Resources / Sanitation as a Business: A new spin on the challenge of sanitation operation and maintenance

Summary

"Sanitation as a Business" is a new program Water For People has tested in Malawi. It tries to shift sanitation programming by changing the incentives and bringing the private sector into sanitation in new ways. The key to "Sanitation as a Business" is to make ongoing sanitation services the goal, rather than the latrine itself. When sanitation services are profitable and businesses see everyone without a latrine as a potential customer, businesses—rather than NGOs—will expand latrine coverage to increase their profit margin.