Partnering with government and communities to achieve open defecation free status at scale: an example from the Indian state of Bihar

The Pusa Block of Samastipur District in the Indian State of Bihar accounted for very low sanitation coverage of 16%. This was coupled with poor understanding of roles and responsibilities amongst government functionaries as well as lack of knowledge on the benefits of safe sanitation. The AKDN Initiative demonstrated the impact of effective partnership with government functionaries and communities to achieve open defecation free status at scale. The partnership has focussed on community centred approaches, strengthening of service delivery, improved hygiene behaviours and capacity building of local institutions to improve sanitation access. A key differentiator of the AKDN Sanitation programme is the introduction of mobile monitoring tool-AKVO Flow, which allows project teams to undertake real time tracking of household sanitation coverage as well as monitor improvements in key hygiene behaviour over time. The key results of this programme has been to create ODF communities at scale and sustained hygiene behaviour.