Promoting latrine use for Swachh Bharat
Venue: The Dome at Vivanta by Taj Ambassador, Sujan Singh Park, New Delhi, Delhi 110003
The Swachh Bharat Mission has made tremendous progress towards the government’s goal of an open-defecation free India by October 2019. Over 9.5 crore toilets have been built and 30 states and union territories have been declared open-defecation free. How can we build on this progress and achieve safely-managed sanitation for all?
To address this question, the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) supported an evidence programme to identify effective approaches for improving latrine use in rural India. At the Promoting latrine use for Swachh Bharat conference, research teams shared the results and policy implications of recently completed impact evaluations in Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka and Odisha. These evaluations examined the impact of low-cost, innovative, behavioural science-driven interventions to promote latrine use.
Radu Ban (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) and Marie Gaarder (3ie) gave brief introductions on the importance of promoting latrine use in India, highlighting some of the opportunities and challenges in measuring latrine use. They also talked about the importance of sustaining latrine use, particularly, in the post-Swachh Bharat Mission era.
Using behavioural science to promote latrine use in India
Chair: Radu Ban, senior programme officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Presenters:
Bethany Caruso, assistant professor, Hubert Department of Global Health and Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
Kavita Chauhan, research fellow, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Shruti Viswanathan, consultant, Oxford Policy Management
Max Friedrich, post-doctoral researcher, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
In this session, four 3ie-supported impact evaluation teams presented the results of the studies they carried out in rural Odisha, Karnataka, Gujarat and Bihar.
What does the evidence say about latrine use?
Chair: Marie Gaarder, director of evaluation office and global director for innovation and country engagement, 3ie
Panellists:
Divyang Waghela, head, Tata Water Mission, Tata Trusts
Nicolas Osbert, chief, water, sanitation and hygiene, UNICEF India
Priyanka Dutt, country director, BBC Media Action, India
Raghava Neti, Senior Infrastructure Specialist, World Bank
Panellists focused on the implications of evidence from the 3ie latrine use evidence programme. They discussed the key takeaways from the evidence in terms of what is going well and what is still required for tackling the last mile challenges to increase and sustain toilet use in rural communities in India. While lauding the ongoing progress in behaviour change communication related to Swacch Bharat Mission, the panellists highlighted the challenges in measuring attributable impact due to behaviour change interventions. Panellists highlighted that campaigns need to be locally contextualized and that big programmes like the Swachh Bharat Mission might not have the capacity to deliver such campaigns at a micro-level. Some panel members talked about the roles several key players, such as non-governmental agencies and private partners, play in supporting the implementation of the programme. The discussion also brought out the need to have more proactive engagement with the communities, especially the role of women and youth as change makers who have the potential to drive WASH campaigns within their communities.
What have we learned about promoting latrine use?
Chair: Radhika Menon, senior policy and advocacy officer, 3ie
Panellists:
Arundati Muralidharan, policy manager, WaterAid India
Bethany Caruso, assistant professor, Hubert Department of Global Health and Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
Val Curtis, director, Environmental Health Group, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Ruhi Saith, senior consultant, Oxford Policy Management
Sujatha Srinivasan, Senior Research Manager, IFMR
Panellists focused on the implications of evidence from the 3ie latrine use evidence programme. They discussed the key takeaways from the evidence in terms of what is going well and what is still required for tackling the last mile challenges to increase and sustain toilet use in rural communities in India. While lauding the ongoing progress in behaviour change communication related to Swacch Bharat Mission, the panellists highlighted the challenges in measuring attributable impact due to behaviour change interventions. Panellists highlighted that campaigns need to be locally contextualized and that big programmes like the Swachh Bharat Mission might not have the capacity to deliver such campaigns at a micro-level. Some panel members talked about the roles several key players, such as non-governmental agencies and private partners, play in supporting the implementation of the programme. The discussion also brought out the need to have more proactive engagement with the communities, especially the role of women and youth as change makers who have the potential to drive WASH campaigns within their communities.
What is the future of sanitation programming in India?
Chair: Marie Gaarder, director of evaluation office and global director for innovation and country engagement, 3ie
Speaker: Anand Shekhar, team lead, programme management cell, Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen, Jal Shakti Ministry
Anand Shekhar discussed the government’s role in the future of sanitation programming in India, after listening to 3ie-funded research teams discuss the challenges they have faced in terms of measuring latrine use, as well as the implications and lessons they put forward for policymakers in India.