This blog originally appeared on PSI’s website.
Paul Kpadonou began his career as an entrepreneur on the side of the highway.
As he sold garden decorations from his roadside business, Paul dreamed of creating a successful enterprise in his suburban town of Abomey-Calavi, Benin. His shot at prosperity came with the “WC Mimin” brand of toilets, which he discovered during a campaign promoting the product.
This blog originally appeared on PSI’s Impact Blog.
“Initially, many people tried to discourage me by saying that [plumbing] was a job for men,” Ayé Judith Bodou explains. “But I didn’t give up.”
CONTEXT
Benin is a stable and peaceful country with two decades of democratic governance. The country’s refurbished port, increased investments in infrastructure, and sustained economic growth rate of around 5.5 percent underscore its potential. However, the country continues to face many of the same challenges related to endemic poverty that affect countries in the region. Benin ranks 167 out of 187 countries on the United Nations Human Development Index, and more than one-third of the population lives in poverty.
APPROACH
CONTEXT
The Sanitation Service Delivery (SSD) Program in West Africa is a USAID-funded five-year cooperative agreement with Population Services International (PSI), PATH, and Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP).
Some of the lowest rates of improved sanitation in the world are found in three project countries: Benin (13 percent), Côte d’Ivoire (14 percent), and Ghana (28 percent). Each country lacks affordable options for safe disposal and treatment of human waste. Densely populated areas, such as slum communities, have limited space to construct household toilets and land disputes coupled with a lack of urban planning complicate this problem.
USAID/West Africa’s Sanitation Service Delivery (SSD) Project seeks to dramatically scale-up sanitation services delivery through market-based approaches that strategically complement the recent policy shifts and massive demand generation efforts in West Africa. The SSD program will develop, test, and market-based business models (BMs), reaching all segments of the unserved population, to achieve and sustain an improved level of sanitation service over time.
This year’s Global Water and Development Report of Water and Sanitation Activities examines USAID programming through the lens of its new areas of focus and opportunity, takes a closer look at USAID’s support for partner countries on their journeys to self-reliance, and provides a country breakdown of WASH and water funding.
This article provides an in-depth look at the USAID West Africa Sanitation Service Delivery Project (SSD). SSD works to create a more effective, efficient, and inclusive sanitation market for the urban poor in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana.
With 2.1 billion people – mostly in rural areas – lacking safely managed drinking water and reported low rural water supply functionality rates, the Sustainable Development Goals pose a triple challenge: to reach unserved mostly rural population groups, to raise service levels, and to sustain existing and future services.
