The deplorable condition of sanitation facilities in developing countries, has been gaining enormous attention in the recent times. It is no longer a “forgotten issue”.Though measure and several initiatives have been taken by national governments and international agencies to address this problem, yet a lot has to be done and learned about dealing with it.

For instance, it is important to know, how can governments design and carry out large scale rural sanitation programs, what factors influence long-term sustainability of such programs and what are the successful case studies where such programs have worked.

This working paper  by Water and Sanitation Program, by illustrating examples from the field, focuses on some of the key lessons learnt, while implementing the rural sanitation programs. It first gives an overview of the sector that shapes WSP’s approach in the program, the status of rural sanitation in the countries where the program is been implemented.

The paper then goes on to discuss about the programmatic approaches to create demand, change behaviours and increase supply, followed by the role of national, local and private sectors and building their capacities to ensure sustainable sanitation program. The last chapters of the paper deal with the strategies that were used generate and disseminate and apply evidence based learning and exploring new avenues for future research.

Click here to read the full paper.