USAID Market-Based Sanitation Study in Burkina Faso and Niger

ViMPlus is part of USAID’s Resilience in the Sahel Enhanced II (RISE) initiative, which supports vulnerable communities in Burkina Faso and Niger to effectively prepare for and manage recurrent crises and pursue sustainable pathways out of poverty. 

Victory against malnutritionplus (ViMPlus): WASH markets assessment report. USAID, 2020. This report was prepared by Ali Dissa and Zakari Bouraima contracted by Save the Children under the Victory Against Malnutrition Plus (ViMPlus) Activity.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
METHODOLOGY
RAPID DESK REVIEW
FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS
INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS
HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS
DATA MANAGEMENT AND ANALYSIS
RESULTS
RESULTS FROM THE RAPID DESK REVIEW
GLOBAL LESSONS LEARNED FROM MARKET BASED SANITATION (MBS)
IDENTIFICATION OF OTHER MBS ACTIVITIES IN BURKINA FASO
RESULTS FROM THE DATA COLLECTION
RESULTS FROM THE HOUSEHOLD SURVEY
CURRENT HOUSEHOLD DRINKING WATER PRACTICES
TYPES OF LATRINES USED BY HOUSEHOLDS
HOUSEHOLD DECISION MAKING AROUND WASH PRODUCTS
BARRIERS AND FINANCING OF LATRINES .
KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEW RESULTS
MAPPING OF RISK AND MITIGATION MEASURES
DISCUSSION
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Sanitation Sustainability Index

A new index for on-site sanitation systems is proposed and tested in the context of South Korea. It incorporates the technical, social, and economic aspects of sanitation systems, including onsite waste recycling.

Hashemi, S. Sanitation Sustainability Index: A Pilot Approach to Develop a Community-Based Indicator for Evaluating Sustainability of Sanitation Systems. Sustainability 2020, 12, 6937. DOI:10.3390/su12176937

Abstract: Evaluating the sustainability of sanitation systems is essential in achieving the sixth sustainable development goal. However, there are only limited number of available evaluation indexes, which are utilized to macroscopically determine a community’s sanitation coverage. Consequently, an index is required, which can evaluate different sanitation options for a specific community. In this paper, the sanitation sustainability index (SSI) is suggested as an indicator for evaluating the sustainability of sanitation systems. The SSI has sub-indexes that consider the technical, social, and economic aspects of the sanitation system, and all the variables are dimensionless and heavily dependent on the current state of the community where the sanitation system is going to be implemented. The applicability of the SSI was demonstrated by evaluating the implementation of two onsite sanitation systems, including one septic tank system and one resource-oriented sanitation (ROS) system in South Korea. A sensitivity analysis defined the variables that have significant impact, and the statistical distribution of the SSI for both systems was forecasted. The results showed that for South Korea, which has a profound history of utilizing human waste as fertilizer, utilizing the resource-oriented sanitation system is more sustainable, although it has a lower social sub-index score compared to the septic tank system.

Innovative Financing Could Expand Access to Water & Sanitation

Paying for the Spout: Innovative Financing Could Expand Access to Water. New Security Beat, March 2020.

Safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) are vital for human well-being. However, 1 in 3 people (approximately 2.2 billion) still lack safe drinking water, 4.2 billion do not have access to safely managed sanitation services, and 829,000 people die annually from unsafe water and related sanitation and hygiene around the world.

Financing Gap
While Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) aims to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” by 2030, we won’t get there if nothing changes. The current level of WASH financing is too low to achieve universal access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation and hygiene.

To meet SDG 6, capital financing needs to triple to $114 billion annually, and operating and maintenance (O&M) costs also need to be considered. According to a joint World Health Organization and UN-Water report, the financing gap in 19 countries and one territory was greater than 60 percent, and less than 15 percent of the 115 countries and territories surveyed had the human or financial capital needed to implement WASH policies and plans.

Critical hurdles to overcome include revenues that do not cover operating costs; insufficient creditworthiness of water and sanitation utilities; poor financial data on WASH; and uncertainty in future funding given annual variability in foreign aid.

Read the complete article.

Doing More with Less: Smarter Subsidies for Water Supply and Sanitation – World Bank

Doing More with Less: Smarter Subsidies for Water Supply and Sanitation. World Bank, August 2019.

