Improving desludging in Haiti by building the capacity of local Bayakou (informal manual desludgers)

This paper presents the work of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to build the capacity of private sector manual labour (locally known as Bayakou) for the desludging of latrines in Port-au-Prince’s Internally Displaced Population (IDP) camps. It looks at the successes and challenges of the methods used to improve safety among a limited number of Bayakou groups awarded contracts by IRCs as well as efforts to improve the quality of their work and their level of professionalism. It also discusses the significant challenges in gaining wider recognition for the Bayakou among the national and local authorities as well as the challenges of replicating the success of the programme among Bayakou working in other neighbourhoods of the Metropolitan Zone of Port au Prince.