An update about this project was recently provided by Jonathan Parkinson. You can find it here in his presentation at the FSM5 conference:
PARKINSON, J. et al., “A Framework for Supporting Innovative Financing for Improving Urban Sanitation in Ghana”, (Ghana)
fsm5.susana.org/images/FSM_Conference_Ma...---JP-19.02.2019.pdf

I copy the last slide to give you a glimpse:

Key elements of financing framework
● Sanitation improvements led at MMDA level based on plans with
stakeholder buy-in and political leadership.
● Public-private partnerships at local level are the key to successful
planning, implementation and financing.
● A diversity of financing instruments are needed for actors in the
sanitation value chain using a combination of public and private
finance
● National level facility is required to manage/co-ordinate funds
and fund disbursement and financing disbursed incrementally to
reward performance and incentivize further action.

(See more FSM5 presentations here: fsm5.susana.org/en/downloads/conference-materials)

I am the project manager of a grant that deals with the Sanitation Prizes scheme in Ghana which has been discussed in this thread above. District Assemblies and Metropolitan Assemblies can submit a proposal for partnering with the private sector to improve sanitation. The best proposals get a large enough cash prize to allow them to start the work they proposed.

Below you find more information about this project which is co-funded by the Gates Foundation. Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have about it:

- Title of grant: CWSA-BMGF Sanitation Prize Award
- Name of lead organization: Community Water and Sanitation Agency
- Primary contact at lead organization: Theodora Adomako- Adjei
- Grantee location: Ghana
- Start and end date: 1st January 2017- December 2018
- Grant size: USD 343,661 (as per BMGF grant database here )


Short description of the project:

The programme is part of a large action research programme called Ideas to Impact, which aims to test the applicability and effectiveness of innovation prizes for addressing critical development challenges in climate change adaptation, energy access, and water and sanitation for the world’s poorest people or low-income households. The Sanitation prize will aim at stimulating private sector and non-state actors to partner with 17 Metropolitan Municipal District Assemblies (MMDAs) and contribute expertise, funding and innovative solutions to address challenges along the liquid waste value chain. The support will also foster sustained partnership and co-ownership of the implementation of liquid waste management strategies in each MMDA. The support will also lay the foundation to learn and document experiences for the design and implementation of city wide sanitation in the 17 MMDAs.


Goal(s):

To encourage private contractors and other nonstate actors to partner with local governments to develop innovative and pragmatic business –orientation service models to improve the management of sanitation and feacal sludge


Objectives:

- Use innovative approaches to transform and significantly improve sanitation service delivery;
- Mobilise external donor funding for urban sanitation to equitably target and benefit the urban poor;
- Enable private sector financing, particularly for household sanitation and sanitation businesses;
- Create public-private partnerships with incentives for private entrepreneurs and businesses to provide sanitation services for the urban poor;
- Partner with civil society, academia, NGOs, and innovators to harmonize sanitation programme approaches and make more effective use of the collective human and financial resources at national level;

Research or implementation partners: IRC Ghana, IMC Worldwide

Links, further readings – results to date:
Sanitation challenge 4 Ghana website: www.sanitationchallenge4ghana.org
Link to entry in SuSanA project database: www.susana.org/en/knowledge-hub/projects/database/details/483

Current state of affairs: The award has been launched, learning practice workshop for private sector and non-state actors organized, the process for selection ongoing

Biggest successes so far: ignited the interest and competition among private sector to partner MMDAs

Main challenges / frustration: none

Theodora Adomako-Adjei
Extension Services Coordinator
Community Water & Sanitation Agency, Head Office
Private Mail Bag
KIA. Accra. Ghana.
Tel: +233-30-2983104

Jonathan and Veronica,

I loved the video. An all-Ghanaian cast. Bravo. Refreshing.

I think you're on to something. Sponsoring a contest becomes an investment in people who are actually on the ground 24/7. Unlike we Westerners who wing in once in a while, public officials in Ghana live with the challenges every day. Not just the sanitation challenges, but the political challenges, and the donor relations challenges, and the regulatory challenges. Daunting.

Also, sponsoring a contest rewards actual work that has been done, and succeeded. Grants reward ideas that funders think might succeed. Many don't. Rewarding success is obviously a better use of money than rewarding the potential for success.

