Should NGOs lead post-emergency sanitation marketing? Experience from Jacmel, Haiti

Abstract

The town of Jacmel suffered extensive damage to housing and infrastructure, loss of life and social upheaval following the earthquake in 2010 that affected large parts of Haiti. Since 2012, Save the Children-Haiti has been implementing a programme to improve sanitation facilities and services in the town. A Sanitation Marketing and Behaviour Change Communication strategy has been developed and is currently being implemented as a component of this broader programme. Based on experience of facilitating the strategy process through initial formative research, developing and supporting delivery of the strategy by local actors, the authors present aspects and challenges of the process, set in the broader context of the post-emergency rehabilitation and reconstruction of Haiti. They conclude that INGOs are not best-placed to lead market-based approaches in such conditions and that sanitation marketing needs to be much more central to an overall sanitation enhancement programme to secure appropriate and sustainable outcomes.