Exploring the determinants of sanitation success in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) missed the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) sanitation target by a wide margin. However, there are a few African countries which made remarkable progress towards achieving the sanitation target. While the general factors that influence sanitation success are widely known, some of the few studies that have investigated the SSA sanitation situation have arrived at different conclusions regarding the determinants of sanitation success. The objectives of this paper were to establish the key determinants of sanitation success in SSA countries and to classify the SSA countries based on factors associated with sanitation success. This was achieved by analysing data drawn from 46 SSA countries. An objective methodological approach, using regression and cluster analyses to reveal the underlying sanitation success factors, has been adopted. A total of 11 economic and socio-political independent variables were tested against the dependent variable; proportion of the 2015 population that has gained access to sanitation since 2000. Regression results showed consistent and robust association between sanitation success and education for the national, rural and socio-political samples (p values 0.018-0.038). These results suggest that the level of education contributed to sanitation success in SSA during the MDG period. For the urban sample, a negative association was demonstrated between sanitation success and access to improved water sources (p = 0.034). This implies that countries which made huge sanitation gains had low coverage of improved water sources. The results from cluster analysis showed that countries which achieved great sanitation success were characterized by the highest education levels, incomes, population densities, political stability and high proportions of urban population. The knowledge of the key determinants of sanitation success could help in the formulation and design of appropriate policies and interventions to improve sustainable sanitation access in the post-2015 development agenda.