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• (Journal Article) Efficiency of additives and internal physical chemical factors for pit latrine lifetime extension

  01.07.2018
  Pit latrines are the most common form of on-site sanitation, but are blighted by the problem of pit fill-up. Little is known about what factors and conditions affect decomposition of pit content and thus govern pit filling, but the liquid–mass balance is the key factor. Under laboratory conditions the effect of inorganic and biological additives and the effect of physical chemical factors on solids hydrolysis of black water and human faeces were investigated to establish the potential of these to extend pit latrine lifetime. Additives did little or nothing to enhance net solids hydrolysis in batch tests or to reduce pit fill height in miniature simulated pit latrines. Physical chemical factors such as redox condition and initial pH increased solids hydrolysis, whereas temperature and substrate moisture did little. Since additives need contact with the substrate to act, measurements on faeces crust formation speed and strength were performed and showed that crusts formed within three hours and persisted after covering with fresh faeces or water.

• (Journal Article) Incontinence in Zambia: initial investigation into the coping strategies of sufferers and carers

  01.07.2018
  There is little information on the management of incontinence in low-income settings. This article provides some initial insights, of particular relevance to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and health practitioners, into the coping strategies used by sufferers and carers in Zambia. Incontinence is rarely reported to medical professionals in Zambia, possibly due to a reluctance to disclose as a result of the stigma associated with the condition. Management and treatment of incontinence is subsequently limited, and both coping strategies and treatment received are determined by affordability and accessibility. If the global community is to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of universal sanitation (Goal 6) and well-being (Goal 3), future studies and programmes on incontinence in Zambia will need to involve collaborations between WASH and health practitioners that investigate how to reduce the stigma associated with the condition and increase awareness, and how to improve the availability and affordability of management and treatment, considering the potential preference for traditional medicine in rural communities.

• (Journal Article) Transgender-inclusive sanitation: insights from South Asia

  01.04.2018
  This paper provides insights from initiatives to include transgender people in sanitation programming in South Asia. Three case studies of recent actions to make sanitation inclusive for transgender people (in India and Nepal) are presented, accompanied by reflections and recommendations to guide future practice. Practitioners are recommended to: engage with transgender people as partners at all stages of an initiative; recognize that the language of gender identity is not fixed, varying across cultures and between generations; and acknowledge that transgender people are not a single homogeneous group but rather have diverse identities, histories, and priorities. The case studies aim to raise awareness of the diversity of transgender identities, exploring the needs and aspirations of transgender women, transgender men, and third gender people in South Asia.

• (Journal Article) From new evidence to better practice: finding the sanitation sweet spot

  01.10.2017
  A growing body of evidence shows that there is a strong causal link between exposure to poor sanitation and detrimental health, human capital, and economic outcomes. At the same time a number of recent impact evaluations of specific sanitation interventions show mixed results. This heterogeneity in findings raises the questions of whether and how the demonstrated benefits of improved sanitation can be consistently achieved through regular project implementation. This paper attempts to show that the benefits of improved sanitation can be consistently achieved through investing in interventions that address the drivers of latrine use and by divesting from interventions that do not address the drivers of latrine use.

• (Journal Article) Relationship between water, sanitation, hygiene, and nutrition: what do Link NCA nutrition causal analyses say?

  01.10.2017
  Defined by UNICEF as ‘the outcome of insufficient food intake and repeated infectious diseases’, undernutrition is one of the world’s most serious problems, with long-lasting harmful impacts on health and devastating consequences for social and economic development. The three main underlying causes of undernutrition, namely unsuitable or insufficient food intake, poor care practices, and infectious diseases, are directly or indirectly related to inadequate access to water, sanitation facilities, and hygiene practices (WASH). There is a growing base of evidence showing the links between poor WASH conditions, especially exposure to poor sanitation, and stunting (low height for age ratio). However, the effects of WASH interventions on wasting (low weight for height ratio) and the impact of environmental enteric dysfunction (chronic infection of small intestine caused by extended exposure to faecal pathogens) on undernutrition should be explored further. Action Against Hunger (Action Contre la Faim) promotes a participatory nutrition causal analysis, the Link NCA methodology, which is used to analyse complex, dynamic, locally specific causes of undernutrition. This article aims to assess the main findings from 12 most recent Link NCA studies, conducted from the beginning of 2014 until the end of 2016. Results show that inadequate WASH conditions are often identified as major contributors to undernutrition in the study areas. The article also provides lessons learned and a set of practical recommendations for better alignment and integration of WASH and nutrition interventions.

