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(Journal Article) Identification of the potential opportunities, barriers, and threats within the sector in taking up sanitation as a business: rural sanitation in Nkhata Bay District (Malawi)
01.07.2014
Private sector participation in sanitation marketing provides a great opportunity to improve rural sanitation access. Although a number of opportunities for private sector participation within the sanitation sector exist, there are numerous barriers and threats to taking up sanitation as a business. This Note from the Field identifies these opportunities, barriers, and threats in Nkhata Bay District, a rural area of Malawi. These insights emerge from a wider research project entitled ‘Private sector participation in the delivery of sanitation and hygiene services’. This note provides background information on the research project on private sector participation and the project location. It goes on to describe the data collection process and present two examples of business activities in the district sanitation sector, before listing the opportunities, barriers, and threats identified and the recommendations that emerge from them. -
(Journal Article) Adolescent schoolgirls' experiences of menstrual cups and pads in rural western Kenya: a qualitative study
01.01.2015
Poor menstrual hygiene management (MHM) among schoolgirls in low income countries affects girls' dignity, self-esteem, and schooling. Hygienic, effective, and sustainable menstrual products are required. A randomized controlled feasibility study was conducted among 14-16-year-old girls, in 30 primary schools in rural western Kenya, to examine acceptability, use, and safety of menstrual cups or sanitary pads. Focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted to evaluate girls' perceptions and experiences six months after product introduction. Narratives from 10 girls' and 6 parents’ FGDs were analysed thematically. Comparison, fear, and confidence were emergent themes. Initial use of cups was slow. Once comfortable, girls using cups or pads reported being free of embarrassing leakage, odour, and dislodged items compared with girls using traditional materials. School absenteeism and impaired concentration were only reported by girls using traditional materials. Girls using cups preferred them to pads. Advantages of cups and pads over traditional items provide optimism for MHM programmes -
(Journal Article) Beyond ‘functionality’ of handpump-supplied rural water services in developing countries
01.01.2016
Many rural point-water sources in developing countries consist of wells or boreholes equipped with handpumps. Various estimates have been made of the functionality of such water points, and functionality is now routinely monitored in national and local surveys of service performance. We argue, however, that a single binary (functional/non-functional) indicator is crude and insufficient to provide much information about service sustainability. We set out a categorization of functionality which includes three sub-categories of functional water points and five non-functional sub-categories, with well/handpump water points in mind. We use a simple model to demonstrate that reduction of high rates of early post-construction abandonment and reduction of total downtimes would greatly improve service performance. We show that functionality levels for multi-age populations of wells or boreholes equipped with handpumps would not normally be expected to exceed about 85 per cent. We recommend going beyond functionality monitoring via the collection of quantitative data on rates of abandonment, frequency and duration of breakdown, combined with descriptive narratives of actions to manage and repair water points, in order to generate more nuanced understanding of service performance. -
(Journal Article) At the nexus of investment and development: lessons from a 60-year experiment in SME impact investing
01.12.2014
Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) was launched as an investment club in 1953 when a group of North American Mennonite business people joined together to support the development of communities in Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. With their business background, this group of early ‘impact investors’ determined that they would provide loans to small to medium enterprises (SME) in order to catalyse sustainable economic growth. They offered the loans as high-risk venture capital and mitigated the risks with the provision of business coaching and technical assistance. Since those early days, MEDA and the SME investment fund managers which it has co-founded (Microvest and Sarona Asset Management) have continued to make impactful investments and to work towards a common development goal, ‘to help people help themselves’ (Fretz, 1978 : 19). This paper presents a case study of the 60-year ‘MEDA experiment’, (Fretz, 1978), describes specific activities and innovations, and identifies MEDA's learnings that have emerged from this SME investment experience. -
(Journal Article) Value chain development with the extremely poor: evidence and lessons from CARE, Save the Children, and World Vision
