Dear all,

There is a sort of "lessons learnt" report that came out of this project in June last year which I'd like to share with you today:

Leveraging Market Opportunities to Achieve Development Impact: Entrepreneurial Solutions to Improve Access to Sanitation and Safe Water

I attach it below and it's also available in the SuSanA library here as the 7th entry in the list:
www.susana.org/en/resources/library/details/1828

Perhaps it's of relevance to the discussion we're having here at the moment?:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/106-us...e-sanitation-problem

To give you a taste what the report is all about, I copy from the conclusions:

CONCLUSION

The SSAWA program was an exploration in mobilizing
private sector financing to improve water and
sanitation services for the underserved. Although it
was a geographically targeted and relatively short-term
initiative, it did reveal some promising findings that
suggest that private finance can be stimulated in the
sector, and could, over time, become a more meaningful
mechanism to address the major financing gap that
exists for water and sanitation in almost all developing
countries.

The SSAWA program hopes that the findings and
lessons described here can be used to inform the
growing number of initiatives that are trying to find ways
to leverage market incentives to achieve water and
sanitation development goals. Within the World Bank
Group, WSP continues to develop many of the initiatives
discussed in this paper.

And here's an accompanying e-mail from Will Davies (June 2015) which gives some background to this report:

The IFC Sanitation and Safe Water for All (SSAWA) program came to a close earlier this year, after over 3 years exploring and catalyzing market opportunities to scale up access to water and sanitation in Kenya. This is not the end of the road - some of the more promising initiatives, including the Selling Sanitation project, funded by yourselves [BMGF], continue to live on within the World Bank Group, led now by WSP.

Before we close the current chapter on the IFC side, we wanted to make sure the lessons learned from our experiences were not lost. So we have written up the attached note, and we would appreciate your support in sharing this within your networks, and also any ideas on how to best get this out into the wider world.

Best regards,
Will

Kind regards,
Elisabeth

Dear all,

I undertook some investigates to see what this project ("Selling Sanitation Initative") is up to right now.

If I am not mistaken, the funding from the Gates Foundation ended in March 2014, but the project is ongoing, now with funding by the Worldbank.

The most recent update I could so far get hold of is from August last year, see here in the SuSanA library the 6th document:
www.susana.org/en/resources/library/details/1828

It mainly talks about Plastic Latrine Slabs *:

Using the national market-sizing model, the selling sanitation team worked with manufacturers to develop sales and distribution plans for the pilot counties and beyond. Potential last-mile distribution strategies, including different sales agent models and linkages to MFIs and SACCOs (Savings and Credit Cooperative Organizations) are to be explored during the pilot phase. The pilot phase of the project set to commence early-October 2014.

[...]

Both manufacturers opted to commence with their existing distribution channels (traditional
channel) and explore other channels as the pilot rolls out. Channels to be explored include; MFIs,
CHWs, CBOs as well as Agricultural Produce collection Centres.

And also:

3. Continuing Support
The Selling Sanitation team continues to work with the national and county MoH teams in the
following ways;
• Development of a National Sanitation Bill - policies and strategies towards attaining ODF. A
toolkit for adoption by the counties will be developed under this program of work.
• Supporting counties to customize sanitation policies and strategies in line with national
Sanitation Bill.
• Supporting Legislative and financial advocacy in conjunction with the counties.
• CLTS training in the counties; this training is undertaken at the request of the county
(demand driven) and involves developing capacity for ODF verification and third-party
certification at county level.
• Mentoring PHOs and county health teams on sanitation issues.
• Development of county sanitation hubs; ToRs, structure and function as well as reporting
to national hub.
• Development of county ICCs to ensure sector coordination at county level.
• Capacity building for third-party ODF verification at county level (with STWG and KWAHO).
• Stakeholder forums and support of online monitoring and evaluation system developed by
MoH and SNV.
• Development of sector investment plan jointly with IBRD devolution and the Kenyan
economist teams.
• Supporting inter-county sanitation learning with Nakuru and Migori being the model counties.
Selling Sanitation also supported a sanitation learning visit to Rwanda by the Nakuru governor
and health team.

Furthermore:

Phase II
In the soon-to-commence Phase Two, the Program will focus on launching the national consumer
awareness campaign (above and below the line activities), supporting manufacturers to bring
their new latrine slab products to market in Kenya, and expanding into new regional markets.
Phase II is planned to commence early October 2014.