• (Journal Article) The handpump choice is yours: a pilot study in Rumphi District, Malawi

  01.10.2017
  In sub-Saharan Africa, moving towards the Sustainable Development Goals will require an approach to water and sanitation service delivery for many rural communities where handpumps still dominate infrastructure. This paper reviews a case study of allowing users (local government and communities) in Rumphi District, Malawi, to choose a handpump model based on information about the life-cycle costs. The results indicate that there is some awareness within communities and within the local government of several handpump options for the rural water supply in the study area. Given a choice of different handpump models in the treatment communities, each community chose the rope pump. Allowing communities to choose the type of handpump model, with input from both local government and donors on low cost borehole drilling, should be considered as an innovative approach to rural water service delivery.

• (Journal Article) Youth savings groups in Africa: they’re a family affair

  01.09.2017
  Based on fieldwork in Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, and Ghana, in the paper we provide new evidence that young people’s engagement with savings groups in Africa is deeply embedded in networks of family and social relations. Savings group members rely on money that is given to them by partners and family members to make savings contributions to the groups, while they also transfer some of their share-outs and loans to family members and friends. This is particularly true for younger members. As such we argue that the socially embedded nature of young people's engagement with savings group needs to be taken into account. The tension between the primary focus on the individual within youth saving programming, and the socially embedded nature of their engagement, has important implications for programme design, implementation and evaluation.

• (Journal Article) Trade-off between outreach and sustainability of microfinance institutions: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa

  01.09.2017
  The changing landscape of the microfinance industry, which is characterized by a decline in donor funding, has reignited debates regarding the ability of microfinance institutions to serve the poor while remaining sustainable. In this study, we examined the relationship between outreach and sustainability in the context of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and analysed the determinants of sustainability using data from 71 microfinance institutions (MFIs) across 10 countries. By applying correlation analysis and fixed effects regression, we found mixed evidence of a trade-off between the depth of outreach and operational self-sustainability. Furthermore, the results show that interest rate is a major determinant for MFI sustainability, which is consistent with the institutionalist view. Factors that significantly influence the sustainability of MFIs in SSA are the average loan size as a percentage of gross national income, gross loan portfolio, portfolio at risk, operating expenses to assets ratio, governance effectiveness, and the interest rate on loans granted to clients. The study recommends that managers of MFIs and decision makers in the region closely monitor their cost-side variables and improve productivity by adopting measures such as information communication techniques that enhance outreach at low cost. In addition, stepping up monitoring and incentivizing hard working staff could help improve both deposit mobilization and loan recovery.

• (Journal Article) What is cocoa sustainability? Mapping stakeholders’ socio-economic, environmental, and commercial constellations of priorities

  01.09.2017
  Given growing concerns regarding the chocolate sector’s long-term future, more private-sector, public-sector, and civil-society stakeholders have become involved in initiatives seeking to make cocoa more ‘sustainable’. However, the commercial, socio-economic, and environmental priorities they associate with the omnipresent, yet polysemic term diverge considerably: while transforming the crop into a more viable livelihood for growers is essential for some, others prioritize the crop’s links to global environmental challenges through agroforestry. A third dimension encompasses commercial concerns related to securing supply. The article explores how tensions and synergies manifest in these divergent understandings of what cocoa sustainability is and is to entail, which diverse civil-society, public-sector, and private-sector stakeholders bring to the table. It argues that priorities associated with ‘cocoa sustainability’ diverge, yielding synergies, tensions, and trade-offs. This article draws on the author’s in-depth doctoral fieldwork in cocoa sustainability initiatives incorporating environmental measures, which encompassed semi-structured interviews, focus-group discussions, documentary analysis, and participant observation in Latin America and Europe. It proposes the ‘constellations of priorities’ model as an instrument to capture how the priorities driving cocoa stakeholders variously dovetail, intersect, and collide. Particularly against the backdrop of the sector’s brewing crisis, the paper suggests that stakeholders systematically assess their and other actors’ socio-economic, environmental, and commercial priorities as part of the equitable engagement required to transform the sector and attain genuine cocoa sustainability.

• (Journal Article) Does women’s participation in water committees affect management and water system performance in rural Vanuatu?

