What works in sanitation promotion?

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• International Development
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Sanitation promotion is crucial for increasing access to services, especially in lower-income countries.
• Various promotion approaches exist, including sanitation marketing, community development, and community-led total sanitation.
• Rigorous evaluation of these diverse approaches is lacking, making it difficult to recommend specific methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of different sanitation promotion strategies.
• To propose a 'hybrid' approach by integrating features from existing methods.
• To demonstrate the efficacy of this hybrid model in a real-world setting.

Main Methods:

• Review of historical and current sanitation promotion approaches.
• Development and implementation of a hybrid promotion program.
• Case study analysis of a sanitation program in Tanzania.

Main Results:

• The hybrid promotion program significantly increased improved sanitation coverage in Tanzania.
• The program achieved scale without any form of subsidy.
• Promotion, despite historical perceptions, can be an effective tool for sanitation access.

Conclusions:

• A hybrid approach, integrating diverse strategies, is a promising method for sanitation promotion.
• This model offers a viable, subsidy-free pathway to increasing sanitation access at scale.
• Other sanitation programs can benefit from adopting similar integrated practices.