01.03.2017
CARE, Save the Children, and World Vision are combining value chain development (VCD) with gender and nutrition programming to alleviate poverty and food insecurity among the extremely poor. We explore what is unique about VCD with the extremely poor and how specific levers enhance productivity and profitability, equity, and empowerment. We offer evidence to date and lessons learned. -
(Journal Article) New approaches to MSME lending: challenging traditional credit assessment models in electronic cash-flow environments
01.09.2014
Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) play a critical role in economic growth and wage employment in both developed and developing economies, yet significant obstacles remain in unlocking the potential of these businesses - especially as regards access to credit. A confluence of three new market trends is reshaping longstanding efforts to overcome this dilemma: 1) increasing access to real-time, 'electronically verifiable' cash-flows; 2) the mining of cash-flow data to reveal insights into repayment likelihood beyond that discoverable in traditional credit analysis; and 3) the adoption of financial technology and certain principles of microfinance lending - most specifically uncollateralized lending and frequent incremental repayment - to meet the funding needs of MSMEs. This paper explores the interrelationship of these trends and contends that, together, they enable suitably empowered financial institutions to originate and manage short-term, unsecured loans to formal MSMEs on a profitable and scalable basis. -
(Journal Article) The role of handpump corrosion in the contamination and failure of rural water supplies
01.01.2016
There has been much discussion over many years regarding the origin of elevated iron concentrations in rural water supplies in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. High iron concentrations are often assumed to be naturally occurring in groundwater, despite several studies over the last 30 years which also point to the role of handpump corrosion in aggressive groundwater. Handpump standards specify that galvanized iron pump materials should not be used in groundwater due to the risk of corrosion, yet this advice is not always followed. High iron concentrations, whether naturally occurring, or present as a result of corrosion, have an impact on taste, odour, and appearance of water and can promote the growth of unpleasant iron metabolizing bacteria. These effects often result in the abandonment of boreholes, sometimes only a year old, and a return to unprotected and unsafe water sources. Where boreholes are not abandoned, the effects of corrosion can cause pump materials to degrade to the point where the pump becomes inoperable. These outcomes are clearly inconsistent with the provision of sustainable water supply services as a fundamental human right. This paper provides a synthesis of work undertaken in this area over the last 30 years and recent practical experience of WaterAid in investigating these problems in water supplies in north-eastern Uganda. -
(Journal Article) Crossfire: Can effective programming approaches to lift people over the poverty line focus on market systems alone?
01.03.2022
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(Journal Article) Return to learn: recommendations from revisited rural ecosan projects in Burkina Faso
01.01.2020
Burkina Faso has extensive experience with urine-diverting dry toilets (UDDTs) and the reuse of human excreta in agriculture in line with the ecological sanitation (ecosan) principles of containment, treatment, and reuse. Around 30 such ecosan projects have been implemented over the past 15 years, including installation of approximately 13,500 household UDDTs, accompanied by awareness-building and training on toilet use, emptying, and reuse. Recently, efforts have been made to revisit former and current project sites in the spirit of ‘return to learn’. We identified four such learning initiatives (studies/events), from which we draw recommendations to improve the sustainability of future implementation of ecosan in Burkina Faso and similar contexts. Key recommendations include increased attention to different user needs, handwashing and training on emptying/reuse as well as research and innovation on toilet design, urine collection/handling, menstrual management, and cost reduction/financing. Burkina Faso has set up the ambitious goal of 100 per cent toilet coverage and optimal reuse in the national sanitation programme by 2030, with UDDTs projected to make up 15 per cent of the 2 million toilets needed in rural areas. It is therefore timely to take stock and learn from past interventions. In addition, to enable resource recovery and reuse at scale, it will be important to develop a supportive policy and legal framework with collaboration between the WASH, agriculture, health, and environmental sectors. -
(Journal Article) Menstrual hygiene management and reproductive tract infections: a comparison between rural and urban India
01.04.2019
