Accelerating Access to Rural Sanitation in Nigeria (AATRISAN)

Purpose

To reduce open defecation and increase access to improved sanitation and safe hygiene practices in Nigeria through promotion of Market Based Sanitation (MBS) Approaches

Activities

As of the latest data, the majority of people in Nigeria, 57% representing nearly 120 million, lack access to basic sanitation. Of these, more than 38 million people are performing open defecation, more than 39 million are using unimproved toilets, and 40 million are sharing a basic facility with another household.

A huge acceleration in progress is needed if Nigeria is to meet the SDG sanitation targets by 2030.

ToiletPride, through the ‘AARTISAN’ program is combining demand creation with strengthening supply chains for sanitation products and services through a market facilitation approach. The approach combines community-led total sanitation (CLTS), behavioral change communication (BCC), and sanitation marketing.

ToiletPride, which has extensive experience with creative behavior change campaigns, directly supports demand creation through community events while also supporting sales agents. Working with toilet business owners (TBOs), they motivate and mobilize such businesses to have a renewed focus on the marketing and sales of latrines and provide a range of support from marketing, linking with sales agents, and establishing set commission structures for agents to increase motivation. ToiletPride also works with local masons to train them on how to carry out latrine upgrades economically. The approach both works to encourage greater household investment in basic sanitation, while supporting local businesses to respond to this new demand.

Project achievements
Improved latrine coverage and health impacts
Demand creation
i. Increase TBO sales of sanitation products by more than 200% within the first 6 months
ii. Demand creation events at market: 28 TBOs received support from Toiletpride to conduct 89 toilet activation events in markets reaching over 3.6 million people.
iii. Supporting sales agents with skills and resources: Toiletpride supported the recruitment and training of 56 sales agents for 28 TBOs in 3 states. A draft sales guide for sales agents was developed and shared.
iv. Developing marketing materials and sales messages: Toiletpride produced and disseminated high quality marketing materials including t-shirts and banners for TBOs and sales agents
v. Radio jingles: Production and broadcast of a radio promotional campaign about adopting improved latrines and SATO developed for broadcast in 3 languages.


Strengthening Supply
i. Mobilizing and motivating toilet businesses: Toiletpride conducted a total eight coaching and sales support visits to 28 TBOs within the first 6 months. Visits involved practical guidance on increasing toilet sales, data reporting and developing market strategy. This resulted in a major increase in the efficiency of the supply chain, evidenced by increased capacity of TBOs and sales agent to carry out demand creation activities and sales.
ii. Establishing an agreed sales agent commission structure.
iii. Support in branding and display of sanitation products in TBO shops.
iv. Donation of soaps to TBOs as incentives - 400 new customers reached within 2 months. Toiletpride followed up on a statistical proportion of these with a follow-up phone survey. A phone survey questionnaire developed in consultation with TBOs, sales agents and Government WASH staff.
v. Tracking sales of agents and toilet businesses each month, this is enhancing TBO data collection and management processes for State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA)

Monitoring, Knowledge Management and Communication
vi. To enhance Monitoring and Knowledge Management procesess, Toiletpride has invested in the development of a functional and sophisticated data management system using kobo collect to enable for real-time digital data collection that feeds live public data dashboards, increasing the evidence for sector planning and management.

Images

Image: AATRISAN

Countries of activity

Location of main activity

Objectives

1. To support rural households in Nigeria to move towards improved sanitation systems
by promoting a low-cost toilet package that is high quality, robust and attractive to poor
households
2. To link sustainable improved sanitation and hygiene behaviors with the development of
a robust supply and demand for latrines in communities across rural Nigeria
3. To promote sanitation marketing as a critical component for ending open defecation in
Nigeria by 2025
4. To enhance existing Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) frameworks for tracking toilet sales and constructions among TBOs in Nigeria

Further information

The pilot of the AATRISAN Project was implemented with Support from the Duke UNICEF Innovation Accelerator Program (DUIA). The Duke-UNICEF Innovation Accelerator, housed at Duke University, was established to help social entrepreneurs acquire the knowledge, tools, and networks necessary to improve the lives of children around the world. The DUIA Program goal is to increase the effectiveness, sustainability, and scale of impact of some of the most promising solutions to critical challenges facing the world’s children. In 2021, Toiletpride Initiative participated in the 2021-2022 edition of the DUIA.

Contact information

Chukwuma Nnanna
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Filter tags

Behaviour change Capacity development Community sanitation Container based systems (CBS) Educators Enabling environment and institutional strengthening Global Journalists Local NGO Market development Other funding source or unspecified Politicians and local decision makers Practitioners Rural Schools Sub-Saharan Africa Toilets or urinals (user interface)