A community based program promotes sanitation

Autores
Alzúa, María Laura; Djebbari, Habiba; Pickering, Amy J.
Año de publicación
2018
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
documento de trabajo
Estado
versión enviada
Descripción
Basic sanitation facilities are still lacking in large parts of the developing world, engendering serious environmental health risks. Interventions commonly deliver in-kind or cash subsidies to promote private toilet ownership. In this paper, we assess an intervention that provides information and behavioral incentives to encourage villagers in rural Mali to build and use basic latrines. Using an experimental research design and carefully measured indicators of use, we find a sizeable impact from this intervention: latrine ownership and use almost doubled in intervention villages, and open defecation was reduced by half. Our results partially attribute these effects to increased knowledge about cheap and locally available sanitation solutions. They are also associated with shifts in the social norm governing sanitation. Taken together, our findings, unlike previous evidence from other contexts, suggest that a progressive approach that starts with ending open defecation and targets whole communities at a time can help meet the new Sustainable Development Goal of ending open defecation.
Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales
Materia
Ciencias Económicas
sanitation
behavioral change
community-based intervention
social norm
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Repositorio
SEDICI (UNLP)
Institución
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
OAI Identificador
oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/66725

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network_name_str SEDICI (UNLP)
spelling A community based program promotes sanitationAlzúa, María LauraDjebbari, HabibaPickering, Amy J.Ciencias Económicassanitationbehavioral changecommunity-based interventionsocial normBasic sanitation facilities are still lacking in large parts of the developing world, engendering serious environmental health risks. Interventions commonly deliver in-kind or cash subsidies to promote private toilet ownership. In this paper, we assess an intervention that provides information and behavioral incentives to encourage villagers in rural Mali to build and use basic latrines. Using an experimental research design and carefully measured indicators of use, we find a sizeable impact from this intervention: latrine ownership and use almost doubled in intervention villages, and open defecation was reduced by half. Our results partially attribute these effects to increased knowledge about cheap and locally available sanitation solutions. They are also associated with shifts in the social norm governing sanitation. Taken together, our findings, unlike previous evidence from other contexts, suggest that a progressive approach that starts with ending open defecation and targets whole communities at a time can help meet the new Sustainable Development Goal of ending open defecation.Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales2018-05info:eu-repo/semantics/workingPaperinfo:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersionDocumento de trabajohttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042info:ar-repo/semantics/documentoDeTrabajoapplication/pdfhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/66725enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/http://www.cedlas.econo.unlp.edu.ar/wp/wp-content/uploads/doc_cedlas228.pdfinfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1853-0168info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Platainstacron:UNLP2025-09-29T11:10:01Zoai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/66725Institucionalhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicaNo correspondehttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/oai/snrdalira@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13292025-09-29 11:10:01.396SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Platafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv A community based program promotes sanitation
title A community based program promotes sanitation
spellingShingle A community based program promotes sanitation
Alzúa, María Laura
Ciencias Económicas
sanitation
behavioral change
community-based intervention
social norm
title_short A community based program promotes sanitation
title_full A community based program promotes sanitation
title_fullStr A community based program promotes sanitation
title_full_unstemmed A community based program promotes sanitation
title_sort A community based program promotes sanitation
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Alzúa, María Laura
Djebbari, Habiba
Pickering, Amy J.
author Alzúa, María Laura
author_facet Alzúa, María Laura
Djebbari, Habiba
Pickering, Amy J.
author_role author
author2 Djebbari, Habiba
Pickering, Amy J.
author2_role author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Ciencias Económicas
sanitation
behavioral change
community-based intervention
social norm
topic Ciencias Económicas
sanitation
behavioral change
community-based intervention
social norm
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv Basic sanitation facilities are still lacking in large parts of the developing world, engendering serious environmental health risks. Interventions commonly deliver in-kind or cash subsidies to promote private toilet ownership. In this paper, we assess an intervention that provides information and behavioral incentives to encourage villagers in rural Mali to build and use basic latrines. Using an experimental research design and carefully measured indicators of use, we find a sizeable impact from this intervention: latrine ownership and use almost doubled in intervention villages, and open defecation was reduced by half. Our results partially attribute these effects to increased knowledge about cheap and locally available sanitation solutions. They are also associated with shifts in the social norm governing sanitation. Taken together, our findings, unlike previous evidence from other contexts, suggest that a progressive approach that starts with ending open defecation and targets whole communities at a time can help meet the new Sustainable Development Goal of ending open defecation.
Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales
description Basic sanitation facilities are still lacking in large parts of the developing world, engendering serious environmental health risks. Interventions commonly deliver in-kind or cash subsidies to promote private toilet ownership. In this paper, we assess an intervention that provides information and behavioral incentives to encourage villagers in rural Mali to build and use basic latrines. Using an experimental research design and carefully measured indicators of use, we find a sizeable impact from this intervention: latrine ownership and use almost doubled in intervention villages, and open defecation was reduced by half. Our results partially attribute these effects to increased knowledge about cheap and locally available sanitation solutions. They are also associated with shifts in the social norm governing sanitation. Taken together, our findings, unlike previous evidence from other contexts, suggest that a progressive approach that starts with ending open defecation and targets whole communities at a time can help meet the new Sustainable Development Goal of ending open defecation.
publishDate 2018
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2018-05
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info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersion
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http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042
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status_str submittedVersion
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dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
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info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1853-0168
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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