Total Sanitation and Sanitation Marketing: Exploring the ideal in the behavior-change continuum

Abstract:

According to a 2008 report by UNICEF and WHO, some 2.5 billion people in developing countries do not have access to a toilet, with a corresponding effect on their health, economic, and social well-being. Traditional approaches to increasing access have concentrated on building or subsidizing new latrines, resulting in poorly maintained and often unused facilities. More promising approaches to increase sustainable sanitation coverage have focused on behavior change. Historically there have been two approaches to behavior-change in sanitation – community-based vs. individual-based. These can be seen as anchoring either end of a behavior-change continuum, and within a given national context, the ideal mix resides somewhere between them.

With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Water and Sanitation Program, a partnership of the World Bank, is implementing a four year project (2006-2010) with government counterparts and other partners entitled, “Total Sanitation and Sanitation Marketing (TSSM). The project, being implemented in Indonesia, Tanzania, and India, has as its main objectives to create large-scale, sustainable, and effective demand and supply for sanitation and hygiene at the household and community level.

This paper will explain the following:

- Explain the conceptual framework of the behavior-change continuum from community (Total Sanitation) to individual (Sanitation Marketing)

- Compare differences and similarities to traditional models

- Discuss the potential multiplier effect resulting from complementary community/individual –based approaches

- Explain the current implementation model in Tanzania

- Describe the results to date from Tanzania