NCT03822611

Research on the Impact of Targeted Subsidies Within Open Defecation Free (ODF) Communities

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 5,615 (actual)
• Sponsor: The Aquaya Institute · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study evaluates targeted subsidies as a strategy to improve sanitation infrastructure and behaviours in communities that have reached Open Defecation Free (ODF) status after a Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) program. The investigator's hypothesis is that sanitation subsidies targeted at the most vulnerable households within ODF communities will increase and help sustain latrine coverage, quality, and use amongst the targeted households, and through a spill-over effect, amongst the rest of the community. Half of participating communities will receive the targeted subsidy, while the other half will not receive any treatment.

Detailed description

Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is a widely used approach to eradicate open defecation in rural communities in developing countries. Using emotional triggers, CLTS promotes community self-help to build household latrines. In Ghana, where CLTS is part of the government's official sanitation strategy, a community is declared "Open Defecation Free" (ODF) when 80 percent of households own a latrine. There is however evidence that open defecation persists in so-called "ODF" communities, especially as the most vulnerable households (the poorest of the poor) cannot afford to construct or maintain durable latrines. As a result, subsidies for these vulnerable households have been proposed as a strategy to promote the construction of durable latrines and help sustain safe sanitation behaviours in communities having received CLTS.

Conditions

• Sanitation

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Targeted Subsidy	Voucher

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-02-18
• Primary completion: 2021-03-31
• Completion: 2021-03-31
• First posted: 2019-01-30
• Last updated: 2021-10-04

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Ghana