Sanitation as a Catalyst for Change in Burkina Faso

Water is life. When we think about water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), access to water is often the first thing that comes to mind. And rightly so. Safe water is essential for drinking, cooking, handwashing, cleaning and maintaining good health.

Yet sanitation and hygiene are equally important. Safe sanitation systems, hygiene products and healthy behaviors help prevent disease, protect the environment, preserve human dignity and create the foundation for thriving communities.

This understanding lies at the heart of the Sanya Sanu project, whose name means “the path towards cleanliness.” From 2022 to 2025, the project was implemented across 37 municipalities and more than 500 villages in eleven regions of Burkina Faso. Funded by DANIDA and implemented by a consortium led by Helvetas together with ACTED, Tin Tua and SOLIDEV, the project aimed to improve hygiene and sanitation conditions for rural populations, with particular attention to communities hosting internally displaced persons (IDPs).

The project operated in a particularly challenging context. Years of insecurity had forced large numbers of people to leave their homes, increasing pressure on already fragile host communities. Schools, health centers and sanitation facilities suddenly had to serve many more people. At the same time, local authorities struggled with limited resources, while access to affordable sanitation products and services remained weak.

Rather than treating sanitation as a problem that could simply be solved through building infrastructure, Sanya Sanu worked from a broader vision. The project invested in people, local institutions and markets — recognizing that lasting improvements depend on communities' ability to manage, maintain and expand sanitation services themselves. Through this approach, sanitation became a catalyst for economic opportunity, social cohesion, gender inclusion and environmental protection.

Creating economic opportunities

Sanitation has the potential to generate new livelihoods and expand existing ones. A latrine requires builders. Hygiene products need producers and retailers. Pits need to be emptied safely. Markets need entrepreneurs.

To tackle the limited access to hygiene products and sanitation services in communities, Sanya Sanu supported local actors to establish and strengthen businesses linked to hygiene and sanitation: Around 2,600 women were trained in the production and marketing of liquid soap, while tailors learned to manufacture reusable sanitary pads that could be sold locally.

Sanitation infrastructure itself also became a driver of local economic development. The project invested in training local masons and pit emptiers, providing them with technical skills, equipment and training on business practices and financial literacy.

Mariam Konaté, who took on a nontraditional gender role by training as a mason, expressed the confidence that came with these new skills: “Everything men can do as a profession, we women can also do.”

Nearly a thousand local masons were trained and contributed to the construction of more than 9,000 household latrines across the project area; these were jointly financed by the households and the project. These skills remain after the project's completion. Villages now have local professionals capable of building and maintaining sanitation facilities without depending on external support. What began as a sanitation intervention evolved into a source of long-term economic opportunity. At the same time, the project worked closely with public authorities and their technical services across all levels. Their staff received training and support on governance, accountability and data management, while sector maintenance plans were developed to help better manage sanitation services in the future.

By strengthening these local stakeholders, Helvetas was able to take on the temporary role of facilitator, with a clear exit strategy that puts ownership and future operations in the hands of local partners. This system strengthening approach underpins all our work and can lead to lasting shifts in power that help development be more sustainable, while improving gender and social equity.

Increasing social cohesion

No sanitation program, or any intervention for that matter, can succeed without the active engagement of the communities it serves. Communal committees, such as Village Sanitation Committees and Citizen Monitoring Committees, were established across the project area. Citizen Monitoring Committees were formally recognized by the local authorities and played an active role in monitoring infrastructure — helping ensure that local authorities responded to the needs of the communities. The Village Sanitation Committees were the main community-level actor bringing their communities together and promoting good hygiene practices. They also helped identify vulnerable households eligible for support to construct family latrines and participated in the selection of the local masons and pit emptiers who would later receive technical training and equipment.

It was essential that these committees reflected the diversity of the communities they served. Women and men were equally represented, and attention was given to the inclusion of IDPs. This was important since Burkina Faso's security crisis has led to significant population movements, creating the potential for tensions over scarce resources and services between IDPs and the host communities.