Regional Roll-out
Uganda

WSP Uganda has commenced sanitation market sizing exercise and will soon commence field
trials and consumer research for the plastic slabs developed in Kenya. One local manufacturer
(Crestanks Limited – a subsidiary of Kentainers) has expressed interest in producing plastic latrine
slabs while SIL Africa Limited is looking into the possibility of producing in Kenya/Tanzania and
exporting their slabs into Uganda. Both manufacturers await intelligence on the Uganda sanitation
market.

Tanzania

SIL Africa is making arrangements to introduce the plastic slabs in Tanzania in September 2014.
The company has delivered the first consignment of slabs (1 X 40 ft. container) to Dar es Salaam
and dealer training is ongoing – to be completed by end of September 2014. WSP Tanzania has
recruited The Aquaya Institute to undertake field trials for the plastic slabs, developed in Kenya, in the Tanzania market. On-the-ground scoping for the project is ongoing with final inception report expected by end of September 2014.
washfair.blogspot.in/2014/03/plastic-pit...slabs-coming-to.html

++++++++++

More details are in the document that I linked to above.

I am sorry that I haven't been able yet to provide you with more recent updates about this project. However, if you have questions, please put them here and I will alert the contact persons for this project to it (Lillian Mbeki and Lewnida Sara from Worldbank).

Lewnida told me by e-mail recently:
"There has been quite some progress on this project which is a collaborative effort between MoH/WSP/IFC project since then: products have been developed and gone to market, MoH has launched an Improved Sanitation Campaign in pilot counties with financial assistance of the project, and job aids developed."

Regards,
Elisabeth


* For abbreviations, please refer to the abbreviations list:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_abbreviations_used_in_sanitation

Hi Doreen,

Sorry for the slow response.

On the government side we are working with the Kenya Ministry of Health. Since this relates to on-site sanitation rather than sewerage systems they are the responsible body within the public sector.

On the manufacturing side, the advisory support under the project has been made available to all firms that have expressed an interest in developing new on-site sanitation solutions in Kenya. So far, the most interest we have seen has come from plastics manufacturers. to date we have formally signed partnership agreements with three firms, Kentainers, Silafrica and Polytanks.

On the micro-finance side, we are still exploring whether this is a viable distribution channel, given that the price points for the slabs are below the minimum threshold for micro-finance institutions (without some form of bundling). So we are not formally working with any micro-finance institutions to date.

Hope that answers the questions but please do get in touch if you would like any further information!

Will

Dear Will,

Thanks a lot for the information. I have a couple of questions.

- Are you also working with the Water Services Trust Fund (WSTF) or the Ministry of Environment Water and Natural Resources (MEWNR)
- Which manufacturers are you currently working with?
- What micro financing institutions are you working with?

Best regards,

Doreen

Dear All,

Here are some new Sanitation Market Briefs (each 4 pages) recently released by the WSP-IFC Selling Sanitation initiative with the Kenyan Ministry of Health:

Market Intelligence Brief - An overview of market sizing data for Kenya, including key drivers and market trends

Demand Generation Brief - A summary of sanitation consumer demand characteristics and overview of potential demand generation, sales and marketing strategies to unlock this demand

Product and Business Model Design - A review of the product design process used to support plastics manufacturers to design more desirable sanitation products and develop last-mile distribution strategies

IFC SmartLesson - 'Transforming Markets, Increasing Access' - An overview of the Selling Sanitation market transformation approach and early lessons

Selling Sanitation is a joint IFC-WSP market transformation initiative that aims to help millions of people across Africa get access to the household sanitation products they want and can afford. The approach is currently being piloted in Kenya, in partnership with the Kenya Ministry of Health.

The documents are available for download at www.ifc.org/sellingsanitation and are also in the SuSanA library:
www.susana.org/lang-en/library/library?v...eitem&type=2&id=1828

Best Regards,
Will

Dear Will,

Thanks for providing this interesting project description.
Great that you have performed a thorough market research to provide the base information for transforming the market.

I was wondering whether you concentrate on the supply chain of sanitation products for the households or if you also think about a market design for pit emptying.

There is another project currently taking place in Dakar, Senegal which aims at promoting mechanical desludging and reducing manual desludging. It wants to make fecal sludge emptying services accessible and affordable to the peri-urban poor. Manual desludging is predominant in Dakar because for many mechanical desluding is unaffordable. Yet, it bears high health risks.
Currently the project performs a pilot study that is creating price competition for mechanical desludging in order to lower prices.

