PLAN INTERNATIONAL MALAWI

EN HA NCING ACCES S O F T O I L E T S
AMONG MALAWIANS
Plan International is one of the leading international NGOs
implementing child centered community development
programs in 70 countries around the world. Its vision is
Children in Malawi, especially the adolescent girls,
transition to responsible adulthood, in societies that
respect their rights.
Plan has been working in Malawi since 1994 with physical
offices in Mulanje, Lilongwe, Kasungu, Mzimba districts and
is scaling out to other districts currently at 26.
As an international child-centered community
development organization committed to the wellbeing of
children and supporting the Convention of the Rights of
the Child, Plan does not tolerate any form of child abuse. .In
ensuring that children are very well protected and living in
good environment, Plan International Malawi implements
various programs of which Water, Sani- tation and Hygiene
(WASH) is one of them
In the recent past, Plan has been among the leading
organizations implementing WASH in the rural areas as well
as the peri- urban areas of some major cities in Malawi
Approach
Plan understands and appreciates the importance of
community participation and involvement in its interventions.
Especially those to do with Water and Sanitation. As such, Plan
promotes Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) to trigger
the commu- nities to construct, own and use latrines. In some
instances involving public institutions (schools, markets and
health centres), plan provides latrine facilities that are socially
inclusive and accommodates all types of people
Strategies
Working with Traditional Leaders and community
structures
In order to increase community participation and ownership,
Plan International orients and builds the capacity of traditional
leaders to be the champions of CLTS. Plan promotes exchange
visits of chiefs from various communities to learn from each
other and to act as a motivation for those that are not doing
well in terms of Open Defecation Free (ODF) communities.
In addition, Plan also works with established local structures
like the Village Development committees (VDCs), Village
Health Committees (VHCs) and other existing structures that
promote good health and livelihoods among the communities.
This en- sures sustainability of the interventions even if Plan
goes out of the communities.
Working with the Government
For any WASH intervention to make a meaningful
impact, Plan believes in working with the Government
and ensures that all Government policies guiding
sanitation are adhered to. This collaboration is
done at both the National and District levels. At the
District level, Plan gets guidance from the District
Coordinating Team (DCT) and also participates
in District Executive Committee (DEC) meetings.
Before undertaking any intervention, Plan consults
the District Councils for approval. This is be- sides
the already established impact areas through our
sponsorship programs located in Lilongwe, Kasungu,
Mulanje and Mzimba.
Collaboration with other CSOs
Plan believes that for Malawi to make good strides
in achieving universal access to sanitation as per the
SDGs, there is need for enhancement of partnership
among players implementing WASH activities. This
collaboration is in areas of implementation, advocacy
as well as knowledge and learning!

Peri Urban Sanitation and Hygiene (PUSH) Project

This is a four year project which commenced in 2013 and
will end in June 2017. The Project is being implemented
with financial support from the European Union. Of
the total US$ 1.9 Million project financing, the EU is
contributing 75% while Plan International is contributing
the remaining 25%
With the project nearing its completion, it is not wrong
to say that the objective of the project which is to increase
sanitation coverage through basic sanitation infrastructure
and hygiene promotion in the peri-urban areas of Mzuzu
City has been achieved. Through the initiative of the
project, there has been an increase in latrine coverage
among the households in the peri urban areas of Mzuzu as
well as providing sustainable sanitation infrastructure in
public insti- tutions like schools and market centres

A socially inclusive VIP latrine and ecosan toilets

at Chiputula primary school in Mzuzu

Key Highlights of the PUSH Project

Improved access to
infrastructure services

sustainable

sanitation

Six primary schools have benefitted from socially

inclusive improved VIP latrines. A total of 15 VIPs (with
4 drop holes each) across the six schools as: St Augustine
4, Chiputula 4, Kauwa 2, Chingambo 3, Mchengautuba 2.
Each of the girls latrines has a changing room specifically
for menstrual hygiene management for adolescent girls.
The latrines have also a special room for people with
physical disabilities to be inline with the inclusion policy
advocated in Plan. In addition to the VIPs the project has
also constructed 36 ecological sanitation toilets (skyloos)
in 5 schools namely, Chiputula, Chibanja, Chingambo,
Mchengautuba 2, and Viyere primary schools.
Considering that people in market centres also require
good sanitation facilities, and taking into account that
Mzuzu city cannot be ODF if the markets have poor latrine
infrastructure, the project has constructed 5 market centre
latrines in five markets across Mzuzu city. The latrines also
aim to spur business among sanitation entrepreneurs as
the latrines are run on commer- cial basis.

