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TitleThe implications of a household sanitation subsidy scheme for future work in Antananarivo, Madagascar
Publication TypeMiscellaneous
Year of Publication2010
AuthorsGarbutt, C
Pagination37 p. 7 tab.
Date Published2010-09-01
PublisherS.n.
Place PublishedS.l.
Keywordsaccess to sanitation, household appliances, madagascar, peri-urban communities, poverty, sanitation, urban areas, urban communities
Abstract

At the current rate, the world will not achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of those without access to improved sanitation. Supply driven approaches have in the past been favoured by time-limited donor-funded projects but have not enabled implementation at scale. In peri-urban Antananarivo (Madagascar) Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) sold heavily subsidised latrines at three different prices depending on the households’ socio-economic status. With 2092 latrines built, 65% of the target, WSUP plans to change its program: moving away from
hardware subsidies towards a market-based self-sustaining system of improved sanitation provision within the same communities. This research evaluated the impact of the initial project on the community, exploring issues such as transparency of allocation, the households’ sense of ownership and dependency on subsidies. It looked at the implications of these findings on WSUP’s future strategy and then assessed the feasibility of future financing options under a sanitation marketing approach. This was achieved through in-depth household interviews (both those who had and hadn’t received a subsidy), key informant interviews, focus group discussions and observations. The study found that open defecation is still practised, posing a great risk to public health in WSUP’s project areas. A comparison between the socio-economic status and the amount of subsidy received showed limited targeting accuracy. Monthly expenditures on mobile phone credit and electricity give an indication of an ability to pay for latrines in small monthly instalments. An expectation of future assistance
demonstrates the dependency on subsidies and combined with competing household priorities results in low demand for improved sanitation. Therefore the highest priority of WSUP’s future strategy should be to invest in a community-led approach with two main objectives of eradicating open defecation and raising demand for improved latrines. [authors abstract]

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