Accelerate, Educate, and Convene (Toilet Board Coalition: Five Years of Impact)

Nearly 18 months after the start of the COVID pandemic, we approach Global Handwashing Day and World Toilet Day reflecting on our progress, and accepting the challenge still remaining. Although we are on track, at 2019 rates, to eliminate open defecation by 2030, access to safely managed sanitation and hygiene will need to accelerate 4x for SDG6.2 to be met (JMP).  We must do things differently.

The private sector is a necessary, but not sufficient, stakeholder in forward-looking models for tackling the global challenges. The private sector can bring innovation, user-centred design, optimization and commercialization to products, supply chains, and business models. We can craft compelling narratives and campaigns to build awareness and aspiration, and drive community support. These are core strengths of the private sector and we need to see the need for solutions to global challenges as an invitation to focus the greatest strengths of the private sector for the greatest impact.

For example, Jennifer Williams, Executive Director of the Faecal Sludge Management Alliance (FSMA) called for a paradigm shift in the development sector at FSM6 (2021) that the private sector has mastered: "Until we recognize and treat low-income communities as consumers and not beneficiaries, we will never solve the sanitation problem. Consumers have preferences that dictate their purchases and in every other market, this is what drives innovation to create better products. That is how we improve adoption and adoption. Consumers have to want and aspire to what the sanitation sector is providing, and in turn, the sanitation sector needs to be providing products and services with consumer preferences being taken into account at their core."

 The Toilet Board Coalition was established in 2015 as a business-led organization seeking to drive private sector engagement in SDG6.2 and accelerate the vision of the Sanitation Economy. In their newly released Five Year Impact Report, the Toilet Board Coalition celebrates and reflects on five years of working to Accelerate, Educate, and Convene. The TBC uniquely created a platform where the private sector (from entrepreneurs to multinationals) can learn from, inform, and work alongside the public sector, civil society, and individuals to create new value at scale.

Looking back, a new energy and buzz filled the air on the closing night of the first Global Sanitation Economy Summit in November 2019 in Pune, India just as a I took the helm as the first female Chair of the TBC. 400 leaders – from small and growing businesses to sector-leading multinationals to government and public sector partners – shared their voices to create a step change in the global conversation of sanitation, a shift from talking about the untapped potential of the Sanitation Economy to showcasing it. 

The momentum from that vibrant evening powered the Toilet Board Coalition through the early months of 2020. And then, COVID-19. Communities and businesses of all sizes grappled with uncertainty, overwhelmed systems, disrupted supply chains, and a new virtual world. COVID further shone a spotlight on the vast inequities in access to sanitation and hygiene, driving unprecedented awareness and urgency. We adapted and launched the Toilet Board Coalition’s  COVID-19 Action Plan with three pillars: Response, Responsibility, and Resilience. We prioritized an immediate response to support our Accelerator companies – our largest and most diverse cohort to date - to leverage the recession-proof value of their business. We sought to build long-term resiliency by highlighting how these new business models and solutions of the Sanitation Economy could address inequities, and how consistent contact and interaction with customers can be a powerful vehicle for new services focused on hygiene and public health. 

Sanitation and hygiene affects every organization, every community, and nearly every global goal. The Sanitation Economy is the solution and a wealth of untapped value.  “A thriving sanitation economy mitigates climate change, lowers health care costs, protects our habitat, and provides water, energy, and nutrients back to global systems in desperate need.”

I challenge you to join us in the Sanitation Economy! To achieve our ambitious global goals, private and public sector partners must come together in new models – and the last five years have demonstrated the power of the Sanitation Economy to create sustainable, impactful solutions. With renewed energy, a more inclusive member model, and focused, action-oriented Roundtables, the Toilet Board Coalition is stronger and better equipped than ever to Accelerate, Educate, and Convene to deliver on the Sanitation Economy. We can’t get there alone, and I hope you will join us.

Erin McCusker (TBC Chair, September 2019 – 2021)