Scaling Market-Based Sanitation: Desk Review on Market-Based Rural Sanitation Development Programs

This desk review from the USAID/WASHPaLS project investigates the current state of knowledge in market-based sanitation (MBS) and establishes a framework to analyze, design, and improve MBS interventions. This report is based on a survey of approximately 600 documents on MBS, in-depth research into 13 MBS intervention case studies across the global south, and interviews with sector experts and program personnel.

This review offers a framework that draws upon and contributes to existing evidence across the three crucial challenges to scaling MBS—appropriate product and business model choices, viability of sanitation enterprises, and difficulty of unlocking public and private financing for sanitation. It also helps funders and implementers design, analyze, and improve MBS interventions and offers guidance for stakeholders and governments interested in using sanitation markets to expand sanitation coverage and reduce open defecation. In addition, this review highlights the larger contextual parameters that determine the applicability of MBS within a given market.