You point out, Jonathan, that sanitation services haven't kept up with the economic progress in Ghana. One could say that the private sector is driving progress in economic development, while the lack of progress in sanitation services has been tackled by municipalities and NGOs. IRC and WSUP both advocate for more public-private partnerships. Vida says as much in the video.

I think it's a good sign that major NGOs are sponsoring contests to reward municipalities.

Diane

Dear all,

Please see www.imcworldwide.com/news/can-an-innovat...anitation-challenge/ for latest on the Ghana sanitation challenge :

Can an innovation prize meet Ghana’s sanitation challenge?

Despite the country’s sustained economic growth over the last few years, the provision of basic services has not kept up with rapid urbanisation, especially in low-income areas. To improve the situation, the Sanitation Challenge for Ghana (SC4G) was launched in November 2015 within the UKaid-funded Ideas to Impact programme. SC4G, which has been implemented by IMC alongside our partner IRC Ghana, uses honorary and financial awards to incentivise Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to develop and implement innovative urban sanitation plans.

The Sanitation Challenge for Ghana is a prize that encourages local municipalities to find solutions to the country’s sanitation issues. The recent launch of its second phase has provided us with the opportunity to take stock of the lessons learnt so far. 48 MMDAs have developed liquid waste management strategies and 17 have been selected for the second stage of the competition and have started to implement them. 

Ongoing interventions that have been prioritized by the MMDA's include :

* promotion of household toilets construction for the poor
* construction of institutional and public toilets
* reduction of open defecation through community mobilisation
* hygiene promotion
* enhancement of regulations and compliance enforcement of byelaws
* acquisition of land for construction of liquid waste treatment and reuse plants
* community involvement in decision-making

The recent launch of SC4G’s second phase, The Dignified City Award, which will be awarded in June 2019, has provided us with the opportunity to take stock of the lessons learnt so far. While it is too early to assess the impact of SC4G, we are witnessing promising developments that seem to suggest that something is changing, both at the community and political level.

What we have learnt so far ......

The Sanitation Challenge for Ghana has confirmed that, compared to a donor-funded grant, a competition can spur innovative solutions as rewards are closely linked to the results achieved. Acknowledging that local authorities are best placed to produce contextually-appropriate solutions, SC4G has left them free to develop their liquid waste (sanitation( management strategies. This bottom-up approach with no strings attached has increased enthusiasm and local ownership.

The competition has generated excitement among the MMDAs, increased their resolution and boosted their credibility. Some of them are partnering with the private sector to improve their strategies and, interestingly, competing assemblies are collaborating and learning from each other. It is gratifying to note that 17 MMDAs who met the minimum condition for stage 2 and vying for the ultimate GBP 1.285 million Dignified City Award are teaming up with citizens, private sector and non-state actors, innovators and solvers to implement locally owned solutions’, says Hon. Kofi Adda, Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources. ‘I personally wish all MMDAs were on board to ensure that sustainable sanitation services are available and affordable for everyone living in Ghana. We will forge partnerships and work towards generating the needed resources to scale this initiative across the 216 MMDAs so as to make sanitation and the president’s “toilet for all” vision a reality.’

The enthusiastic attendance at the SC4G’s first Learning and Practice Convening session, which was held in Ghana’s capital city Accra in July 2017, is a testament to this spirit of collaboration. Over 120 representatives from the 17 local governments now competing in SC4G’s stage 2 alongside partner organisations and high-level national stakeholders participated to exchange implementation experiences. The follow-on workshop held on 16 and 17 November 2017 was also very well attended with over 60 participants, including some Chief Executives and other Technical Leads within the assemblies.

MMDAs have been covering the cost of attending SC4G workshops and meetings with no expectation of refund. This demonstrates their strong commitment to tackle the sanitation challenge. Reliance on self-funding certainly exposes SC4G to the uncertainties linked with changes in government and political commitments. However, lack of reliance on external funds ensures long-term sustainability of the Sanitation Challenge for Ghana and its achievements, after the competition will be over.

The Sanitation Challenge for Ghana has also generated a media buzz that helped to put a spotlight on the issue of inadequate sanitation. As a consequence, communities are now more vocal in demanding better services and the issue has moved higher on the political agenda. Government buy-in has translated into the budgetary allocation of over 255 million Ghanaian Cedi (approximately GBP 42.6 million) to the newly created Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources for the 2017 fiscal year.