  01.07.2017
  Greater participation of women in water management and decision-making is expected to improve outcomes for both women and the wider community. Global evidence indicates that women’s participation in Water User Committees (WUCs) has been limited; yet their involvement in management has correlated with more effective water systems. This analysis of water inventory data from Vanuatu considers how women’s participation in WUCs affects water management and system functionality. Women represent only 16 per cent of committee membership; however, their involvement in key WUC roles was associated with more effective water management, including regular meetings and revenue collection, and improved functioning of water systems. This evidence of women’s involvement is proving useful in advocacy efforts to improve the gender balance in WUCs, and targets for female membership are being considered for inclusion in water supply legislation.

• (Journal Article) Effects of water source accessibility and reliability improvements on water consumption in eastern Nairobi

  01.07.2017
  Under the commitments of the UN Sustainable Development targets, there is increasing pressure on water utility providers in developing countries to improve their levels of service to consumers, especially for the rapidly growing numbers of people with lower incomes who reside in urban informal settlements. However, pressure on water resources in many regions is simultaneously increasing owing to factors such as pollution, agricultural needs, and climate change. It is therefore important to assess the impacts of improving water services on city-wide water resources. This study examines consumption data from the East African city of Nairobi, collected from households of a variety of residential neighbourhoods. The study suggests that average per capita water consumption is closely related to water source choice (i.e. tap in the dwelling, yard tap, or water vendor kiosks). Within categories of water source type, variables such as household wealth, cost of water, and education do not have significant effects on per capita consumption. It is noted that increased accessibility of water causes the upper bound of consumption to rise, but not the lower. It may therefore be theorized that having a tap in a dwelling is necessary but not sufficient to increase per capita consumption. Within the sample examined, there is no statistically significant difference in per capita consumption between water source types other than a tap in a dwelling, and it is therefore suggested that providing a yard tap to those currently without any form of water connection may have negligible impact on city-wide water consumption.

• (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) 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) Value chain financing: evidence from Zambia on smallholder access to finance for mechanization

  01.03.2017
  Smallholder farmers in Zambia comprise 85 per cent of the farmers’ population. Such farmers are regarded as not creditworthy and furthermore their agricultural productivity could be improved. The aim of this paper is to present recent evidence on value chain financing (VCF) as a framework to increase access to agricultural finance for Zambian smallholder farmers. Such financing will act as an enabler to mechanize and, in turn, might improve productivity. Qualitative data collection techniques were followed to provide the results as presented in three illustrative case studies. Each case study highlights the benefits of financing, using the value chain framework, but also emphasizes certain challenges and risks associated with the approach. The Zambian case is not perfect, but provides recent evidence of how various roleplayers in Zambia’s agricultural sector have applied the VCF framework to coordinate the actions of various chain actors, and by doing so allow smallholders access to finance within the local and country-specific context. Although two of the three VCF programmes have been discontinued, they still provide useful learning points: for instance, commercial banks should assign more resources to manage the VCF products; and the risk should be shared between all the VCF participants.

• (Journal Article) Value chain development in Nicaragua: prevailing approaches and tools used for design and implementation

  01.03.2017
  This article draws on four contrasting cases of value chain development (VCD) in Nicaragua to assess approaches and tools used in design and implementation. We interviewed 28 representatives from the international NGOs leading the interventions, the local NGOs that participated in implementation, principal buyers, and cooperatives. Despite the complexity of market systems, results showed a relatively basic approach to VCD, reflected in: 1) reliance on a single tool for design and implementation; 2) expected outcomes based on technical assistance and training for smallholders and cooperatives; 3) local NGOs and cooperatives with key roles in implementation; and 4) limited engagement with other chain actors, service providers, and researchers. We conclude with a call for a broader approach to VCD, based on a combination of tools to account for multiple, context-specific needs of diverse stakeholders, deeper collaboration between key actors within and outside the value chain, and evidence-based reflection and learning.

• (Journal Article) Development impact bonds: learning from the Asháninka cocoa and coffee case in Peru

  01.03.2017
  Impact bonds effectively allow the risk of implementing social development activities to be shared with private sector investors. Social or development impact bonds replace the upfront financing of charitable activities with a pay-for-success contract. Four actors together agree upon the outcomes and their indicators: outcome sponsor, investor, project implementers, and verifier. Under such a contract, a charitable donor or government (‘outcome sponsor’) takes the obligation to pay the ‘investor’ an amount determined by a set of objective indicators reflecting the outcome desired by the donor. The investor, expecting contract-based future payout, can recruit and pre-finance project implementers (‘service provider’) to achieve the agreed results. The achievements of the outcome indicators are assessed by an independent verifier to conclude the payout from donor to investor according to the contract. The structure allows charitable donors to transfer a significant share of risk to investors and/or financial markets. The Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), the Schmidt Family Foundation (SFF), Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK), and the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) were the first to apply the model in the agricultural sector in an emerging economy. The main objective of the impact bond was to increase productivity and market sales of cocoa and coffee produced by the Asháninka people, an indigenous community living in the Peruvian Amazon. This pilot provides valuable lessons learned to contribute to the development of the mechanism.

