Institutional strengthening, conducive policy framework and capacity building of decision makers, planners and implementers are the driving factors to ensure the sustainability of public toilet management and the up-scaling and replication of successful PT interventions.

Focal areas

• Institutional strengthening and policy framework: In order to effectively drive change through state-level policies and strategies, states and cities need to focus on creating well-defined regulatory mechanisms and appropriate economic and financial incentives. They should also ensure clear institutional roles, responsibilities and structures as well as capacities to fulfill those.

• Ensure gender compliance throughout the PTM process: Access to toilets designed for and by women is vital and in high demand because of their specific needs (i.e. for privacy, dignity, security and menstrual hygiene) and is illustrated by women’s willingness to pay for clean toilets. Gender requirement have been included in the national guidelines on public toilet projects, however it is the cities that need to ensure women, children and the disabled have access to safe and clean toilets. To do so, cities need to integrate a gender-sensitive approach across the complete Public Toilet Management process. Awareness regarding these issues needs to be generated among all stakeholders particularly women, local leaders, Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and the general public.

• Capacity building: Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) can be used to develop training modules and operational and maintenance guidelines to strengthen the capacities of the various stakeholders. The objective should be to facilitate an efficient, systematic and demand-based design and management of public sanitation facilities.

Toolbox

A collection of tools and reference material for the fifth step of the Public Toilet Management process and its focal areas is available for download here.