SEED Madagascar

Whilst in the past NGOs have tended to work outside of the private sector, increasingly charities are recognising the value of working in partnership with local small-scale businesses and entrepreneurs to create positive and sustainable change. As part of its Rural WASH project, SEED has adopted a market-based strategy which aims to improve sanitation through the creation of a local market for sanitary goods in southeast Madagascar. To achieve this, SEED, in partnership with UNICEF, is supporting local artisanal workers in building latrine platforms. SEED is encouraging local communities to consider the value of owning these goods through events and marketing, thereby helping to increase demand for new transformative products, which can increase levels of household hygiene and lower risk of infection and disease.

Initiating a sanitation market in southern Madagascar requires moving beyond the idea that local communities are simply passive beneficiaries who receive charitable services. On the contrary, the community members who are participating in this project are clients and customers. These customers have a crucial part to play in the success of market-based sanitation because they purchase the products that sustain regional markets. Local people are thus empowered to transform their own homes and communities through individual financial decisions.

One of the key products promoted by this initiative are mason-built sanitary platforms for household latrines (San Plats). These small concrete slabs can improve hygiene through ease of cleaning, reduce smell thanks to a tight-fitting lid, and so in turn limit flies. Their simple but safe design can also make household latrines significantly safer for younger children.

SEED has begun to focus its activities on growing the demand from customers for sanitary products like San Plats. Awareness campaigns about sanitation, on the radio and through meetings with the community, are used to nudge households to consider purchasing sanitary products and sustainable toilets. Village savings and loan association (VSLA) groups are also used as financing mechanisms to launch market-based sanitation in low-income settings. The goal of these VSLA groups is to create savings associations within villages, the collective savings of which are used as a source of zero-interest loans. This enables the whole community to take advantage of the opportunity to purchase sanitary products. SEED have so far established 103 VSLA groups.

Alongside preparing potential customers to purchase sanitary goods, SEED is also supporting sanitation business owners in their activities. In June SEED partnered with UNICEF and CARA, the regional business centre for the Anosy region, to train masons in entrepreneurship and San Plat design. So far 17 masons have applied their training to set up their own sanitary product businesses.

Alexandre Razafimandimby, 48, was one of the 17 masons participating in the training provided by CARA. Alexandre originally worked as a mason, but the lack of a market for him to sell his goods in Tsivory commune forced him to leave his profession and take up work as a farmer. However, SEED’s training enabled this businessman-in-the-making to create a business plan and establish a solid foundation for his new enterprise making and selling latrine platforms (San Plats). The outcome of this training has meant that Alexandre has been able to create a local market for sanitation in Tsivory, which has increased his income and enabled him to return to his original profession of choice.

The results of surveys conducted by SEED at the start of this project demonstrated that although many households would like to purchase a San Plat, most simply could not afford the high prices attached to them. By supporting entrepreneurs to learn new skills to increase their incomes, and empowering households to make financial decisions which will safeguard the health and wellbeing of their children, we aim to help community members overcome individual financial barriers and see communities develop long-term sustainable standards of household hygiene and sanitation in the southeast of Madagascar.