The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) launched its first national Global Sanitation Fund programme on 22 March 2010, World Water Day, in Madagascar. Approximately US$ 5 million will be disbursed over the next five years to sub-grantees – community groups, non-governmental organisations, etc. – to implement projects and programmes that raise awareness and create demand locally for sanitation. The Global Sanitation Fund (GSF) will not be used directly or indirectly to fund or subsidise toilet construction schemes.
The WSSCC has recently appointed the international non-governmental organisation Medical Care Development International (MCDI) as the “executing agency” for the GSF in Madagascar.
Scope of work in Madagascar: hygiene education, demand creation and awareness-raising
In Madagascar, the GSF supports work programmes that concentrate on hygiene education, awareness raising and demand creation. In doing so, it aims to:
- Increase significantly the number of families, particularly the poorest, who have sustainable access to basic sanitation and adopt good hygiene practices,
- Engage institutional and private actors for the long term in promoting basic sanitation that is sustainable, affordable and culturally appropriate, and
- Spread proven and innovative approaches to sanitation and hygiene at a large scale.
The WSSCC established the GSF to boost expenditure on sanitation and hygiene in developing countries. On average, nationally run programmes will each receive US$ 1 million per year from the fund. The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) hosts WSSCC, and the GSF is formally a United Nations Trust Fund. The Governments of Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have contributed to the GSF.
Madagascar is the first of seven countries selected for the first round of funding in 2010; the others are Burkina Faso, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Senegal and Uganda.
Read more about the GSF programme in Madagascar.
Source: WSSCC, 22 Mar 2010
