High Level Ministerial Meeting , 15 and 16 March 2016

1. Template 2: Short oral presentation Success story on MALAWI OPEN DEFEACTION FREE STRATEGY (2011-2015) High Level Ministerial Meeting , 15 and 16 March 2016 @sanwatforall

2. The issue we seek/sought to address • 11% of Malawians were still practicing open defecation throughout the country. (HMIS, 2010) • This translates into massive contamination of water sources, foods and food products, and air pollution through dust inoculation. • 52.3% of all out patient department attendances are due to sanitation related diseases and accounts for 25% of mortality in all age groups. (HMIS, 2015) • This prompted Malawi Government to develop the Open Defeacation Free (ODF) Strategy that ran from 2011 to 2015 in a quest to achieving MDG 7

3. Equity and Access • The disease burden caused by poor Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services affects people’s ability to participate in economic work in the Malawi. • This costs households money through lost work due to illness or the need to supervise children who are too ill to attend school. • In Malawi 63.7% of both rural and urban households have access to basic sanitation. • Poor hygiene practices remain serious challenge with only 29.7% of the households having hand washing facilities of which 4.7 % have hand washing facilities with soap (HMIS, 2015)

4. Sustainability? • Strategy served as a blue print to provide guidance on how sanitation and hygiene activities shall be implemented by all actors/ stakeholders in the country. • The National Open Defeacation Free task force (NOTF) is technical arm of NSHU and makes periodic reviews of sanitation interventions being implemented by all stakeholders and it informs decision makers on possible recommendations to suggest future improvements. • At District Councils, District Coordinating Committee (DCT) with multisectoral membership coordinates implementation of WASH activities and reports to the Health and Environment Committee on quarterly basis on progress made in the district.

5. Sustainability? • At community level, HSAs, who are allocated to each village, trigger community action for the increased uptake of sanitation and hygiene interventions using CLTS, SLTS and sanitation marketing approaches. • The engagement of community members and religious leaders by the extension workers, especially the HSAs has created a mechanism for sustaining the initiated sanitation and hygiene interventions. • All traditional leaders are familiarised with and involved with all components of the Malawi ODF Strategy that discourages subsidies to sanitation and hygiene products. • District Commissioners and District Health Officers are also engaged to get their active support for ODF at district level as they are key to resource mobilisation towards sanitation and hygiene activities both material and human resources.

6. Universality? • The Malawi ODF strategy served as a blue print to provide guidance on how sanitation and hygiene activities shall be implemented by all actors/ stakeholders in the country. • The Malawi ODF strategy recognises and bases its mandate from the legislative pieces that regulate the implementation of sanitation and hygiene activities in the country such as National Sanitation Policy 2008 and National Decentralisation Policy (1995). • The GoM standardised the ODF verification for both villages and traditional authorities to ensure that the sanitation status for all certified villages are the same.

7. Outcomes • Poor hygiene practices remain serious challenge with only 29.7% of the households having hand washing facilities of which 4.7% have hand washing facilities with soap. • 57% of all villages in Malawi triggered for ODF attainment. • 29.7% of the triggered villages attained ODF status. • 8 Traditional Authorities attained ODF status thus TA Chapinduka in Rumphi, TA Lukwa, and TA Mwase in Kasungu, TA Mwadzama in Nkhotakota, TA Kayembe in Dowa, TA Amidu in Balaka, TA Kaduya in Phalombe and TA Mulilima in Chikwawa.

8. lessons learnt/ next steps • Since the NSP (2008) discourages subsidy to sanitation and hygiene activities, this has led to construction of sub standard sanitation facilities by most household because of their economic status. • No prescription of latrines types have led to community members constructing very basic latrines that continued to collapse every rainy season and can not withstand effect of disasters such as floods. • Currently NOTF is spearheading the review of the ODF Strategy (2011 – 2015) which will take into consideration the challenges faced in the implementation of this strategies and the country aspiration in attaining the SDG’s.

9. Template 3: Learning from other countries: Key topics and countries we would like to learn about High Level Ministerial Meeting , 15 and 16 March 2016 @sanwatforall

10. Learning from each other - Malawi • We would like to hear more of/ from the following: • Collaborative Behavior (building block) focus on • Strengthening and Use of Country Systems • Use one information system and mutual accountability platform • Priority thematic issues: • WASH data management • Country system and data software platforms being used • Countries • In sub Saharan Africa • Elsewhere if within the regional such examples are not available