BRAC Awarded for Sanitation Work

At the 14th World Toilet Summit 2015, BRAC Received the "Hall of Fame Award" for Significant Contributions to the Sanitation Sector in Bangladesh

BRAC WASHand related programmes have made a substantial contribution to the nation's Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets for water, sanitation and health and will continue to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Over 8 years, the BRAC hygiene and sanitation programme reached more than 66 million people, about half of the rural population of Bangladesh. It has successfully worked to improve household sanitation by creating demand for hygienic latrines [2] while supporting an extensive supply chain and local businesses. Current coverage with hygienic and adequately maintained toilets is 82% in the 152 districts where BRAC has worked. All these successes have been underpinned by a strong provision of service to the poor and ultra-poor and by a unique hygiene promotion programme focusing on universal use and sustainability of services in communities, households and schools.

BRAC WASH success factors

Scale: significantly increasing access to sanitation services

Hygiene promotion is the critical factor in BRAC WASH success - it is the missing link in most other WASH programmes globally. Between 2006 and 2014 about 43 million people have participated in BRAC WASH hygiene promotion meetings at village level. As a result, 35.8 million people have gained access to clean toilets with the support of BRAC WASH, an un-paralleled achievement by an NGO.

Sustainability: focusing on how services are delivered and local partnerships

The most important factor is not so much what to deliver, but how to deliver it, while ensuring sustainability: delivery through the most appropriate channels. To be able to work effectively with village women and men, hygiene and sanitation promotion has been delivered by 7,602 health workers of which more than 50% are female and 5,000 are community members.

BRAC WASH facilitated and supported sanitation entrepreneurs to work in hard-to-reach areas. As the generated demand was huge, BRAC WASH trained 5,603 people on how to create sanitation demand and on materials and construction of low-cost sanitary toilets. Additionally, 213,520 poor families have been able to access BRAC loans to improve sanitation.

Impact on the poor, women and girls

BRAC WASH had a dramatic effect on equity. Before the programme it was rare for ultra-poor families to own a hygienic latrine. More than a million ultra-poor families (5 million people) have received subsidies for long-lasting and hygienic double-pit latrines. Local government provided substantial financial contributions for sanitation for ultra-poor families. Without the grant for latrine construction, twin pit latrines would not be affordable for the ultra-poor since they would need to spend almost 6% of their reported income.

Source: IRC

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Taxonomy

• Non Profit
• Water Supply
• Sanitation & Hygiene