Sprinting the last mile in Nepal

In September 2019, the Government of Nepal declared the country ‘open defecation free’ (ODF). Leading up to this milestone, the Government of Nepal and other sector partners focused on  the challenging Terai plains – the ‘last mile’ of Nepal’s Sanitation Campaign.

Sprinting the Last Mile: Nepal’s Sanitation Campaign in the Terai documents the key success factors from the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council’s Global Sanitation Fund programme in Nepal, executed by UN-HABITAT, concentrating on the Terai region. By building local campaign coordination bodies, leveraging local finance, and igniting broad-based movements for improving sanitation and hygiene, sanitation coverage in the Terai accelerated from around 13% to near universal coverage in just over four years, according to data from the Government of Nepal. These insights and lessons are relevant for other behaviour change-based sanitation and hygiene campaigns across Asia and beyond.

Also available in French!

SACOSAN 7: registration closes 15 December

South Asian Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN),  a government led biennial convention held on a rotational basis in each SAARC country (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), provides a platform for interaction on sanitation.

SACOSAN VII will be held on 13-17 February 2018 in Pakistan, hosted by Ministry of Climate Change, Government of Pakistan.

The deadline for registration is 15 December 2017.

Below is an overview of the theme papers and country leads

Theme papers	Lead country
Sanitation as cross cutting (Health and Nutrition)	Afghanistan
Climate Change/Environment and Sanitation	Bangladesh
Sociology of Sanitation	Bhutan
Operation, Maintenance and Sustainability of WASH	India
Policy, Strategy and Sector Planning (institutional arrangements)	Maldives
Human Resource Development for WASH	Nepal
Accountability and Regulation Monitoring and Evaluation	Pakistan or Sri Lanka? [conflicting info on website]
WASH Financing	Sri Lanka or Pakistan? [conflicting info on website]

For more information and updates go to: sacosan.com/

In Nepal, women are still banished to ‘menstrual huts’ during their periods. It’s time to end this dangerous tradition

In Nepal, women are still banished to ‘menstrual huts’ during their periods. It’s time to end this dangerous tradition. Independent, May 24, 2017.

After seeing the practice of seclusion and the plight of these women, I believe that taboos around periods are not a cultural issue, they are a human rights issue 

An example of a menstrual hut in remote areas of Nepal (Anjana Saud/Tatapani)

As a journalist and development professional living and working in Katmandu, I have had the chance to see menstruating women’s situation across Nepal from close quarters.

I found that the practice of isolating women during their period exists across the country in differing forms. The situation of women living at the rural areas is terrible.

In some places, women cannot be in their own homes during their period; in others women can be in the house, but not in the kitchen and worship room.

They are also forbidden from touching other people (especially male members of the family or neighbours) or cattle and from growing fruit and vegetables.

Read the complete article.

SNV publications on urban sanitation

SNV’s Urban Sanitation & Hygiene for Health and Development (USHHD) programme works with municipal governments to develop safe, sustainable city-wide services. The programme integrates insights in WASH governance, investment and finance, behavioural change communication and management of the sanitation service chain. We engage private sector, civil society organisations, users and local authorities to improve public health and development opportunities in their city.

As part of our USHHD programme, we have a long term partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney focused on knowledge and learning to improve practice and contribute to the WASH sector knowledge and evidence. Our recent collaborative efforts have resulted in the following papers:

Are we doing the right thing? Critical questioning for city sanitation planning (2016)
Cities are clear examples of complex and rapidly changing systems, particularly in countries where urban population growth and economic development continue apace, and where the socio-political context strongly influences the directions taken. The concept of double-loop learning can be usefully applied to city sanitation planning. This paper prompts practitioners, policy-makers and development agencies to reflect on their approaches to city sanitation planning and the assumptions that underlie them.
Download full paper

Exploring legal and policy aspects of urban sanitation and hygiene (2016)
During 2012-2014, SNV did four country reviews of legal arrangements for urban sanitation and hygiene in Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Based on these experiences, this guide was developed to provide support and guidance for WASH practitioners undertaking a scan of legal arrangements to inform the design (use of frameworks and tools) and delivery (advocacy for improvements) of urban sanitation and hygiene programs.
Download full paper

A guide to septage transfer stations (2016)
Septage transfer stations have the potential to significantly reduce the amount of faecal sludge entering the environment by providing a local solution for septage disposal. Localised transfer stations shorten the time required for local operators to collect and transport septage, and they will be able to use smaller vacuum tanks that can navigate the densely populated residential areas. This guide provides information on the salient aspects of selecting, designing, building, operating and maintaining a septage transfer station.
Download full paper

Financing sanitation for cities and towns (2014)
Planning and financing for sanitation in cities and towns in developing countries is often ad hoc and piecemeal. Stronger capacity to plan financing for sanitation infrastructure (and services) for the long term will lead to better outcomes. Planning for adequate long-term services requires consideration of the complete sanitation service chain over the lifecycle of the associated service infrastructure. This paper focuses on access to the upfront finance and other lumpy finance needs for initial investment and for rehabilitation and/or replacement as physical systems approach their end of life.
Download full paper

For further information about these papers or the organisations, please contact:
Antoinette Kome (SNV) – akome@snv.org
Juliet Willetts (ISF) on Juliet.willetts@uts.edu.au

Drivers of sustained hygiene behaviour change: A case study from mid-western Nepal

Drivers of sustained hygiene behaviour change: A case study from mid-western Nepal. Social Science & Medicine, August 2016.

