Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/180464 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11446
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Basic sanitation facilities are still lacking in large parts of the developing world, engendering serious environmental health risks. Interventions commonly deliver in-kind or cash subsidies to promote private toilet ownership. In this paper, we assess an intervention that provides information and behavioral incentives to encourage villagers in rural Mali to build and use basic latrines. Using an experimental research design and carefully measured indicators of use, we find a sizeable impact from this intervention: latrine ownership and use almost doubled in intervention villages, and open defecation was reduced by half. Our results partially attribute these effects to increased knowledge about cheap and locally available sanitation solutions. They are also associated with shifts in the social norm governing sanitation. Taken together, our findings, unlike previous evidence from other contexts, suggest that a progressive approach that starts with ending open defecation and targets whole communities at a time can help meet the new Sustainable Development Goal of ending open defecation.
Subjects: 
sanitation
behavioral change
community-based intervention
social norm
JEL: 
Q53
Q58
D78
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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