Testing delegated management of WASH facilities in schools in Burkina Faso

There are serious shortcomings in the WASH infrastructure in schools, compromising children's health, safety and academic success. The problems identified include:

• A lack of suitable latrines, particularly for girls, which increases their absenteeism.
• Existing infrastructure that is often unusable or poorly maintained, leading to major health risks such as water-borne diseases (diarrhoea, skin infections, etc.).
• The absence of robust financial and organisational mechanisms to ensure effective and sustainable infrastructure management.

Faced with these challenges, IRC Burkina, with the support of UNICEF, experimented in 2023 with a delegated management model in two pilot schools. The aim of this approach is to delegate infrastructure management to specialist private service providers, thereby ensuring regular maintenance and optimum use.