Leveraging impact at scale through innovative financing for slum sanitation : PPPs, microcredit schemes and local entrepreneurship concept for slum...

The German Technical Cooperation (now GIZ) and the Ministry of Water and Environment in partnership with Kampala City Council (KCC) and two local NGOs developed a home-led sanitation investment financing concept aimed at improving toilet coverage in slums while the owner investment in public pay-and-use toilets and school toilets was allowed for demonstration, information, education and communication purposes to ensure a multiplier effect. Key to the concept was ensuring sustainability through stimulating demand, maximising responsibility and ownership by stakeholders and utilising subsidies as a facilitative kick-start for scaling-up. GIZ and the local Ministry entered into a public-private partnership with Crestanks and Poly Fibre, two local private companies producing modular plastic toilets, to offer a range of sanitation and hygiene products within the income means and meeting needs of the urban poor in two selected slums  in Kampala City. At the community level, sanitation marketing campaigns (focusing on landlords and women entrepreneurs and also targeting schools, religious and cultural institutions) were coupled with hygienic awareness creation, bye-law enforcement and appropriate financing that included micro credit schemes. Another financing method used was the easy product acquisition arrangements through instalment purchasing (including payments through mobile phone banking/deposits). In both the micro credit and instalment purchase financing mechanisms, partners forged alliances with NGOs, financial institutions, public authorities and the beneficiary community so as to complement their different interests. The project also trained masons from the local community. The local sanitation entrepreneurs acquired toilets and could fully recover their investment from revenues; they continued to expand their business on their own by serving a variety of hygiene needs like showers and laundry. Within the two years of the project, 75 complete toilet blocks were constructed, 45 toilet blocks rehabilitated. Scaling-up of the concept is on track with lessons drawn from the pilot incorporated in the new 10-year Improved Sanitation and Hygiene (ISH) Strategy by the Ministry of Water and Environment for the small towns in Uganda. [authors abstract]

This three-day workshop aims to identify proven good practices in the sanitation and hygiene sector, as well as drawing lessons from failures to enter into the policy dialogue. It focuses on urban sanitation with an emphasis on learning and innovation in the sector. It was organised by : UNICEF, GTZ, WSSCC, WaterAid and IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, and hosted by the Rwandan Ministry of Health.