The Global Sanitation Fund in India collaborates closely with the Indian Government’s Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) to raise the level of sanitation awareness for up to 8 million people in Assam and Jharkhand. It also relies on close coordination between a myriad of community, local and national partners in 18 districts in the States of Jharkhand and Assam.
NRMC India Private ltd, the Executing Agency, has identified an initial five sub-grantees in five districts out of the 18 districts that GSF is targeting. The sub-grantees are NIDAN, Integrated Development Foundation, AIDENT Social Welfare Organization, Jan Sewa Parishad and lok Jagriti Kendra. Following initial orientation and capacity building activities related to the GSF’s programme and systems, the sub-grantees have commenced demandcreation activities on the ground. Initial signs are that all stakeholders see this GSF-TSC partnership positively and mutually beneficial and that it will deliver results at scale. To date 165 communities have been triggered using a range of demand-creation approaches, and this has already led to around 25,000 people accessing improved sanitation services.
The GSF’s activities in 2011 aimed to increase the engagement and ownership of the GSF by the governments of Assam and Jharkhand. This proved to be a worthwhile investment in time and resources, as sub-grantees have found their local government counterparts ready and willing to work together to improve sanitation service and hygiene practices in the focus districts.
The programme has three objectives: to contribute to sustainable sanitation use and hygiene behaviour at scale; to develop capacity for sustainable promotion of improved sanitation and hygiene; and to promote a culture of continuous learning among all stakeholders. The objectives are mutually reinforcing. Using a combination of demand creation (such as Community-led Total Sanitation) and supply side approaches (such as sanitation marketing) the GSF aims to contribute to
demand creation for sanitation, hygiene promotion, and awareness generation among the targeted districts. KPMG, as the GSF Country Programme Monitor, is helping to ensure the quality of the programme implementation.
