Social franchising principles do work: the business approach to removal and disposal of faecal sludge – from pilot to scale

Abstract

Studies undertaken in South Africa have found that social franchising partnerships for the routine maintenance of infrastructure could alleviate and address many challenges in the management of water services. A three-year pilot project has drawn to a successful conclusion. This provided selected infrastructure maintenance services to approximately 400 schools in the Butterworth education district in the Eastern Cape province. Half a dozen franchisee microbusinesses were created, and of the order of three dozen previously unemployed people were taught workplace skills. Irish Aid funded the concept development, but the franchisees were paid from the normal schools operation and maintenance budgets. Despite difficulties arising directly from provincial education department inefficiencies, the pilot project has proven the value of social franchising partnerships for this kind of work – the department now has a model it can roll out to the rest of the more than 4,000 rural schools across the Eastern Cape. Many opportunities lie in applying the same approach to other operation and/or maintenance activities within the water and sanitation services delivery chain. The time is ripe to further develop the concept so that it can move up the technology ladder, expanding its range of competencies beyond its current tried and tested boundaries.

Looking beyond Technology: An Integrated Approach to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Low Income Countries

“…It must be recognized that sustainable business models are challenging to put into practice and, given the lack of controls and appropriate incentives, there is always a possibility that sludge will be dumped indiscriminately rather than being discharged at a treatment or disposal facility (even where they exist) . A franchising model has been proposed as a way to provide institutional support for individual operators and improve efficiency and service reliability; this model has been successfully pilot tested for cleaning and maintenance of sanitation facilities in schools in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa . Monitoring performance and ensuring timely payment are critical aspects of service provision that could benefit from increasingly accessible communication and information technologies, such as mobile phones …”

“…29 A franchising model has been proposed as a way to provide institutional support for individual operators and improve efficiency and service reliability; this model has been successfully pilot tested for cleaning and maintenance of sanitation facilities in schools in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. 30 Monitoring performance and ensuring timely payment are critical aspects of service provision that could benefit from increasingly accessible communication and information technologies, such as mobile phones. 31 Recovering value from excreta has been identified as a possible means to improve livelihoods and/or to offset costs associated with sanitation systems.…”