info:eu-repo/semantics/article
A community-based program promotes sanitation
Fecha
2020-01Registro en:
Alzua, Maria Laura; Djebbari, Habida; Pickering, Amy J.; A community-based program promotes sanitation; University of Chicago Press; Economic Development and Cultural Change; 68; 2; 1-2020; 357-390
0013-0079
1539-2988
CONICET Digital
CONICET
Autor
Alzua, Maria Laura
Djebbari, Habida
Pickering, Amy J.
Resumen
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 (OD) 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 social norms governing sanitation. Taken together, our findings, unlike previous evidence from other contexts, suggest that a progressive approach that starts with ending OD and targets whole communities at a time can help meet the United Nations’ 2015 Sustainable Development Goal of ending OD.