Over 3.6 billion people worldwide lack access to infrastructure and facilities for properly disposing of human waste, which has serious repercussions for both privacy and public health. CARE is collaborating with two mission-driven international organizations, iDE and IDinsight, to test and scale cutting-edge market-based models that support sanitation in order to hasten the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6, which is centered on guaranteeing access to clean water and sanitation for everyone.
Through the use of community-led financing mechanisms, government funding, private sector solutions, and rigorous evidence to gauge effectiveness, the new alliance seeks to expand access to long-lasting and safe household toilets. Effective sanitation technologies are currently in place, but systemic obstacles have halted progress toward universal household sanitation, especially in rural Sub-Saharan Africa. These obstacles include inadequate sanitation supply chains, limited household access to financing, and low state investment.
In order to strengthen the need for sanitation, expand access to financing, and support a new generation of sanitation entrepreneurs, the partnership will begin this month with a one-year pilot program in Zambia, bringing together sanitation entrepreneurs and public officials with Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs), CARE’s global flagship initiative that allows women to save and borrow money without the need for a formal bank.
While government commitment and community awareness are key to bridging the sanitation gap, sanitation entrepreneurs and businesses are critical in ensuring that rural households have affordable sanitation options they will use and maintain. By increasing household sanitation access, CARE and partners seek to promote individual dignity and improve public health as diarrheal diseases remain a leading cause of mortality, morbidity, and malnutrition in many parts of the world.
This new partnership leverages the organizations’ collective resources and brings together each organization’s distinct strengths:
CARE sees this partnership as a powerful opportunity to leverage its VSLA network and accelerate progress towards global sanitation. “By combining iDE’s market-driven sanitation expertise with CARE’s deep community relationships and financial inclusion platforms, we can unlock faster, more sustainable access to improved sanitation products and services,” said Rod Beadle, Director of CARE’s Water Team.
The collaboration offers rural sanitation entrepreneurs the chance to expand their clientele, beginning with early adopters who have an impact on the larger community, according to Elise Mann, Global WaSH Director at iDE. “We are aware that VSLA members can expedite investments in other families by acting as early adopters. If it is successful, more homes will have secure restrooms sooner, which will benefit both their personal security and well-being as well as the health of their larger communities.
IDinsight, a world leader in providing data and evidence to decision-makers, will carefully evaluate the model’s effects on enhancing people’s lives. According to Rico Bergemann, Associate Director at IDinsight, “CARE and iDE’s partnership on market-based sanitation can leverage organizational complementarities as well as existing assets, footprints, and relationships to drive innovation, cost-effectiveness, and scalability.”
In Zambia, the partnership is working in collaboration with the Ministry of Water Development and Sanitation, District and Ward governments, and other public sector institutions. There is urgency to this issue. “Currently, only half of Zambian households have safe sanitation, but the Government of Zambia has set a 90 percent household sanitation coverage target by 2030. There is a lot to do to increase sanitation uptake.” said Moses Mumba, Program Manager at CARE Zambia. “This pilot will help inform national and local government approaches to scaling sanitation and help achieve those ambitious targets.”
This partnership is designed to test a model that can be reproduced anywhere market conditions and community-led platforms are amenable. While the partnership aims to create accelerated pathways to close the sanitation gap in Zambia, in so doing, it will unlock complementary benefits across health, nutrition, education, and the economy—advancing opportunities and dignity for millions. “At a time when funding for foreign aid is increasingly scarce, solutions that are cost-effective, lifesaving and scalable are more important than ever,” said Anita Akella, CARE’s Director of Impact at Scale.
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