The objective of the research was to compare factors associated with menstrual hygiene management (MHM) between urban and rural ever-married women in India, and its effect on reproductive tract infections (RTIs). A cross-sectional study was performed analysing data from the Indian District Level Household and Facility Survey 2007–08 (DLHS-3). The respondents were ever-married women between 15 and 49 years of age (N = 577,768). A quarter of women from urban areas use improved methods compared with only 4.3 per cent in rural areas. Cloth had the highest prevalence of usage in both areas. Socio-demographic factors associated with the usage of improved methods were almost the same between localities. Women using improved methods were less likely to suffer from RTIs across localities, except for urinary tract infections (UTIs) in rural areas; UTIs (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 0.95 – 1.03 in rural areas and AOR = 0.80 – 0.88 in urban areas). Findings reiterate the complexity of MHM and the need for immediate attention from the government and other agencies to ensure that girls and women have hygienic practices during their menstrual periods which will help prevent RTIs related to poor MHM. -
(Journal Article) Impact assessment of commodity standards: towards inclusive value chains
01.03.2017
Voluntary commodity standards are widely used to enhance the performance of tropical agro-food chains and to support the welfare and sustainability of smallholder farmers. Different methods and approaches are used to assess the effectiveness and impact of these certification schemes at farm-household, village, cooperative, and regional level. We provide an overview of the results from robust impact studies on coffee, tea, banana, cocoa, and cotton certification programmes. Overall outcomes show rather modest net revenue effects for farmers, small direct income effect for wage workers, and contested sustainability effects. Most impact studies focus on primary sourcing, but devote less attention to changes in trust and governance throughout the value chain. Moreover, implications for gender issues and supply chain trust are not always fully addressed. In order to better understand these somewhat disappointing effects, we discuss different fallacies and drawbacks that affect impact studies concerning commodity certification programmes. Main attention is given to perverse incentives for intensification and specialization that arise from certification. Moreover, spillovers to other (non-certified) farmers and spatial externalities at landscape level may reduce net effects. Important secondary effects related to behavioural change (risk, trust) and local innovation dynamics are usually overlooked. Current practices in value chain development programmes should focus increasingly on dynamic effects of upgrading and improved market integration. New interactive impact assessment approaches (gaming, multi-agency simulation) that address integrated value chain relationships offer promising perspectives for real-time and systematic analysis of alternatives for smallholder value chain inclusion beyond certification. -
(Journal Article) Boosting financial inclusion through social assistance reform: evidence-based approach in selecting a payment system
01.12.2020
Digitizing social assistance for the poor has been proven to increase financial inclusion. The Indonesian Government initiated reform for non-cash social assistance disbursement in 2016. Evidence-based policy approach is an effective technique for informing the government on appropriate new regulations. A pilot project involving 4,295 participants was conducted to evaluate the following payment systems: debit card, mobile money, QR code (quick response), and NFC (near field communication). Beneficiaries utilized the funds for cash withdrawals and food purchases at bank agents. Quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in the analysis. The government decided to use debit card with multiple wallet features. A new regulation was made to support the implementation in 2017, and by the end of 2019, the government provided more than 12 million new savings accounts to the poor. Potential future improvements are proposed for the sustainability of the solution, which include a disbursement providers’ revenue model, broader financial services involvement, bank agents’ inventory system, and optimizing the latest innovations. -
(Journal Article) Role of inclusive market systems development in promoting resilience: evidence from World Vision projects
01.03.2022
Evidence on whether market systems development (MSD) programmes for extremely poor smallholder farmers in low-income countries are associated with resilient outcomes when shocks/stressors appear is limited. We discuss the role of the inclusive MSD (iMSD) approach to generate resilience among vulnerable populations and report empirical evidence from World Vision’s project areas (with iMSD activities) and comparison communities in Tanzania and Rwanda. The panel data collected between 2017 and 2021 provide evidence on differences in household-level resilience in the face of COVID-19 shock. Descriptive estimates from the 2021 survey show project households had statistically greater food security, market participation, and perception of being fully/partially recovered than comparison households in both Tanzania and Rwanda. Integration in market systems helped buffer participants. Though food insecurity declined between survey rounds in Tanzania, it worsened in Rwanda, but more so among comparison households. Respondents in Rwanda experienced stricter COVID-19 ‘lockdowns’ and more limited iMSD activities than Tanzanians. -