A raised toilet seat with hand rails for easy access

to people/learners with physical disabilities at
Kawuwa Primary School

Improved good hygiene and sanitation practices

Plan believes that good sanitation infrastructure goes

together with good hygiene. As a way of encouraging
good hygiene practices, the project has so far conducted
38 Sanitation and hy- giene promotion campaigns
inclusive of World Toilet Day, World Hand-washing Day,
National WASH Week. As a result of these campaigns,
more than 8800 households are practicing hand
washing with soap after vising the toilet. Hand washing
facilities are a common sight at house- holds living in
the peri urban areas of Mzuzu city and especially those
that were reached through the initiatives of the project.
Using Urban Community Led Total Sanitation
(UCLTS), the project in collaboration with Mzuzu
City Council and Synod of Livingstonia Development
conducted 42 triggering sessions out of the targeted
54. Through those triggering sessions, about 75, 000
people in the peri urban areas of Mzuzu are living in
ODF environment. These figures were also confirmed
in an inde-

Masons undergoing training in a low cost pit

latrine lining technique corbelled

Solid Waste ManagementPart of the game!

Through the PUSH project, Plan and its partners mainly
Mzuzu City Council also aims to address issues of solid
waste management. In the recent past, the issue of solid
waste has been a thorn in MCCs flesh as the current
dump site at Mchengautuba has been full. In order to
address the problem, the project has constructed a state
of the art Waste Manage- ment facility at Msilo. Apart
from dumping the waste, the facility is also aiming as
encouraging economic activity through sanitation
entrepreneurship. The project and specifically the waste
management facility will promote re-cycling of waste.
The Waste Management Facility is almost ready for
inauguration save from a few safety and operational
issues.
In addition to this new facility, the project also
rehabilitated the waste stabilization ponds at Mzuzu
Central Hospital. Fur- ther to this, the project has
constructed street concrete bins to reduce wanton
disposal of waste in the street.

Waste management youth group collecting

waste from inst

Entrepreneurs engaged in pit emptying

Improved sustainable waste

management, using 3Rs of
Reduce, Recycle and Re-use
The project has trained 50 teachers, 60 learners 50
land lords in use 3Rs of (Reduce, Recycle and Re-use).
Further, to trig- ger people to practice good waste
management practices, the project has undertaken 27
waste management campaigns in markets, schools and
residential areas. The campaigns have so far reached
39,335 people (19,732 Males/19,603 Females) and
11,830 learners (5852 Boys/5978 Girls). The project
has also trained 28 entrepreneurs in solid and liquid
management. Three are al- ready active in pit latrine
emptying and one has made inroads in reuse of used or
factory rejected bottles to pack and distri bute drinking
water. The target is to have 60% increase of schools
involved in 3Rs, 45% increase of households and 50%
for entrepre- neurs involved in making business out
of 3Rs of both solid and liquid waste by the end of
December 2016.

Pictures depicting some of the structures at Msilo Waste Management Facility. The elements shown
above include a landfill, drying bed, Sorting shed and waste treatment ponds

Water Demand Management Project

The Water Demand Management Project is an innovative
venture which Plan International Malawi is implementing
in a public private partnership with Mzuzu City Council,
Northern Region Water Board and Vitens Evides
International. Among other results, the project aims to
increase the number of people with access to improved
sanitation and hygiene. This is done using the UCLTS
approach which is an adaptation of the traditional CLTS
model for urban settings.
This six year project commenced in 2013 and will be
completed in 2019 with a project amount of 2.6 Million
of which the Govern- ment of Netherlands is contributing
50% as subsidy. The remaining 50% is shared between
Plan International, Northern region Water Board and
Vitens Evides International. Although the project as a lot
of bearing towards improvement of water supply efficiency
for the Northern Region Water Board, there is a significant
sanitation that is being implemented in by Plan in close

collaboration with the Mzuzu City Council. The Sanitation

initiatives aim at increasing toile coverage among the
households in Mzuzu as well as improving the sanitation
infrastructure in public institutions.

Key Highlights for the Water

Demand Management Project
Improvement of Sanitation and Hygiene
in Market centres

In keeping with the need to have good infrastructure

and hygiene in market cen- tres, the water demand
Management Project has constructed 4 ablution blocks
at 4 market centres in the city of Mzuzu. The ablution
blocks have been con- structed at Chingambo, multicareer, Target and Area 1B.
The ablution blocks are gender and socially inclusive

and allows for Menstrual Hygiene Management for

women undergoing their menstruation periods. The
blocks have also been designed to allow for easy access
for people with physical disabilities.
One of the key elements of the project is to encourage
the people in the city of Mzuzu climb up the sanitation
ladder through the construction, owning and us- age of
improved toilets. Understanding the economic challenges
that the people are facing and taking into consideration
a number of competing priorities at household level, the
project established a loan scheme specifically for sanitation. This scheme is working through the Village Savings
and Loans model and is only intended for the purchase
of materials for toilet construction. Primarily, the project
is targeting landlords and most of the landlords have
expressed will- ingness to venture into the scheme with a
majority preferring Skyloo toilets, VIP latrines and pout
flush type.