• (Journal Article) Chlorination of drinking water in emergencies: a review of knowledge to develop recommendations for implementation and research needed

  01.01.2017
  Clean water provision is a critical component of emergency response, and chlorination is widely used in emergencies to treat water. To provide responders with practical, evidence-based recommendations for implementing chlorination programmes and recommend areas for future research, we conducted a literature review of chlorination in emergencies, supplemented with a literature review on chlorination in general. We identified 106 total documents, including 7 with information on technical efficacy, 26 on chlorine dosage, 22 on technical challenges, 21 on product options, 8 on user acceptability, 33 on programmes for emergencies, and 8 on monitoring. We found that: 1) international chlorine dosage recommendations in emergencies are highly inconsistent; 2) high-quality information from the general chlorination literature on challenges of chlorination can be adapted for emergencies; 3) many chlorine products are available for use in point-of-delivery, point-of-source, and point-of-use emergency-response programmes; 4) information on the effectiveness of different chlorination programmes in emergencies varies, ranging from little data available to high-quality data that can inform programming; 5) information on user acceptability of chlorination in emergencies is lacking; and 6) monitoring data on chlorine programme effectiveness in emergencies are lacking. In this manuscript, we provide a summary of knowledge on chlorination in emergencies, recommendations for programme implementation, and recommendations for future research needed to assist communities and agencies responding to the increasing number of natural disasters and outbreaks worldwide.

• (Journal Article) Can and should sanitation and hygiene programmes be expected to achieve health impacts?

  01.01.2017
  Although the anticipated health benefits are not the only reason for undertaking sanitation and hygiene programmes, they do represent an important part of the justification. Studies and reviews over recent years have shown, however, that the health impacts of sanitation programmes can be quite small or even negligible. They have also provided no solid evidence that integrated (water, sanitation, hygiene) programming has any greater effect than addressing one or two of these components alone. Two questions arise: first, whether a certain level of sanitation usage and hygiene practice within a community is needed in order to achieve a measurable health impact (i.e. whether a minimum percentage of the population should be using safe sanitation); second, whether sanitation and hygiene interventions undertaken without accompanying water supply improvements are likely to have significant health benefits. In this opinion paper some plausible and practically relevant answers to these questions are extracted from the relevant literature. The conclusions are that a high level of sanitation usage (well over 65 per cent) and widespread handwashing practice are necessary to achieve significant health impact; and that in situations where water services are poor, sanitation and hygiene interventions, while valuable for other reasons, are unlikely to have significant health impacts. Sanitation and hygiene programmes may be justifiable even if they do not immediately achieve high levels of compliance and corresponding water supply improvements are not made; however, the justification should not be presented on the grounds of short-term health benefits.

• (Journal Article) Nuggets from an old book: A Practical Handbook of Water Supply by F. Dixey (1931)

  01.01.2017
  Frank Dixey’s A Practical Handbook of Water Supply, published in 1931 is briefly reviewed. The text is correlated with current knowledge and experience. It is evident from the book that some of the present challenges in the water supply sector have been around for a long time which leads to the conclusion that effecting a change takes time. Development agencies therefore need to set realistic targets and time frames. Some of the rather old texts should be consulted and reviewed periodically as they may contain very useful information.

• (Journal Article) Urban community-led total sanitation: a potential way forward for co-producing sanitation services

  01.10.2016
  Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) has been proved to be a successful strategy for tackling the challenge of open defecation in poor rural communities across Africa and Asia. This article explores whether a similar approach can be used in peri-urban and urban areas to help co-produce sanitation facilities and services with inputs from communities, duty bearers, and other sanitation stakeholders. It is argued that an urban CLTS approach does not mean a copy and paste of tools and methods which have proved successful in the rural environment but following a set of similar principles. Based on field experiences different steps are suggested that incorporate these principles and respond to the specific urban sanitation problem. This article helps to articulate and better define urban CLTS as well as giving practical guidance for those wanting to use this kind of approach.