A Community Based Program Promotes Sanitation

María Laura Alzúa, Habiba Djebbari and Amy J. Pickering ()
Additional contact information
Amy J. Pickering: Tufts University

No 11446, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: community-based intervention; behavioral change; sanitation; social norm (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 Q53 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 pages
Date: 2018-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-env, nep-exp, nep-lam, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: Economic Development and Cultural Change, 2020, 62 (3), 357–390

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp11446.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: A Community-Based Program Promotes Sanitation (2020)
Working Paper: A community based program promotes sanitation (2020)
Working Paper: A Community Based Program Promotes Sanitation (2020)
Working Paper: A community based program promotes sanitation (2018)
Working Paper: A community based program promotes sanitation (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11446

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().