(Journal Article) Assessment of low-cost, non-electrically powered chlorination devices for gravity-driven membrane water kiosks in eastern Uganda
01.04.2021
Recontamination during transport and storage is a common challenge of water supply in low-income settings, especially if water is collected manually. Chlorination is a strategy to reduce recontamination. We assessed seven low-cost, non-electrically powered chlorination devices in gravity-driven membrane filtration (GDM) kiosks in eastern Uganda: one floater, two in-line dosers, three end-line dosers (tap-attached), and one manual dispenser. The evaluation criteria were dosing consistency, user-friendliness, ease of maintenance, local supply chain, and cost. Achieving an adequate chlorine dosage (∼2 mg/L at the tap and ≥ 0.2 mg/L after 24 h of storage in a container) was challenging. The T-chlorinator was the most promising option for GDM kiosks: it achieved correct dosage (CD, 1.5–2.5 mg/L) with a probability of 90 per cent, was easy to use and maintain, economical, and can be made from locally available materials. The other in-line option, the chlorine-dosing bucket (40 per cent CD) still needs design improvements. The end-line options AkvoTur (67 per cent CD) and AquatabsFlo® (57 per cent CD) are easy to install and operate at the tap, but can be easily damaged in the GDM set-up. The Venturi doser (52 per cent CD) did not perform satisfactorily with flow rates > 6 L/min. The chlorine dispenser (52 per cent CD) was robust and user-friendly, but can only be recommended if users comply with chlorinating the water themselves. Establishing a sustainable supply chain for chlorine products was challenging. Where solid chlorine tablets were locally rarely available, the costs of liquid chlorine options were high (27–162 per cent of the water price). -
(Journal Article) Process learning on partnerships: building functioning research and practice organizational relationships
01.01.2019
Implementers and researchers are responding to increasingly strong incentives to work together closely. Donors are placing a higher value on data, rigour, and evidence of impact from development assistance projects. This is seen in policy debates emphasizing value for money, and funding contingent on results and performance. In response, implementing organizations are increasingly collaborating with researchers. Such arrangements incur costs (financial and other), but the return on investment is high. Investments in relationship building, open and frequent communications, a clear understanding of partners’ objectives and non-negotiable requirements, and a mind-set of problem solving are important priorities in setting productive implementation science partnerships. We document process learning from developing a partnership between an implementing organization, Plan International, and a research institute, the Water Institute at the University of North Carolina. We make the case that: effective partnerships have preconditions for success; building institutional respect takes time and incremental changes to business as usual; establishing a partnership early with a long start-up period is advisable; accountability and research relevancy increase through shared roles during project design and results interpretation; and research message development requires regular review meetings with increasing frequency toward the end of a project. -
(Journal Article) Global assessment of grant-funded, market-based sanitation development projects
01.07.2020
Evidence on the performance of market-based sanitation (MBS) interventions is needed to support renewed focus on using them to deliver sanitation services at scale. We conducted a comprehensive review of WASH grant-funding since 1980 to identify household sanitation supply projects using an MBS approach, assessed project characteristics and outcomes (population impacted), and reviewed project strategies against three key factors for scaling MBS (customer and business finance; availability and viability of local entrepreneurs; appropriate toilet product and business models). For a subset with higher outcomes, we assessed project strategies more fully against nine MBS strategies considered good practice, and the programme’s ability to leverage household investment. Of 103 sanitation supply projects in eight global databases, 49 qualified as MBS and occurred in 22 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, South/Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Cumulatively, 27.6 million people, nearly all rural, gained access to basic sanitation via markets across these projects. ‘Large-scale’ MBS projects exceeding 50,000 people gaining basic sanitation (n = 27) compared with those that did not (n = 22) were longer and significantly more likely to address all three key factors (74 per cent vs. 41 per cent; p = 0.019), but on average applied only six of nine good practice strategies. Outcomes and programme leverage were higher in South/Southeast Asia than in sub-Saharan Africa. However, African projects tended to have shorter duration, fewer reached ‘large-scale’, and rarely employed a sales and marketing strategy. We discuss implications for improving the design and performance of MBS interventions globally and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. -
