The impacts of inadequate sanitation on education are manifold, particularly for girls. Children bedridden with sanitation-related diseases such as diarrhea are unable to attend school. When family members become ill, frequently due to sanitation-related concerns, children, typically girls, are often asked to stay home from school in order to care for their family (UNICEF 2012). Further, a lack of proper sanitation systems in schools often leads girls, particularly as they begin to menstruate, to avoid school in order to have privacy for menstrual hygiene (ibid.). Some sanitation-related diseases such as intestinal worms, which affect roughly 400 million schoolchildren every year, are known to impair children’s learning abilities, thus further impeding education efforts (ibid.). In turn, this can prevent children from developing high rates of literacy, numeracy, and critical-thinking skills. The negative effects of inadequate sanitation on education and on economic conditions more broadly can thus work to prevent the development of a skilled workforce. While this in and of itself seriously impairs community members’ ability to gain employment and a reasonable standard of living, it also means that businesses, especially those operating in “developing” markets, may have a more difficult time finding employees with the necessary skills. Companies interviewed for this paper recognize inadequate sanitation as a significant barrier to their own talent recruitment and, therefore, to their ability to effectively develop and expand operations in the global south. Reaching the MDG targets on water and sanitation would result in an estimated increase of 272 million school days per year, while achieving only the water target would result in less than 79 million gained school days per year (Hutton and Haller 2004). Sanitation interventions in communities in which companies operate are therefore critical in promoting education and ensuring a skilled potential workforce and effective talent recruitment.