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Research reports

Keeping communities clean

The church's response to improving sanitation and hygiene

2009 Available in English, French and Portuguese

A mother teaching her child how to wash their hands

A Mother teaching her child how to wash their hands in Riyakarenzi Village in Eastern Rwanda where Tearfund are working with their partner African Evangelistic Enterprise (AEE)

The statistics of the global sanitation crisis are shocking: currently 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation. For millions of individuals, this means continued indignity, shame and fear of having to use unsafe and unhygienic sanitation facilities. Women risk daily harassment and assault, girl children will find attendance at school difficult, especially in their teenage years, and millions of working and school days will be lost to illnesses stemming directly from hazardous sanitation practices. It is clear that a massive effort is needed to help address such great challenges. Developing country governments and donors need to establish a widespread partnership of understanding and cooperation with the world’s largest grassroots organisation: the church. 

For more than 40 years, Tearfund has been building a global network of churches to engage in relief, development and advocacy work. Local churches in developing countries across the world are working with communities to tackle poverty issues at the community level, among them the sanitation crisis. The local church is found at the heart of a community, not only upholding beliefs, cultural values and social tradition but also as a force for positive change and development.

This report illustrates how the church is well-placed to deliver and sustain improved sanitation and hygiene. It draws on case studies that illustrate church-based responses to the need for improved sanitation and hygiene in five countries where Tearfund works: Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. Tearfund seeks to facilitate a greater understanding of the significant contribution made by the church to the adoption of improved sanitation and hygiene practices. Stories and examples from Tearfund partners are used to illustrate the role the church can play, and offer a glimpse of the potential of the local church globally.

A report by Tearfund, Cranfield University and Kigezi Diocese in Uganda, Functional sustainability in community water and sanitation, identified three interlinked characteristics that can contribute to the sustainability of water and sanitation interventions. Underpinning an organisation’s entire endeavour is its ethos: the values, attitudes, integrity and commitment of the individuals and organisation involved. A sound ethos and a strong understanding of the context in which an organisation operates can lead to a set of processes conducive to sustainability. Processes themselves are not enough, since they must be combined with skills and expertise to build the right framework of activities. When these three ingredients come together in a vision shared by the donor, implementing agency and community, a lasting and sustainable impact can be achieved. The local church possesses a suitable ethos upon which to develop effective organisational processes and appropriate skills for activities promoting improved sanitation and hygiene practices. 

The crucial role of churches and other faith-based organisations (FBOs) has been recognised in other development sectors. A recent report published by the World Health Organisation (WHO), in referring to the role of FBOs in response to HIV, recognises that FBOs ‘have an impressive, though under-recognised, track record in HIV and AIDS treatment. They demonstrate a close integration in their communities at a grassroots level. They have infrastructure available and flexibility in using it so that they adapt to the new challenges.’ Furthermore, it suggests that FBOs, if included in government planning and strategies, can act as important partners in addressing the gaps in government provision. Tearfund believes the same can be said of sanitation and hygiene. While it is acknowledged that some donors are beginning to recognise the role of the church, as the Commission for Africa has noted, donors need to step up their engagement with FBOs and view them as ‘equal partners’.

The process of delivering sustainable hygiene and sanitation

For many communities, the local church is more than just a meeting point: it is the very heart of a community. Thus, churches are in a prime position to mobilise communities and work with them to improve access to sanitation and affect behaviour change for better hygiene. Tearfund has identified the following five roles that the local church or church-based organisations can play in their communities to help improve hygiene and sanitation practices. Depending on the church’s capacity, and the context it is working in, it may be able to fulfil one or all of these roles. 

Messenger – communicating messages about improved sanitation and hygiene 

Demonstrator – offering individuals and communities the chance to see and experience a well-kept toilet or hand-washing facility 

Implementer – helping individuals and communities to attain improved sanitation and hygiene facilities, through technical and financial support 

Advocate – speaking out to those in authority with and on behalf of communities to express their needs and their desire to have improved sanitation 

Guardian – helping communities and individuals maintain the gains achieved through improved hygiene and sanitation

These five roles of the church all contribute to behaviour change at a community level, through working in partnership with other stakeholders. Each role is of equal value and importance, addressing a barrier to the adoption of improved sanitation and hygiene practices, and some will be more appropriate than others, depending on the local context and capacity. Tearfund is not suggesting that the church replaces the work of other stakeholders but, as a distinctive member of civil society, the church can play an important role in helping to improve access to sanitation and hygiene. 

By their very nature, churches can most easily fulfil the role of messenger and – to varying degrees – demonstrator and implementer, depending on their knowledge and capacity. Some of Tearfund’s partners have become effective advocates and governments at various levels have recognised the church’s technical expertise and competence which have been used to influence and shape policy. The church’s long-term commitment in a community makes it ideal to act as a guardian for sustainability of projects. 

While a particular church, or church-based organisation, may focus on one or more of these roles, they are often interconnected. For example, being a messenger for improvements in domestic hygiene and sanitation is often coupled with demonstrating this. Similarly, being an advocate for policy change in sanitation may incorporate demonstrating evidence of successful programmatic intervention; whilst the church, as implementer of sanitation programmes, usually requires connection with all five roles. 

Tearfund prefers to support demand-led sanitation approaches, and acknowledges the vital role of sanitation marketing in behavioural change towards increased uptake of household sanitation facilities. As the church is itself part of the beneficiary community, its members understand the aspirations and mindsets of end-users, as well as their needs. Tearfund encourages a sanitation marketing approach in which various user groups would receive training and capacity building in basic masonry, organisational and financial management, and other skills to enable a community to meet its own needs. Indeed, this is already being taken up by various larger implementing church-based partners, such as Kigezi Diocese Water and Sanitation Project in Uganda. 

The sanitation marketing approach is therefore not incompatible with any of the five roles identified for the church, since each role is part of a combined, community-focused effort both to stimulate demand and maintain supply of sanitation improvements and facilities.

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