You can learrn more about the sanitation challenge at the following links :

www.susana.org/en/knowledge-hub/projects/database/details/483
www.imcworldwide.com/news/what-are-we-le...ut-innovation-prizes
www.sanitationchallenge4ghana.org/
www.ideastoimpact.net/prize/sanitation-challenge-ghana
www.washghana.net/node/475


best regards,

Jonathan

Dear Jonathan,
Many thanks for your continuous interest in the programme.

The main benefit of the programme, in my opinion, has been seeing a shift in the priorities of local governments that have started prioritising urban sanitation. As the programme evolves, local authorities have appreciated more and more the opportunity to decide about their own needs, keeping a focus on the poorest communities in the areas. Seeing local authorities revising their budgets and planning to invest their own funds into sanitation is really exciting. In terms of challenges, clarifying that this mechanism is different from a grant has probably been the biggest challenge we have faced.

At the moment we are conducting a baseline assessment in the 17 local authorities that were admitted to Stage 2 in September 2016. Due to the political situation in Ghana at the moment, the programme has slowed down and we are investing the possibility for an extension. We are also looking into options for replication in other countries. We have some potential opportunities, but concrete options would be great.

I would certainly be interested in delivering a webinar on the sanitation challenge. A webinar would give me the chance to reply to questions directly and it would probably be better than uploading a presentation, unless that is easier to organise.

We have just had the results of the evaluation for Stage 1 of the programme, which ended in June 2016, and it has been very interesting to see that what has stimulated local authorities has been mainly the prestige they would gain from winning the competition. The financial award was not the main motivator. However, some of the local authorities that performed well during Stage 1 and have accessed Stage 2 have been able to capitalise on this and get additional funds, for instance from foundations. We will have a better picture of this aspect when the evaluation for Stage 2 is completed.

Please, feel free to have a look at newly designed website to keep up-to-date with what is happening on the programme:
www.sanitationchallenge4ghana.org

Many thanks
Veronica

Dear Veronica,

I'd be most interested if you could give us an update on the Sanitation Challenge. What do you perceive to be the main benefits .. and constraints/difficulties. How is it going in Ghana and what it the changes for uptake in other countries?

Would you be willing to upload a presentation with audio .. or agree to a webinar that people can listen into to find out more about the Sanitation Challenge ?

I understand that the Sanitation Challenge is not linked to an investment programme but surely the local authorities' interests were stimulate by the fact that they envisaged that the Challenge would lead to funding opportunities. Have you looked into this (e.g WASH FIN?) or am I making a wrong assumption.

best regards,

Jonathan

By the way (as I have been asked about this):

International companies can support local authorities in taking part in the competition, but cannot compete directly.

Regards,
Veronica

Veronica Di Bella
Senior Consultant - Environment
IMC Worldwide LTD 64-68 London Road Redhill Surrey RH1 1LG United Kingdom
www.imcworldwide.co.uk

Hi Jonathan,
many thanks for your comments and questions.

In reply to your questions,
1. The programme has been set up as a 2-stage challenge. The first stage, which started in November and is going to end in April 2016, is about the development of a liquid waste management strategy. The second stage will run from June 2016 to November 2018 and will focus on the implementation of the strategy. We are still in the process of establishing the judging criteria for the second stage. What the local authorities have achieved will be based on the results of a baseline survey and an end-line survey. Hope this answers your first question.
2. Yes, judging criteria for both the first stage and the second stage will be based on SDG 6.
3. This programme is set up as a competition. Therefore, we are not providing funds for implementing the strategy but we reward the results achieved at the end of the programme (and at the end of stage 1). In addition, honorary awards will be given in 2017 to local authorities that implement excellent activities in some selected areas.

Many thanks again for your interest in the programme and, please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any further questions
Veronica

Hi Veronica,

I am very interested in this initiative.

I see that the 4 objectives of the "liquid" waste management strategies are 1) Eliminate open defecation 2) Increase access to basic and hygienic sanitation for all at home, in public buildings and work 3) Improve faecal sludge and wastewater management 4) Progressively reduce the sanitation services gap between the rich and poor. I see why it is called "liquid" as oppose to "solid" but fecal sludge is a bit of a grey area when it comes to defining it at "liquid" in the same way as calling it "wastewater" can cause some confusion/debate. There as there has been lots of discussion about this previously, so I am not intending to raise this and this is not the purpose of my posting. It is just a comment/observation.

