturbance. To respond effectively, states must centre menstrual hygiene in climate adaptation planning, ensure access to products for the poor, and invest in resilient WASH systems. Climate justice demands menstrual justice.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources:
International Treaties:
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) (adopted 18 December 1979, entered into force 3 September 1981) 1249 UNTS 13.
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) (adopted 16 December 1966, entered into force 3 January 1976) 993 UNTS 3.
Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) (adopted 11 July 2003, entered into force 25 November 2005).
United Nations Documents:
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, General Recommendation No 34 on the Rights of Rural Women (CEDAW/C/GC/34, 2016).
UNGA Res 64/292 (3 August 2010) UN Doc A/RES/64/292.
Constitution:
The Constitution of The Republic of South Africa, 1996.
Case Law:
S v Makwanyane 1995 (3) SA 391 (CC).
Secondary Sources:
Books & Reports:
Mian L and Namasivayam M, Sex, Rights, Gender in the Age of Climate Change (Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women, 2017).
Tull K, Period Poverty: Impact on the Economic Empowerment of Women (K4D Helpdesk Report, Institute of Development Studies 2019).
Work and Opportunities for Women, Women’s Economic Empowerment and Climate Change: A Primer (WOW Helpdesk Guidance Note No 3, 2021).
Journal Articles:
Chersich MF and others, ‘Impacts of Climate Change on Health and Well-Being in South Africa’ (2018) 15 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 1884.
Crawford BJ and Waldman E, ‘Period Poverty in Pandemic: Harnessing Law to Achieve Menstrual Equity’ (2021) 98 Washington University Law Review 1569.
Rossouw L and Ross H, ‘Understanding Period Poverty: Socio-Economic Inequalities in Menstrual Hygiene Management in Eight Low- and Middle-Income Countries’ (2021) 18 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health available at https:// doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052571.
Sommer M and Mason D, ‘Period Poverty and Promoting Menstrual Equity’ (2021) 2 JAMA Health Forum 1–3.
Internet Sources:
Mokoena N and Dolan M, ‘Climate Change’s Disproportionate Impact on Women: Agricultural Workers in South Africa’ (Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 2020) https://gjia.georgetown.edu/2020/07/19/climate-change-disproportionate-impact-on southafrican-women/ accessed 25 November 2025.
South African Government News Agency, ‘Promoting Sanitary Dignity’ (SANews, 2022) https://www.sanews.gov.za/africa-south-africa-world/promoting-sanitary-dignity accessed 25 November 2025.
South African Human Rights Commission, ‘The Cycle of the Menstrual Burden’ (SAHRC, 2022) https://www.sahrc.org.za/index.php/sahrc-media/opinion-pieces/item/1789-the-cycle of-the-menstrual-burden accessed 25 November 2025.
UN Women, Intersectional Feminism: What It Means and Why It Matters (UN Women 2020) https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/6/explainer-intersectional-feminism-what-it means-and-why-it-matters accessed 25 November 2025.
Athenkosi Mndende, ‘Alarming stats on period poverty propelled local NPO to install sanitary towel machines in schools’ (News24, 2022) https://www.news24.com/parent/learn/learning difficulties/iamforher-installs-sanitary-towel-machines-in-two-schools-after-upsetting-stats on-period-poverty-20220530 accessed 27 November 2025.
1 K Tull, Period Poverty: Impact on the Economic Empowerment of Women (K4D Helpdesk Report, Institute of Development Studies 2019) at 3. See also South African Human Rights Commission, ‘The Cycle of the Menstrual Burden’ (SAHRC, 2022) https://www.sahrc.org.za/index.php/sahrc-media/opinion-pieces/item/1789-the-cycle of-the-menstrual-burden accessed 25 November 2025 & M Sommer and D Mason, ‘Period Poverty and Promoting Menstrual Equity’ (2021) 2 JAMA Health Forum 1–3.
2 Athenkosi Mndende “Alarming stats on period poverty propelled local NPO to install sanitary towel machines in schools” available at https://www.news24.com/parent/learn/learning-difficulties/iamforher-installs-sanitary towel-machines-in-two-schools-after-upsetting-stats-on-period-poverty-20220530, accessed 27 November 2025.
3 L Mian and M Namasivayam, Sex, Rights, Gender in the Age of Climate Change (Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women 2017) at 5.
4 K Tull op cit note 1 at 3-4.
5Ibid. See also L Rossouw and H Ross, ‘Understanding Period Poverty: Socio-Economic Inequalities in Menstrual Hygiene Management in Eight Low- and Middle-Income Countries’ (2021) 18 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
6 UNGA Res 64/292 (3 August 2010) UN Doc A/RES/64/292.
7 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation No 34 (2016) CEDAW/C/GC/34, paras 13–15. See also K Tull op cit note 1 at 6-7.
8 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) (adopted 11 July 2003, entered into force 25 November 2005) arts 2(1)(a)–(d), 14(1).
9 S v Makwanyane 1995 (3) SA 391 (CC) at para 144.
10 See South African Human Rights Commission op cit note 1.
11 BJ Crawford and E Waldman, ‘Period Poverty in Pandemic: Harnessing Law to Achieve Menstrual Equity’ (2021) 98 Washington University Law Review 1569 at 1574–1575.
12 Ibid & Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, ss 27(1)(a), 27(1)(b), 29(1)(a).
13 N Mokoena and M Dolan, ‘Climate Change’s Disproportionate Impact on Women: Agricultural Workers in South Africa’ (Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 2020) https://gjia.georgetown.edu accessed 25 November 2025.
14 M Sommer and D Mason op cit note 1 at 2.
15 CEDAW General Recommendation 34 at paras 32–34.
16 BJ Crawford and E Waldman op cit note 11 at 1578–1579.
17 N Mokoena and M Dolan op cit note 13.
18 BJ Crawford and E Waldman op cit note 11 at 1580–1581. See also K Tull op cite note 1 at 7-8. 19 Ibid.
20 South African Human Rights Commission op cit note 1.
21 M Sommer and D Mason op cit note 1 at 2 & K Tull op cit note 1 at 5-7 & L Mian and M Namasivayam op cit note 3 at 18-20.
22 K Tull op cit note 1 at 4-5 & South African Human Rights Commission op cit note 1. See also L Rossouw and H Ross op cit note 5.
23 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, s 29(1)(a) & S v Makwanyane 1995 (3) SA 391 (CC) para 37 (affirming constitutional interpretation grounded in dignity and equality) & UNGA Res 64/292 (3 August 2010) UN Doc A/RES/64/292, recognising water as essential for realisation of all rights.
24 UN Women, Intersectional Feminism: What It Means and Why It Matters (2020) https://www.unwomen.org accessed 25 November 2025 & BJ Crawford and E Waldman op cit note 11.
25 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, General Recommendation No 34 on the Rights of Rural Women (2016) CEDAW/C/GC/34, paras 14–16 & N Mokoena and M Dolan op cit note 13.
26 M Sommer and D Mason op cit note 1 at 2 & K Tull op cit note 1 at 6-7. See also L Mian and M Namasivayam op cit note 3 at 22-24.
27 Ibid.
28 South African Government News Agency “Promoting sanitary dignity” available at https://www.sanews.gov.za/africa-south-africa-world/promoting-sanitary-dignity, accessed 27 November 2025. See also South African Human Rights Commission op cit note 1.
