An updated Engaging Sanitation Entrepreneurs case study from Lesotho investigating how involvement the private sector entrepreneurs in sanitation partnerships has evolved over time. Recent work suggests that the local private sector is the predominant supplier of basic sanitation in the developing world; a diverse range of formal and informal businesses work on sanitation – delivering to both rich and poor communities, often with limited oversight or support. In April 2009 BDP convened a multi-disciplinary roundtable to discuss this issue – how widespread it is and what the consequences might be. The focus was on what sanitation entrepreneurs are doing in the field and how best to engage with them. Thirty professionals from differing sectors – from sanitation engineers to health specialists, from Malawian entrepreneurs to financial lenders – debated the role that entrepreneurs currently play, how support them and what opportunities the sanitation sector may currently be missing. The case study on Lesotho, drawn from previous work by BPD on sanitation partnerships, was prepared as background to those discussions. It looks back on an established and successful programme, arguably a forerunner to what today is called “sanitation marketing”, to see learn how to engage and support the local private sector and how such efforts have evolved over time.

Bibliographic information

Schaub-Jones, D. (2009). Supporting sanitation entrepreneurs in Lesotho – 20 years of experience Building Partnerships for Development (BPD), UK

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Lesotho

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