This is a good question since people will need money to purchase sanitation products and services in the market place. In Sanitation Marketing, once we have re-designed products and services to increase their desirability while reducing their costs, there may still be affordability problems for some households.

It’s helpful to distinguish between two different affordability problems for consumers: a cash flow problem and an absolute cash poverty problem. There are several different alternative financing options that work well sanitation marketing which can be used to address each of these affordability problems. 

For example, for households with a cash flow problem, micro-finance loans, installment payments, and designing latrines that can be built in stages are approaches that can overcome cash flow problems. Market-compatible financing options for households with absolute cash poverty problems include vouchers, conditional cash transfers, and rebates. You can find and inventory of sanitation marketing financing options and targeting methods for reaching poor households and addressing affordability problems in the UNICEF Sanitation Marketing Guidance Note #8: Reaching the Poor. 

Answer thanks to:

Mimi Jenkins

Research Engineer in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California at Davis
Honorary lecturer in the Environmental Health Group at LSHTM

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