Retention of Household Latrine Artisans. Beneficiary Provision of Materials – We have found that for every two HHL artisans we train, only one ends up staying on to sign a contract and assist in the household latrine building efforts. We have used a host of methods to increase retension, including providing performance bonuses which kick in if they complete their latrines in a given time period. The reality is, however, that in certain areas, we are competing for laborers with Galamsey (traditional mining) and other endeavors which are more lucrative than building household latrines. Likewise, even when we have a dedicated, motivated artisan, rendering them more efficient takes a lot of coordination. This is because in some communities the beneficiaries are triggered and ready, with all of their required materials available, while other communities have straggler beneficiaries who are not committing to their end of the agreeement (not providing their sand, stones, cement, and the like). XXXXX has had to evaluate many of these situations and move artisans to HHL artisans celebrate after completing their training where they would be most useful, while at the same time, re-triggering the laggard communities to encourage them to hold up their end of the HHL provision agreement. A pure CLTS approach is simpler to implement, since its up to the community to build their own latrines. By focusing on dig-and-bury as a first step on the sanitation ladder, any community can become open defecation free with no additional cost to the community in question. However, if you want to move people several rungs up the sanitation ladder to provide higher quality solutions to sanitation problems, while at the same time encouraging beneficiaries to provide actual material contributions to their own latrines, as GWASH attempts to do, that is a more challenging endeavor.