In this report, we explore the question of how scarce public resources can be used most effectively to achieve universal delivery of WSS services. To inform our discussion, we analyze subsidies in the sector, including their magnitude, their efficacy in achieving their policy objectives, and the implications of poor design.

We then provide guidance to policy makers on how subsidies can be better designed to improve their efficacy and efficiency in attaining their objectives. Finally, we discuss how to design a subsidy reform package that will have the best chances of success.

Message 1 – Current WSS Subsidies Fail to Achieve Their Objectives Due to Poor Design; They Tend to Be Pervasive, Expensive, Poorly Targeted, Nontransparent, and Distortionary.

Message 2 – The Current Poor Performance of WSS Subsidies Can Be Avoided; New Knowledge and Technologies Are Making it Increasingly Possible for Subsidies to Cost Less and Do More.

Message 3 – To Successfully Reform Subsidies, a Subsidy Reform Package of Four Complementary Elements (in Addition to Improved Subsidy Design) Is Required

Factors Influencing Revenue Collection for Preventative Maintenance of Community Water Systems: A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

Factors Influencing Revenue Collection for Preventative Maintenance of Community Water Systems: A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Sustainability, July 8, 2019.

Authors: Liesbet Olaerts, Jeffrey P. Walters, Karl G. Linden, Amy Javernick-Will and Adam Harvey

This study analyzed combinations of conditions that influence regular payments for water service in resource-limited communities. To do so, the study investigated 16 communities participating in a new preventive maintenance program in the Kamuli District of Uganda under a public–private partnership framework.

Overall, the findings from this study reveal distinct pathways of conditions that impact payment compliance and reflect the multifaceted nature of water point sustainability. Practically, the findings identify the processes needed for successful payment compliance, which include a strong WUC with proper support and training, user perceptions that the water quality is high and available in adequate quantities, ongoing support, and a lack of nearby water sources.

A comprehensive understanding of the combined factors that lead to payment compliance can improve future preventative maintenance programs, guide the design of water service arrangements, and ultimately increase water service sustainability.

USAID Global Water and Development Report of Water and Sanitation Activities FY 2017

Global Water and Development Report of Water and Sanitation Activities FY 2017. USAID, June 2019.

In the “Global Water and Development Report of Water and Sanitation Activities FY 2017,” USAID charts its progress toward achieving the goal of providing 15 million people with sustainable access to safe drinking water services and 8 million people with sustainable sanitation by 2022.

In FY 2017, USAID provided $449.6 million to support water, sanitation, and hygiene activities in 41 countries. As a result, 3.6 million people gained access to improved water while 3.2 million gained access to improved sanitation.

The annual report also explores USAID’s support for partner countries on their journeys to self-reliance through many voices:

• A community mobilizer in India marketing safe water kiosks to her neighbors
• A homeowner in Indonesia who can now afford to build a septic tank system with funds from a community savings account
• A mother in the Dominican Republic who has traded a wetland for the open sewer that used to run through her backyard
• A regional water bureau manager in Ethiopia who can remotely monitor water point functionality through a data visualization platform

Blog 3 of 3: Accelerating improved sanitation in Africa through market based approaches

This is the final blog in the series, which is being released after AfricaSan 5 where the African sanitation community came together to assess progress against the Ngor commitments on Sanitation and Hygiene. Learning gained from the side-session on Market-based Rural Sanitation held on February 22nd also shapes this final blog.

Introduction

Blog one in this series was about the opportunities for market shaping in West and Central Africa and blog two shared the experience of the SHAWN project in Nigeria. This third blog looks at how market based sanitation (MBS) might be a means to accelerate the scale of improved sanitation uptake in Africa including amongst the poorest and most marginalised households and communities. It draws upon both the regional sanitation industry consultation (see report here) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF and USAID side-session on market based rural sanitation held as part of AfricaSan5.

Recent reports have highlighted that neither MBS nor CLTS or other behaviour change approaches alone will be adequate for everyone, everywhere, all of the time (1, 2 and 3). It is increasingly recognised by practitioners that being effective calls for context-specific policies and practices that are less rigid or dogmatic about what approaches are used (4, 5 and 6). Interventions need to be flexible and adaptable and be designed with the priorities of target groups, including the products and services that they want, at the forefront. Furthermore, approaches need to be responsive to context and different stages of a programme both of which should inform decision-making (6).

