Integrating infant and young child feeding with community-led total sanitation: a case study of strategic partnership to fight stunting in Jigawa and Katsina states of Nigeria

Jigawa and Katsina States have population of 3.5 million and 2.8 million and stunting rate of 57.7% and 56.2% respectively (MICS, 2010). The Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) is a strategic intervention for promoting exclusive breastfeeding with emphasis on the community level intervention. Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) motivates communities to stop open defecation and become environments where all households use latrines. Combining the two strategies is an offshoot of partnership between UNICEF WASH and Nutrition sections playing very important role in the Child Survival and Development cluster. This intervention promotes messages of exclusive breastfeeding; safe defecation and hand washing with the aim of preventing malnutrition from the onset. Area of synergy between the two sections could be summarized as: good hygiene is crucial to avoid diarrhoea and other illnesses. In communities targeted, all households now use latrines while practice of hand washing after defecation has increased

Promoting entrepreneurship and affordable financing for uptake of improved toilets in Nigeria

Meeting the SDG targets on Sanitation in Nigeria requires households to construct over 2.4 million improved toilets every year up to 2030, which is a 15-fold increase in the current rate of latrine uptake. Hence business as usual is not an option for the country in the run up to 2030. Markets forces must be mobilized. The two-pronged strategy deployed in Nigeria addresses the issue of markets as well as affordable finances. Toilet Business Owners (TBOs) are trained and mobilized as successful for-profit enterprises by the existing public-sector enterprise development agencies while cheaper financing is being mobilized from both Public and private/commercial sources through local MFIs and community saving groups. This approach has led to the construction of 4650 improved toilets in 06 Local Government Areas of Nigeria and holds promise for the future