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Rethinking Sanitation Services for the Urban Poor: Examples from Malawi and Zambia WISA Africa Water and Sanitation Conference, Livingstone November 20, 2007. Barbara Mwila Kazimbaya-Senkwe Water and Sanitation Specialist WSP, Zambia. Order of Presentation. Aims of the Presentation
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Rethinking Sanitation Services for the Urban Poor: Examples from Malawi and Zambia WISA Africa Water and Sanitation Conference, LivingstoneNovember 20, 2007 Barbara Mwila Kazimbaya-Senkwe Water and Sanitation Specialist WSP, Zambia
Order of Presentation • Aims of the Presentation • Why Focus on Sanitation? • Rethinking Sanitation: The key Principles of Sanitation Marketing • Sanitation Marketing in Malawi and Zambia • Major Challenges to Sanitation Marketing • Key Lessons
Aims of the Presentation • Reiterate why focusing on sanitation is important • Share one of the ‘new’ ways of thinking on how to do sanitation • Show how this new thinking is being applied in Malawi and Zambia • Highlight some of the major challenges of this approach • Suggest some key lessons for discussion
Why Focus on Sanitation • Access is still very poor • A key MDG target • Sub-sector still remains under funded
Why Focus on Sanitation Environmental and Social-Economic Benefits • Health • Economic ( more productive time, less health costs) • Social/ Cultural • Cross cutting ( gender, HIV etc) ( Easier burdens for women, patients) • Environment (reduced degradation) Therefore: Sanitation Externalities are Societal, not Individual, hence sanitation is beyond individual household responsibility( e.g. epidemics and cost to the nation) The question then is: How can governments and their partners ensure that these benefits are shared by all?
Rethinking Sanitation Services Provision: The key Principles of Sanitation Marketing • Take a Holistic approach • Five key elements of environmental sanitation • Recognize sanitation as both a household good as well as a public service • Sanitation must be demand driven with the public providing an enabling environment • Focus on behavior change • Hardware is not enough • Provide choice for households • One size does not fit all • Look for ways to leverage resources to help reduce financial burden on the public sector • Bring on board the public and private sector and households
Environmental Sanitation: Five Key Elements • Hardware • Latrines/Pour flush toilets • Dump sites • Environmental Sustainability • Water quality/resource management • Regulations and enforcement • Resources & Finance • Financing strategies for sanitation • Financial sources • Investment Plan • Enabling Environment for Scaling Up • Public awareness and demand • Political leadership • National Sanitation policies • Clear institutional responsibility • Software • Sanitation promotion/marketing • Hygiene promotion SANITATION Sustainable, Effective, Efficient
The Sanitation Marketing Objective Increase likelihood of behavior change Hygiene Promotion Infrastructure, Products & Tools Increased likelihood of behavior change When all the conditions exist in the same place at the same time, it increases the likelihood of behavior change. Enabling Environment
Applying the new thinking to Urban Low Income Areas in Malawi and Zambia • Blantyre and Lilongwe in Malawi and Lusaka in Zambia • Least access to sanitation services • Higher Population Densities ( at least 50% of city population) • Severe Poverty in some pockets • Limited access to land with issues of illegal tenure • Limited accessibility • Limited access to water • Not particularly popular to utilities
Opportunities for Engagement • Sanitation given serious consideration and Funding Commitments • World Bank funded projects in both countries • EIB/EU funding in Malawi • Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company (LWSC) Initiative for sanitation tax on water • Willingness by key players to try something new • WSP asked to take the lead on services to low income areas • Programmatic approach adopted in Malawi • LWSC trying to address peri-urban services holistically • Possibility to learn from other ‘success’ stories • e.g. Burkina Faso • Opportunity to derive lessons for large scale implementation (e.g. WSP activities in Tanzania)
What has been done? • WSP has provided Technical Assistance- consultants to assist the governments develop sanitation marketing strategies for the 3 cities • Malawi strategy now in draft; Lusaka process just starting • Malawi consultants undertook Market analysis research • Demand Side Survey • Traditional Housing areas/ Informal settlements • Landlords/ tenants • Mothers/ Fathers • Supply Side Survey • Artisans/ pit emptying/ builders/ suppliers • Enabling Policy Survey • Key institutions • Consultants used an iterative and consultative process to formulate the strategy based on the research results
What is being Proposed? • The strategy proposes action in 3 intervention areas: The aim is to affect change in health conditions and promote behaviors that improve those conditions
What are the Key action areas? • The strategy is based on 9 (nine) Ps • People - with whom should the products, services, and practices be encouraged? • Practice - What feasible consumer practices should be encouraged? • Product - What products and services are needed to enable these practices? • Providers – By Whom should the products, services, and practices be promoted and supplied? • Persuasion - What appeals/triggers/drivers should be accentuated? • Packaging - What product and service qualities should be emphasized? • Price - What prices should be established for the required products and services? • Place - Where should these products, services, and practices be made available? • Promotion - How can these products, services, and/or practices be encouraged?
What are the Major Challenges in the process? • Availability of finances and the desire/need for quick visible results • Difficulties of shifting mindsets from ‘business as usual’ • Long preparation process- at least 6 months- strategic versus short term goals • Experienced consultants are not readily available • Need for constant stakeholder consultation- this is expensive and time consuming • Turf wars amongst donor agencies and NGOs- whose flag should fly and whose ‘knowledge’ should be used? • Lack of leadership by government to direct donor agencies • Lack of institutional clarity on who has responsibility for sanitation
Key Lessons • Sanitation has started to get political attention and there is increased willingness to finance it- Challenge is to be innovative • Serving the low income areas in urban areas remains a major challenge – but the gains from action could be enormous • It is possible to get coalition around a demand driven approach but it requires Negotiation, patience, persuasiveness and perseverance. • We need to build up a pool of social marketing skills • Social marketing is doable and affordable, • but financing agencies need to be prepared to take the long term rather than the short term political view • Governments need to take stronger leadership • More clarity of institutional arrangements is needed