(Journal Article) How commercial banks can offer financial products to SMEs for investing in energy efficiency
01.09.2014
Energy consumption can account for up to 50 per cent of the total business costs for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Investments targeting energy savings provide a quick way for a small business to gain a cost advantage. Well-designed energy efficiency projects often show positive cash flows relatively quickly and allow for the projects themselves to pay back investments (and loans). Globally, there is a significant untapped potential to reduce energy costs. Demand-side market failures relate to lack of information. Supply-side market failures relate to limited access to finance for energy efficiency investments. Sustainable energy finance facilities (SEFFs) address this financing gap and provide access to technical advice for SMEs and banks. The success of SEFFs has demonstrated that commercial banks can bridge the sustainable energy financing gap by: 1) understanding the opportunity to improve their clients' cost structures using the right communication approach; 2) leveraging existing information from their own loan portfolio combined with publicly available information on the energy performance of technologies; 3) ensuring dedicated staff have project finance skills and that contracts are suitably tailored; 4) gaining access to energy expertise; and 5) having access to a list of high energy performance technologies. -
(Journal Article) Making markets work for women: how push and pull strategies can support women's economic empowerment
01.03.2015
In many countries, the inability of women to negotiate pervasive social, legal, and cultural barriers inhibits their participation in the productive sphere, particularly their entry into market systems as producers and entrepreneurs. The paper draws on case studies from projects implemented by the Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) in Ghana, the Entrepreneurship and Community Development Institute (ECDI) in Pakistan, and Zardozi in Afghanistan to show how practitioners can maximize ‘push’ and ‘pull’ strategies to increase the scale, impact, and sustainability of women's economic empowerment programming. Despite differences in country contexts, value chains, and sectors, the authors illustrate the importance of ‘push’ strategies in helping women to overcome the persistent gender-based discrimination that undermines women's understanding of markets, access to networks, self-confidence, and business success. They also show how deliberate ‘pull’ strategies that use commercially based incentives can increase women's incomes and business sustainability. The authors conclude that a blend of push and pull strategies will provide the most reach and impact for women's economic empowerment projects, ensuring income growth and gender equality dividends for families and communities. -
(Journal Article) Educating sanitation professionals: moving from STEM to specialist training in higher education in Malawi
01.09.2022
Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires effective changes in multiple sectors including education, economics, and health. Malawi faces challenges in attaining the SDGs in general, and specifically in the sanitation sector. This paper aims to describe the existing landscape within public universities in Malawi to build a framework for training a cadre of locally trained experts. This is achieved by reviewing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degree programmes and assessing the extent of inclusion of sanitation education. The historical compartmentalization of academic programmes has resulted in few programmes to build on. Deliberate investment is needed to build from the current STEM higher education landscape to an effective framework for training sanitation experts, especially female experts. For low-income countries such as Malawi, a cadre of ~17,600 locally trained sanitation experts may be needed, for which the current higher education landscape is not sufficient. Using the Centre of Excellence in Water and Sanitation at Mzuzu University in Malawi as a case study, this paper provides a model of sanitation education in low-income countries that: 1) provides an effective complementary contribution to delivering sanitation education; 2) links to overall SDGs, national policy, university goals, and localized needs; and 3) engages students, faculty, and communities in local research. -
(Journal Article) Editorial
01.03.2022
The theme of this special issue is the potential for inclusive financial and market systems to reduce extreme poverty and improve food security.