Learning from ODF Districts in Mozambique

Abstract

ozambique has committed to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.2 to achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation by 2030. Much progress is still needed, with recent data indicating that 36 per cent of the population (11.6 million people) still use unimproved facilities which are not designed to hygienically separate excreta from human contact. In addition, Mozambique has a high rate of open defecation at 23 per cent (7.1 million people). The prevalence of unsafe sanitation practices, regarded as the use of either unimproved sanitation facilities or open defecation, is particularly high in rural areas, with an alarming 75 per cent of the rural population lacking access to safe sanitation facilities. Based on these trends, it is projected that Mozambique will not achieve an open defecation free (ODF) status until 2068. To accelerate results, the Government of Mozambique (GoM) recently approved the Rural Sanitation Strategy (2021-2030) which aims at eliminating open defecation and achieving universal access to basic sanitation by 2030 using Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) as the core approach. As a key partner of the GoM in the rural sanitation subsector, UNICEF has been supporting large scale sanitation programmes in several provinces.