Nguyen, H.H. (2011). Integrating sanitation marketing into a national program : a case study in Vietnam. Brisbane, QLD, Australia, International Water Centre.
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Supply-driven approaches to rural sanitation in Viet Nam, with associated toilet subsidies, have had little success over the last decade. Since 2003, International Development Enterprises (IDE) Vietnam has achieved better results in several pilots with an alternative approach involving rural sanitation marketing. As a result, the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) has supported IDE in collaboration with the Health Environment Agency of the Ministry of Health (MOH) (HEMA) to implement a rural sanitation marketing pilot project within the National Target Program II (NTP II) program in Quang Tri province since 2010. This report provides an analysis of the potential as well as the constraints for integrating sanitation marketing into NTP II.
A variety of research methods are used in this study, consisting of a desktop literature review and fieldwork in Viet Nam. The findings from this study reveal that demand for sanitation is existent in study communes in Quang Tri and access to sanitation can be improved through offering appropriate toilets at an affordable cost. The concern is that the strategies of both government agencies and IDE lack an environmental focus due to many institutional and social constraints. In addition, there is evidence that the National Strategy and policy for rural water supply and sanitation (RWSS) are contradicted by the financing mechanism for implementation of the NTP program. To overcome such a contradiction, donor attention is crucial in strengthening accountability of the NTP program implementation and supporting oversight by civil society and local recipients of finance and sanitation service delivery.
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