WASH Campaign at Mzuzu

Prison

Plan believes that all people regardless of

status are important and deserve the best in
life. Through the project, Plan conducted
a Water, Sanitation and hy- giene (WaSH)
awareness campaign at Mzuzu Prison
with the aim of promoting good water use
practice, improved hygiene behaviour and
use of improved sani- tary facilities

A completed ablution block at Chingambo

market in Mzuzu City

Inmates drama performance on WASH

campaign at Mzuzu Prison

Mulanje Total Sanitation Project

In the villages, government extension workers
trigger villages and work with natural leaders and
village leadership to provide follow up until
communi- ties achieve ODF status.
l Teachers trigger schools and establish school
sanitation clubs and mobilize community resources
(finance, labour, materials) to improve school
WASH infrastructure.
l
Traditional Leader (chiefs) oriented to take active
role of championing CLTS in their communities
l

A hygienic latrine with a child practicing

hand washing

An elderly woman participating in squatting

exercise during one of the dialogue circle sessions

Background
Plan International Malawi, with development
assistance from Australia Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is implementing
the four year Mulanje District Total Sanitation
Project. The project is funded to the tune of
AUD 2, 228, 880 which is equiva- lent to US$
1, 681,628.00
The major goal of the activity is to promote
health and wellbeing of communities in
the whole of Mulanje district by improving
sanitation use and hygiene behaviour by
2017. It is working towards the ambitious
Government of Malawi targets of nationwide
ODF achievement by 2020 and 100% appropriate
hygiene practices by 2022 goals which Mulanje
district has set to meet by 2017.
Mulanje district is divided into 6 Traditional
Authorities and these are Mabuka, Juma,
Mthiramanja, Nkanda, Njema and Chikumbu.
These TAs are further subdivided into 9 Area
Development Committees (ADCs) namely;
Chinyama, Chikumbu, Juma, Kam- wendo,
Milonde, Mimosa, Mthiramanja, Njema and
Nkanda.
Key Achievements
Sanitation and Hygiene
Using CLTS and SLTS, 546 villages and 162
schools were triggered. A total 136 villages are
now ODF with 118,806 people from 25,367
households living in ODF environment.
Traditional Leaders are championing CLTS
in their villages in line with ODF action plans
developed at village level and Traditional
Authority (TA) level. Mulanje DCT also formulated a district ODF action whose focus of
attainment of ODF at TA level.
CLTS activities are also being implemented
in 29 market centres. Under the project 120
masons have been trained in construction of

improved latrines. To support scaling up on

the sanitation ladder, sustainable sanitation
financing is being promoted through Village
savings and loan associations based on the
formative sanitation marketing research that
was conducted.
Gender and Social Inclusion
Menstrual hygiene management training to
increase awareness on menstrual hygiene was
conducted to 1003 adolescent girls, 223 boys,
25 mother group members, traditional leaders and school management committees drawn
from 5 schools. The interventions will continue with practical hand sewing of reusable
pads to mother groups from 26 schools across
the district.
As part of the action research on gender and
social inclusion one pilot inclusive latrine has
been built at Satemwa School. From the pilot
latrine, one well-wisher adopted and used the
design from Plan International and has built
(self sponsored) another latrine block at Sikoya School.
Knowledge and Learning
Continuous learning in line with the
programme quality plans has formed part of the
pro- ject implementation. 4,589 NLs and Chiefs
have participated in local exchange visits within
the district. Three exchange visits have been
held by Plan staff, Area Environmental Health
Officers and DCT members from Mulanje
PU to Phalombe and Balaka where Con- cern
Universal and GSF are implementing similar
projects. Four international learning events
have been conducted with 39 person days by
10 different Plan staff and government officials.
Plan International has also contributed a
publication on MHM to IDSs CLTS knowledge
hub.

The Mwadzama improved WASH project

The Mwadzama Clean Water and Improved Sanitation
for Schools and Surrounding Communi- ties Project is a
complementary project to the Accelerated Sanitation and
Hygiene Practices Programme (ASHPP) supported by the
Global Sanitation Fund, which Plan is implementing as an
executing agency on behalf of the Malawi Government. The
project, a result of collective effort and will-power from the
people of Mwadzama, was financially supported by Plan
Inter- national Canada to the tune of CAD 250,000 (about
MWK 125 million) and implemented through Hygiene
Village Project (HVP) a local organisation successfully
implementing ASHPP in the district. Celebration for
official completion of the Mwadzama improved WASH
project was held at Chantondo Primary School ground on
28th July, 2016.
The project was created to address inadequacy of clean
water and sanitation facilities in various schools in TA
Mwadzama. A situation analysis on which the project is
based, indicated that lack of easy access to clean water
affected pupils attendance to classes especially girls who
spent much time fetching water. Again, lack of proper
latrines around schools undermined community efforts
to deal with open defecation as pupils defecated in nearby
waterways, fields and bushes creating poor environmental
sanitation conditions in and around the schools.
The 18-month project (January 2015 June 2016)
therefore, ensured the installation of eight boreholes
and construction of six improved latrines for about
1,444 girls and 1,513 boys in eight schools within TA
Mwadzama. Other activities included establishing
School WASH Clubs and School WASH competitions in
five schools and training pupils on good School WASH
practices; community sanitation and hygiene campaigns

