Dear Mr. Mughal,

Many thanks for your question and for your interest in the GSF’s results. The GSF currently works in 13 countries across Africa and Asia. We do not currently work in Pakistan, but we are considering opportunities for engagement. As such, we do not currently have an influence on open defecation rates in Pakistan. Although we work in India, we only work on a relatively small scale in three states. Original 2010 targets for the GSF-funded India programme were set at 7.5 million out of approximately 600 million people practicing OD in India. This original target was based on contextual assumptions agreed on at the time. Following a Mid-Term Review in 2014, our ODF target will be lowered to around 2 million, making an even smaller dent in the overall OD figure in India.

What we are essentially aiming to do in India is demonstrate viable approaches to sustained sanitation and hygiene behavior change and to work with state governments to look for ways to scale up these approaches across states, therefore impacting on the massive OD rates in the country. This is a longer term strategic objective of the WSSCC/GSF in India.

Thanks again for your question and please feel free to browse the WSSCC website to find out more about the GSF’s work in India and other countries.

Best regards,
Okechukwu Umelo (on behalf of the GSF Secretariat)
Media and Communications Officer, WSSCC/GSF

Dear Mr. Dave,

It is good to note that the national programs have enabled close to 10 million people in more than 36,500 communities to end open defecation.

On the other hand, we come across with news and blogs, almost on daily basis, that OD percentages are still high in India and Pakistan. Could you kindly help me in understanding this contradiction?

Regards,

F H Mughal

The latest results from the Global Sanitation Fund (GSF) show that national programmes stretching from Cambodia to Senegal have enabled close to 10 million people in more than 36,500 communities to end open defecation. These results are published in the GSF’s latest Progress Report, highlighting cumulative results from the start of the fund up to the middle of 2015. Learn more about these results and the GSF's work via this link .

Friends,

WSSCC just issued the latest progress report for the Global Sanitation Fund. It has cumulative results to date (year-end 2014) as well as for the year of 2014. You can read more and access the report at this link:

www.wsscc.org/resources/resource-news-ar...ene-communities-13-c

I have also attached the report as a file, in case you want it directly.

With best regards,

Dave Trouba
WSSCC