Funding for sanitation activities in Togo currently only meets about 1 percent of the need to reach the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) sanitation target. The GSF programme was recently approved for funding in Togo and will play an important role in raising the profile of sanitation and contribute to the country’s efforts to achieve the MDG sanitation target. The programme targets three of the most vulnerable regions where sanitation coverage is as low as 10 percent.
Following its selection as a country eligible for GSF funding, Togo, through its Ministry of Health, quickly set up a Programme Coordinating Mechanism (PCM) with representatives from civil society, private sector, relevant line ministries and United Nations agencies involved in water, sanitation and hygiene work.
In 2011 the PCM formulated a five-year programme to promote improvements in sanitation and hygiene. The rural and semi-urban populations of the three targeted regions face a severe shortage of facilities and services. As a result, extremely low levels of adequate sanitation and hygiene practices exist.
The areas covered by CPP activities represent an overall population of 1,200,000 – more than 26 percent of the whole rural population and more than 16 percent of the entire national population. The overall programme aim is to ensure that about 1 million people, representing more than 20 percent of Togo’s unserved population, improve their sanitation situation.
Specific programme objectives are: Scale up ClTS in 2,200 villages and ensure that targeted populations use the toilets. Ensure that village populations adopt safe hygiene practices, especially hand washing, through Communications for Behavioural Change activities. Enhance the capacity of government agents, community-based organization members and nongovernmental organization members, and private operators to provide high quality hygiene and sanitation services. lobby the government and its partners to allocate 0.5 percent of GDP to the hygiene and sanitation sector and advocate for the extension of projects beyond GSF supported areas. Disseminate acquired knowledge with a view to increasing the efficiency, at all levels, in the management of resources targeting sanitation and hygiene activities.