Ngwaku Mussa (in the back) using the borehole

with a friend
in five villages; community and school sensitization and
mobilization; formation of school and community Water
and Sani- tation (WATSAN) committees and training
of Water Point Committees (Pre-drilling) among other
things.
Interestingly, recent statistics from the targeted schools
indicate that enrolment numbers of girls and boys in the
schools have increased from 1,341 to 2,082 and from
1,350 to 1,937 respec- tively perhaps due to the project.
Absenteeism , especially on the part of girls has also been
reduced as the latrines have a special changing room for
menstrual hygiene management
Rewind to November 2015, the first TA to achieve ODF
under the Global Sanitation Fund Pro- gram was unveiled.
Mwadzama was in a state of elation as their concerted

New and one of the old latrines at

Nkumbaleza Primary School

pursuit to make their area ODF with support from HVP

was finally realised. But good brings good so the saying
goes; Mwadzamas ODF achievement boomeranged with
the WASH initiative that is benefit- ting over 3000 people
in schools and homes. This was an award for the people
of Mwadzama for their dedication to make their land
ODF through great local leadership and excellent district
WASH coordination apparent from the start.
Another major highlight of the project was the
establishment of the School WASH competi- tions
and training pupils on good School WASH practices.
The SWASH competitions, where the eight benefitting
schools were competing for MWK 1,000,000 (about
CAD 1,800), was done to encourage pupils to sustain the
cleanliness of their schools.

GSF Programme in Malawi

The Accelerated Sanitation and Hygiene Practices Programme is a
sanitation and hygiene initiative which Plan International Malawi
is managing on behalf of the Government of Malawi with support
from the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council
(WSSCC) through the Global Sanitation Fund (GSF). To date,
the programme has committed over $6.2 million to the sanitation
and hygiene sector in the country since 2010. The original fiveyear programme with a budget of $5 million ended in December
2015 and was followed by an 18-month $1.2 million programme
extension which will run until June 2017.
Working through sub-grantees in the communities, the
programme is supporting collective behaviour change activities
aimed at creating conditions for hundreds of thousands of
people to live in open defecation free environments; access
improved toilets and handwashing facilities; and recycle waste for
sustainable management of the environment so that the country
attains its vision of achieving Sanitation for All by 2020.
The programme is being implemented in six districts of
Rumphi, Nkhotakota, Ntchisi, Balaka, Phalombe and Chikhwawa,
which at the time of their selection, had high levels of open
defecation, low access to improved sanitation and low investment
in sanitation and hygiene.
Major Highlights
Declared 10 Traditional Authorities ODF i.e. Amidu,
Chanthunya, Chapinduka, Chilooko, Chiwalo, Kaduya,
Malengachanzi, Mulilima, Mwadzama and Sawali.
Heightened ODF momentum through strategic PCM
engagements with government and WASH partners at district
level to make commitments to achieve ODF by June 2017.
Handed over 7 boreholes and 8 improved latrines in 9 schools
to benefit about 1,819 girls and 1,901 boys in TA Mwadzama
through a complementary WASH project financed by Plan
International Canada.
Currently piloting the innovative and flexible Sanitation

Results as of September 2016

Business Model in all the 6 Districts which aims at providing a

concept for up scaling sanitation business among sanitation
entrepreneurs by creating a financing mechanism at Traditional
Authority (TA) level to support poor households acquire improved
sanitation facilities through Community Based Savings and Credit
Institutions.
Strengthened institutional capacities by coordinating various
learning events both local and international involving various
stakeholders at different levels which have helped the programme
For more information and clarifications, you may contact:
Country Director: Lilly Omondi at Lilly.Omondi@plan-international.org
WASH focal person: Thoko Kaitane at thoko.kaitane@plan-international.org

to build overall sector capacity in new approaches to rural

sanitation and hygiene programming.
Strengthened of sector networking and collaboration
by supporting the local Water and Environmental Sanitation
Network (WESNET) to hold important activities and the National
ODF Taskforce to proactively advance the ODF agenda.
Hosted the WSSCC Executive Director, Dr. Chris Williams
during ODC celebration for TA Sawali, which had great strategic
importance on the future of GoM and WSSCC cooperation.