You might find it relevant for your project. Find the project here on the discussion forum .

All the best with your project progress!

Regards,

Naomi

Dear All,

Here are some details on the Selling Sanitation initiative, a joint program of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank Water and Sanitation Program (WSP). Looking forward to discussions on the forum!

What is IFC? As a global financier with operations in many regions and sectors, IFC works with a wide range of groups that have a stake in our projects, are affected by our work, or help us strengthen our impact on sustainable private sector development. (www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/corp_ext_con...orate_site/about+ifc)

Title of grant:
Selling Sanitation: Catalyzing the Market for Household Sanitation in East Africa (IFC and WSP, Nairobi, Kenya)

Name of lead organization (for the grant): International Finance Corporation (IFC). This project is a collaboration between IFC and WSP.

Primary contact at IFC: William Davies

Grantee location: Nairobi, Kenya

Developing country where the research is being or will be tested: Kenya

Grant type: "Other" (see entry in BMGF grant database here )
Grant size: USD 640,000
Start and end date: 16 Nov 2012 until 31 March 2014 (pilot phase)

Short description of the project:
Selling Sanitation works with sanitation businesses and governments to develop commercial and sustainable markets for affordable and desirable sanitation facilities.

Selling Sanitation is a joint IFC-WSP initiative that aims to help millions of people across Africa access household sanitation facilities they want and can afford. The market development approach is currently being piloted in Kenya, with planned expansion to other African countries by 2014.

Goal(s):
We define success as market transformation: new sanitation solutions manufactured at scale, sold and distributed through new channels, reaching underserved consumers that are most in need.

Objectives:
1) Support private businesses to design, manufacture and distribute new on-site sanitation and hand washing products that meet low-income consumer needs and preferences.
2) Support the government to develop and deliver a national behavior change communications and consumer awareness campaign.
3) Identify and test appropriate financing mechanisms and consumer lending products to support uptake of new sanitation products.
4) Build the enabling environment and institutional arrangements for local government, other stakeholders and the private sector to support and regulate the sanitation market.

Results and documents:
See documents in SuSanA library: www.susana.org/en/resources/library/details/1828

Or see project website: www.ifc.org/sellingsanitation

Key components:
Selling Sanitation works with manufacturers, distributors, consumers, financial institutions, and governments to catalyze the sanitation market through:
• Business Development Services to remove first-mover barriers to market entry by supporting businesses to develop new affordable sanitation products and distribution channels to reach underserved consumers.
• Consumer Awareness to support ministries of health to develop and deliver national campaigns reaching millions with behaviour change messages and consumer information on available low-cost product options.
• Market Intelligence to demonstrate the viability of the market by providing data on market size, consumer preferences, key target segments and current trends. Market intelligence helps manufacturers, distributors and other businesses understand market opportunities and make informed decisions.
• Public Sector Engagement to improve the enabling environment for sanitation by working with government at all levels to increase uptake of improved hygienic latrines, and to facilitate and regulate a self-sustainable consumer market for sanitation.
• Pro-poor Financing to address financial constraints and bottlenecks for both consumers and businesses.

Current state of affairs:
After an extensive period of market research, product design, industry and stakeholder engagement, the project is gearing up for pilot launch. A government-led national behavior change communications and consumer awareness campaign is in development. Participating firms are just about to enter into production and distribution of a range of new affordable latrine slabs. We are supporting the public and private sectors to launch by the end of the year.

Biggest successes so far:
The project has built up the commercial case for the sanitation business opportunity through extensive market research and industry engagement. We have helped firms understand and segment the low-income consumer market, design and refine competitive product solutions to meet this market's needs, and develop distribution and sales channels. The project has engaged government at all levels, and is supporting the Ministry of Health to lead the national communications campaign, which will build on and support the ODF Kenya initiative and progress in CLTS.

Main challenges / frustration:
There are a lot of moving pieces and 'unknowns' at the beginning of a market transformation project, which makes it challenging (but also exciting and fun). Since good market research drives the direction of the project, it is impossible to predict at the outset exactly what support and program strategies will be needed. The team needed a learning-by-doing style and a high tolerance for ambiguity. And since the market transformation approach is about facilitating and catalyzing, there is a lot less certainty when it comes to the pace of things and the achievement of results (especially at the beginning) - the risk is a bit higher, but the rewards in terms of sustainability and scale potential higher too.

For more information, including key consumer insights and new product development, visit: www.ifc.org/sellingsanitation