Resources / India GSF Country Programme Proposal

Summary

The Global Sanitation Fund (GSF) is aiming to collaborate closely with the Indian Government’s Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) to raise the level of sanitation awareness for up to eight million people in the states of Assam and Jharkhand.The key state and civil society stakeholders in Assam and Jharkhand welcomed WSSCC as a neutral agent to assist, strengthen and improve TSC interventions in those states via the Global Sanitation Fund. The stakeholders expect the GSF to contribute to technical support and wider learning among both state level stakeholders. 

The GSF’s approach to sanitation is philosophically similar to that of the TSC, i.e. use of “soft” sanitation methods that emphasize education, information and communication, while eschewing household sanitation subsidies.The programme has three objectives: 

1. to contribute to sustainable sanitation use and hygiene behaviour at scale; 
2. to develop capacity for sustainable promotion of improved sanitation and hygiene; and
3. 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, or CLTS) 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.

Lessons from implementation of improved sanitation and hygiene at scale in under-served locations are expected to encourage strengthened state-level institutions to adapt and scale-up similar approaches state-wide. As well, it is expected that the lessons will inform the communication and advocacy agendas of state and national-level multi-stakeholder coalitions to influence sector policy and practice.