I understand that the prizes are based on the IMPLEMENTATION of effective and innovative strategies to tackle "liquid waste" (see above) but what will be the criteria for assessing successful implementation and over what period of time (if they start towards the end of the 3 years, how will it be possible to assess how successful the strategy has been in comparison with one that started earlier ?

With respects to the monitoring, will the initiative be adopting something along the lines that CEPT in India have developed ? And will this be linked to SDG Goal 6 - www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/mdgove...t-agenda/goal-6.html

And final question, I see that there are benefits in terms of advice on how to improve "liquid" waste management, potential monetary awards, recognition awards etc, but how is this initiative linked to a fund/financing mechanism (output/performance based financing) to finance the implementation of the strategy ?

Look forward to learning more.

best regards, Jonathan

p.s. I had problems downloading the information brief from
www.sanitationchallenge4ghana.org/sites/about/
Is it just me, or is there a problem that needs to be fixed ?

Dear Elisabeth,
many thanks for your reply and your interest in this very exciting programme.

IMC Worldwide has been responsible for the Ideas to Impact Programme since its start. The Sanitation Challenge was designed and managed by Tremolet Consulting and Eddy was working closely with them. We have had few recent changes in the team. Now IMC is directly managing the sanitation challenge and I am the Prize Manager/ Sanitation Specialist for it. I have been working closely with Sophie and Goufrane from Tremolet Consulting in the last months in order to ensure that the transition goes smoothly. Eddy is still involved in the programme as associate of IMC.

Hope this answers your questions.
Many thanks again
Veronica

Dear Veronica,

I am very pleased to see your forum post here, thank you! I hope you keep us updated of progress with this competition: interesting that it runs for a period of 3 years which is quite long for a competition (but not long for sanitation improvements).

Could you say something about your own role or the role of your organization? Who is "we" in your post, is it IMC Worldwide?

I first heard about this competition in May this year from an e-mail from Eddy Perez and ever since then I've been wondering what happened to the competition. So I am very pleased to see your update now.

This is the e-mail that Eddy had sent out to his mailing list on 24 May 2015 (just for the record of how the ideas for this competition developed):

========

Dear Colleagues:

If you are attending Africasan this week, please join us and give us your thoughts regarding this new DFID funded initiative:


The Clean City Innovation Prize for Urban Sanitation in Ghana
Can competition between cities help motivate local government leaders to innovate and improve sanitation for the urban poor?

Tuesday 26th of May 2015
17h30-19h00, Flamboyant


As part of the DFID-funded action-research programme Ideas to Impact, an innovation prize for urban sanitation will be launched in Ghana in summer 2015 under the supervision of Ghana’s Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) and its Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate (EHSD). This side session will present the current prize design and put forward ideas for the use of innovation prizes in the WASH sector based on a recent publication.

• The Honourable Deputy Minister Nii Lantey Vanderpuiye (MLGRD) will chair the session and present the challenges of urban sanitation in Ghana
• Goufrane Mansour (Trémolet Consulting) will present the potential of innovation prizes as a financing mechanism for sanitation: what is the added value of an innovation prize?
• Eddy Perez (Trémolet Consulting Associate) will present the design of Clean City in Ghana
• An “Oxford-Union” debate will follow, discussing the pros and cons of the prize approach, with Jan Willem Rosenboom (Gates Foundation) and Ousseynou Guène (Africa Water Facility) as discussants.

Attached is a more detailed flyer:

This attachment is hidden for guests.
Please log in or register to see it.

Regards,

Eddy

Eddy Perez

Linkin:www.linkedin.com/in/eddyperez1209

Dear Veronica
Welcome to the Forum and thanks for reaching out to the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance. We certainly welcome this initiative and look forward to more input from you as things develop.

That the competition specifies liquid wastes may need some sort of explanation. The key goals - reducing open defecation and improving faecal sludge management may be more linked to how solid fractions are managed through composting from dry pit latrines and even the Kumasi double pit toilet and other solutions not strictly requiring water.

Please do keep us updated with copies of your periodic reports to the funding agency. Please do add SuSanA.org to your outreach strategy.

Regards