Conducive contexts for MBS

With this in mind, which contexts are most conducive for MBS? Where and how can it be made more effective? Under what conditions are we most likely to find scenarios where the poorest and most vulnerable are climbing the sanitation ladder? And where is the market creating opportunities for people as consumers, entrepreneurs, and artisans?

A WaterAid-Plan-UNICEF joint rural sanitation guidance document (see document here) shared in Abuja and at AfricaSan5 recommends beginning with an analysis of the current sanitation situation, economic and social contexts, the physical environment and the enabling environment. Such an analysis forms the basis to determine what approaches will be appropriate for increasing basic sanitation in that particular context.

Read the complete article.

SUSTAINABLE WASH FINANCE SERIES: Private Sector, Will You Dance?

SUSTAINABLE WASH FINANCE SERIES: Private Sector, Will You Dance? by John Sauer, WASHfunders blog, 2018.

With 2020 on the doorstep, the global sanitation “toilet” community is becoming all too aware that without significant, annual changes in progress, there will be no way to meet the sustainable development goal 6.2, adequate sanitation for all, by 2030.

Sanitation was given a D grade on Overseas Development Institute’s SDG Scorecard. One potential solution to close this gap lies in better engagement with the private sector by the sanitation sector.

At the moment, we find the private sector, both small, medium enterprises and larger corporations, literally standing on one side of the room waiting to be asked to dance. Meanwhile the sanitation sector continues to miss opportunities to step up and demonstrate the nerve to ask.

Missed Opportunities to Dance

A significant opportunity to create impact/disruption came back in 2015 when the World Bank published the Tapping the Markets report. This study highlighted the sanitation market’s potential just to reach basic sanitation in four countries valued at $2.6 billion.

Unsurprisingly, the research indicated that private sector would not enter the market due to high risk and the lack of R&D around affordable and desirable products and services that would enable private sector to earn enough profit.

Tapping the Markets gave solid recommendations that—with a few notable exceptions—the sanitation sector, represented by governments, multilaterals, donors, development banks, NGOs, and the private sector themselves have not adequately followed to achieve greater results.

Read the complete article.

The latest updates to USAID’s Globalwaters.org & Global Waters on Medium

Below are some of the latest updates to USAID’s Globalwaters.org website and Global Waters on Medium

Blog Posts 

• Water @ Wilson: 50 Years of Water, Conflict, and Cooperation – December 19, 2018
• Realizing the Scoop on Poop in Ethiopia’s Lowland Regions – December 14, 2018
• Examining USAID Efforts to Strengthen India’s Urban Water and Sanitation Sector Governance and Finance – December 5, 2018

Global Waters on Medium

• Global Waters Stories – November 2018 (Happy World Toilet Day!) – November 19, 2018.
• From Satellite to Village, Turning Data into Action – November 15, 2018
• “The River Belongs to the People” – Sustainable Water Partnership Team Leader Gordon Mumbo brings a lifetime of experience to the Mara River Basin – November 13, 2018
• Keeping the Water Flowing: One village in Nepal is working to implement a shared vision of the future – November 8, 2018

Resources

• USAID WASH in the News
• India Fire-D Project Ex-Post Evaluation – 2018
• SWS Network Analysis and Systems Assessment For Sustainability in the Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Sector in Cambodia – 2018
• Finding New Solutions to Strengthen Local Systems and Improve WASH Service Delivery and Sustainability – 2018

Water Currents

• Water Currents: Water Utilities – December 2018
• Water Currents: World Toilet Day 2018 – November 2018

 

Toilet Board Coalition – Smart Sanitation City: The Sanitation Economy at City Scale

Smart Sanitation City: The Sanitation Economy at City Scale. Toilet Board Coalition, November 2018.

Smart Cities are reinventing how we design cities of the future. By 2050 68% of the world’s population will live in cities. Rapid urbanisation is leading to smarter cities that improve the lives of citizens through technology. Yet sanitation is rarely considered as a priority in smart city strategies.

In India, the Government’s Smart Cities Mission launched in 2016 seeks to develop 100 cities across the country making them citizen friendly and sustainable.

There is a focus on efficiency, improved public services, goods, spaces, and modernisation of pubic services.

At the same time, in 2014 the Government of India launched its Swachh Bharat Mission with the objectives of eliminating open defecation through the construction of household-owned and community-owned toilets, while establishing an accountable mechanism of monitoring toilet use.

Linking the two national priorities presents a unique opportunity to make the sum greater than the whole of its parts.