• Abstract/order info

Authors: Celia McMichael, Priscilla Robinson

Behaviour change is central to the prevention of many population health problems, yet it is typically difficult to initiate and sustain. This paper reports on an evaluation of a water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) intervention in mid-western Nepal, with particular focus on the drivers and barriers for handwashing with soap/ash and elimination of open defecation.

The research was conducted during October–November 2014, two and half years following the intervention’s end-point. Qualitative data were collected from the target community (n = 112) via group discussions, interviews and drawings/stories of ‘most significant change’. Households’ handwashing/water facilities and toilets were observed.

Analysis was informed by a model that highlights environmental, psychosocial and technological factors that shape hygiene behaviours across multiple levels, from the habitual to the structural (Dreibelbis et al. 2013). Findings indicate the intervention has supported development of new norms around hygiene behaviours.

Key drivers of sustained hygiene behaviour were habit formation, emotional drivers (e.g. disgust, affiliation), and collective action and civic pride; key constraints included water scarcity and socio-economic disadvantage. Identifying and responding to the drivers and constraints of hygiene behaviour change in specific contexts is critical to sustained behaviour change and population health impact.

Testing CLTS Approaches for Scalability: Nepal Learning Brief

Pour Flush Toilet in Nepal. Photo Credit: Vidya Venkataramanan

Plan International supports Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) implementation in a number of districts in Nepal. In this learning brief, we review Plan International Nepal’s CLTS activities. We found government targets and definitions to be ambitious while decentralized planning allowed a focus on community-led processes. Plan International and other sanitation practitioners can support CLTS outcomes by providing post-triggering training and technical support to community volunteers, focusing on achieving gradual, yet sustained outcomes in program areas, and continuing to work with local governments to ensure that financing mechanisms for the poor are locally developed and equitable.

Link to learning brief: https://waterinstitute.unc.edu/files/2015/11/learning-series-nepal-learning-brief-2015-11.pdf

Citation: Community-led Total Sanitation in Nepal: Findings from an Implementation Case Study. Venkataramanan, Vidya, Alexandra Shannon, and Jennifer Bogle. 2015. Chapel Hill, USA: The Water Institute at UNC.

Food hygiene: Safe food, healthy child

Published on Sep 5, 2014

This video is one of the promotional materials used in the SHARE-funded food hygiene intervention trial in Nepal, conducted by Om Prasad Gautam, PhD Fellow, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. Copyrights reserved with O Gautam.

You can read more information about this study here: http://www.shareresearch.org/NewsAndE…

DFID pledges €28 million to SNV for multi-country sanitation programme

More funding for a local government-led approach introduced in 2008 by SNV and IRC to scale up sanitation from community to district level.

The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) has awarded SNV Netherlands Development Organisation a €28 million (US$ 32 million) service contract to fund the Sustainable Sanitation & Hygiene for All (SSH4A) Results Programme. Introduced by SNV and IRC in 2008 in Nepal, Bhutan, Cambodia, Viet Nam and Laos, SSH4A is a comprehensive, local government-led approach to scale up sanitation from community to district level.

With funding from the DFID Results Fund, the SSH4A Results Programme will provide improved sanitation to more than 2 million people in nine countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The programme will also reach out to over 2.7 million people with hygiene promotion, make 1,200 communities Open Defecation Free (ODF), ensure that 400,000 people practice hand washing with soap at critical times, assist the preparation of district sanitation plans and improve local governments’ capacity for steering improved sanitation.

SSH4A programmes have been implemented with rural communities in 15 countries across Asia and Africa. In Asia, more than 2.2 million rural people have been reached, of whom 700,000 received improved sanitation.

More information:

• IRC – Sustainable Sanitation and Hygiene for All
• SNV – Sustainable Sanitation & Hygiene for All Results Programme

 

Source: SNV, 28 Apr 2014

Campaign uses “Slum Britain art” for fundraising

Slums encroach on Buckingham Palace – still from Practical Action video

A UK charity has set images of iconic landmarks like Buckingham Palace in typical South Asian slums for its latest campaign to tackle urban poverty. Practical Action’s Safer Cities Christmas appeal aims to provide clean water, sanitation and safe housing to over 4,000 poor people in Nepal and Bangladesh. The appeal is backed by the government’s UK Aid Match initiative which matches public donations pound for pound. UK Aid Match will award up to £120 million (US$ 200 million) in grants over 3 years.

Source: Practical Action, 20 Dec 2013 ; The Independent, 22 Dec 2013

Nepal: first municipality achieves “Total Behaviour Change”

Hygiene and Sanitation indicators – Nepali. RWSSP-WN

A municipality in western-central Nepal has been the first in the country to achieve Total Behaviour Change (TBC) in Hygiene and Sanitation.

TBC refers to a set of water, sanitation and hygiene behaviours and practices that lead to long term community health improvements.

Dana VDC (Village Development Committee) in Myagdi District was  declared to have achieved TBC in Hygiene and Sanitation on 14 August, 2013. Certification was awarded by the District Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Coordination Committee (DWASHCC).

Myagdi is one the districts covered by the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Western Nepal (RWSSP-WN),  a bilateral development cooperation project funded by the governments of Nepal and Finland.