DFID pledges €28 million to SNV for sanitation & hygiene

The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) has awarded SNV Netherlands Development Organisation a €28 million service contract to fund the Sustainable Sanitation & Hygiene for All (SSH4A) Results Programme.

Access to water and sanitation is a basic human right, but one third of the world’s population does not have access to proper sanitation and an estimated 720 million people still lack reliable sources of drinking water. SNV’s Sustainable Sanitation and Hygiene for All Results Programme aims to help rebalance the sanitation scales, with funding from the DFID Results Fund to be used to support more than 2 million people to improve their sanitation situation across nine countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Working with local partners in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, the programme will also reach out to over 2.7 million people with hygiene promotion, encouraging communities to commit themselves to becoming Open Defecation Free (ODF), increasing the number of people practising hand washing with soap, assisting the preparation of district sanitation plans and improving local governments’ capacity for steering improved sanitation.

SNV chief executive Allert van den Ham said that by building upon the organisation’s track record of delivering high quality services, the partnership would enable a tripling of SNV’s WASH outputs. “In recognition of SNV’s results in WASH, we are pleased that DFID has chosen to partner with us on the SSH4A over the coming four years,” Mr. van den Ham said. “This represents a growing trend where key development actors are choosing to support SNV programmes given our proven strengths in capacity building, evidence-based advocacy and working with both local governments and the private sector to improve health and wellbeing in their communities.”

Sustainable Sanitation & Hygiene for All is SNV’s comprehensive approach to ensuring equitable access to improved sanitation and hygiene for those who need it most. After decades of providing free infrastructure, the world has finally accepted that sanitation and hygiene is first and foremost about behaviour change amongst users. We’ve also learned that the barriers to behaviour change are reduced when affordable and attractive toilets are available in local markets. Once people want improved sanitation and good options are within their reach, there is nothing to stop them from taking action to improve the sanitation situation of their families and communities.

Developed since 2008 in collaboration with IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre in Nepal, Bhutan, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, SSH4A is a comprehensive, local government-led approach that takes sanitation beyond the community, working towards district-wide coverage and taking change to scale. SNV’s multi-donor SSH4A programmes are now implemented with rural communities in 15 countries across Asia and Africa. SNV’s SSH4A programmes have already reached more than 2.2 million rural people in Asia alone, enabling over 700,000 people to act to improve their sanitation situation.

“DFID is excited to be entering into a new partnership with SNV to deliver improved sanitation and hygiene results in nine developing countries. This programme aims to lead to direct sanitation improvements to over two million people by December 2015.” - Leonard Tedd, Senior Infrastructure Adviser, DFID