A Market-based, Pro-poor Approach to Rural Sanitation

This case study describes the process carried out in Ghana by Global Communities to create an enabling environment for a market-based, pro-poor approach to rural sanitation to address the challenge of open defecation in rural areas and sustaining the behavior of not defecating in the open after a community has been verified as Open Defecation-Free (ODF). This initiative started in 2016 and is an ongoing effort between the USAID WASH for Health project implemented by Global Communities; Duraplast, a Ghanaian plastics manufacturing company; the Government of Ghana; and other rural sanitation stakeholders. The purpose of this learning brief is to describe the initial three-year process (to date) to create an enabling market environment for rural sanitation and to capture emerging lessons.