Rural WASH projects

Tools for the development of national rural sanitation policies

WEDC staff involved:

• Dr Andrew Cotton
• Rebecca Scott
• Dr Amaka Obika-Godfrey

Summary of project activities and outcomes:

This project tested and applied guidelines published by USAID’s Environmental Health Project (EHP), to support and guide on-going national debates into sanitation policy development in Ghana and Nepal. Lessons for wider application were drawn to help improve the effectiveness of policy and its implementation to achieve delivery of services to those as yet unserved with safe sanitation. Outputs include reports, Briefing Notes and Country Overviews.

The work was significant in that:

1. It provides concrete examples of both the process and content of national sanitation policy dialogues which, while being far from perfect themselves, will serve as an initial model for countries wishing to travel similar paths
2. It provides a clear analysis of the positive and negative aspects of these processes providing practitioners with valuable lessons to be applied elsewhere
3. It highlights the importance of sanitation policy making without downplaying the complex challenges involved