The committees became spaces where different groups could work together to identify priorities, discuss concerns and make collective decisions — ultimately strengthening trust and cooperation between host communities and displaced families.

This commitment to inclusion was also reflected in who benefited from the project. Host communities and displaced households alike gained access to sanitation infrastructure, hygiene promotion activities and local governance structures. Women played a central role in these local systems. They were not merely beneficiaries of improved services; they became entrepreneurs, trainers, committee members and advocates for better hygiene and sanitation.

Inclusivity was also built into the physical infrastructure. Latrines in schools and health centers included separate facilities for women and men and ramps for people with reduced mobility. Girls’ latrine blocks in schools also included menstrual hygiene management cabins.

Healthy people shape a healthy environment

The goal of Sanya Sanu was to create healthier living environments for people and reduce the environmental impacts of poor sanitation practices. To achieve this, the project simultaneously worked in communities, schools and health facilities, so that good hygiene practices are reinforced across all places where people live, learn and receive care.

At the household and community level, awareness-raising activities helped families better understand the links between sanitation, hygiene and health. Communities were encouraged to analyze the consequences of open defecation and poor hygiene for themselves and to take collective responsibility for improving local conditions. These efforts contributed to substantial progress towards eliminating open defecation in many villages and helped establish sanitation as a shared community responsibility rather than an individual concern.

More than one hundred schools benefited from improved sanitation facilities, hygiene promotion activities and environmental education initiatives. Separate sanitation facilities for girls and boys, menstrual hygiene management spaces, and handwashing facilities made it easier for pupils to attend school in safe and dignified conditions.

Through the Blue Schools approach, pupils learned about hygiene, sanitation and the environment as part of everyday life at school. School hygiene clubs helped them become ambassadors for good sanitation and hygiene practices, sharing what they learned with their peers and families. Many schools also established gardens that serve both as practical learning spaces and as a tool for environmental education, learning about waste management, composting, agroecological practices and the importance of caring for their surroundings.

In health centers, the Water and Sanitation for Health Facility Improvement Tool (WASH FIT) approach was used to help health center staff systematically assess risks, identify gaps and continuously improve water, sanitation, hygiene and waste management services. WASH FIT supports healthcare facilities in strengthening day-to-day management practices and creating safer environments for patients, staff and visitors. The project supported the construction or rehabilitation of 355 latrines, 221 showers and 35 incinerators for the safe treatment of biomedical waste. Health facilities were also equipped with handwashing stations, waste-sorting bins and cleaning materials, helping to reduce infection risks and improve the quality of care.

Truly locally led development

One of the key success factors of this project was its strong emphasis on local ownership and participation. Lasting and continuous improvement can only be achieved when all stakeholders are willing and able to carry out their role: Local authorities provide leadership and oversight and remain accountable to their citizens, entrepreneurs and service providers respond to local demands, and communities mobilize and serve as a driving force for collective action.

The project established a social intermediation mechanism to support these efforts. At its heart were three local associations with a deep understanding of the communities, local dynamics and stakeholders. Throughout the project, the associations served as trusted facilitators and a vital link between the local authorities and their technical services, entrepreneurs, artisans and community groups. Through awareness-raising, training, dialogue and conflict management, the association unit helped these actors work together, further empowering local committees to fulfill their respective roles effectively. In doing so, they fostered collaboration, strengthened accountability and helped create the conditions for locally led and sustainable improvements in sanitation and hygiene.

The experience of Sanya Sanu demonstrates that sanitation is far more than the construction of toilets and latrines. When approached as an integrated system, sanitation can create economic opportunities, empower women, strengthen social cohesion, improve public health and protect the environment. The path towards cleanliness ultimately became a path towards greater dignity, resilience and opportunity for thousands of people across Burkina Faso.