Critical success criteria for evaluating sanitation models

Unilever believes that business has a role to play in solving the global sanitation crisis that leaves 2.5 billion people without access to improved sanitation. In 2012, Unilever convened the Toilet Board, a group of likeminded companies, NGOs and research professionals, with expertise in sanitation and a desire to take immediate action to address this issue. The Toilet Board aims to foster commercial approaches to address this crisis. The Toilet Board created a set of Critical Success Criteria (CSC) that evaluate current sanitation models. These criteria are designed to achieve two aims:
(i) To help identify the most promising Current Models, including identification of limitations within these; and
(ii) To help prioritise and shape Future Models.

As part of this process, The Toilet Board developed a tool to simply and easily rank the success of sanitation interventions. This tool can be used in the following ways:
• A model to describe Critical Success Factors, their inter-relationship and relative importance;
• A diagnostic tool that can be used to score/rate sanitation models; and
• A ranking method for the Current Models matrix.

It could also be used to support longer term planning:
• As a tool for continuous improvement.
• As a rating / grading system inspiring competition / gaming to achieve a ‘best in class’ status.
• As a foundation for a sanitation roadmap, establishing a firm commitment to improve sanitation within a fixed time period, with specific goals and targets.

The criteria were developed following a rigorous analysis of the current tools available:
• There is a clear lack of defined factors to measure successful sanitation interventions.
• Various methods to measure WaSH already exist and are used successfully.
• Studies have already been conducted to analyse multi-location sanitation interventions. The conclusions from these studies were built into the CSC.
• Toilet Board Members provided insights, based on experience, in various aspects of sanitation. For example, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine helped to score some of the current models.

Bibliographic information

Milles, P., Shah, N., Fentem, J. (2013). Critical success criteria for evaluating sanitation models. Unilever, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, SHARE, UK

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