“Making Toilets Sexy” – Improving Global Sanitation with Partnerships and Product Design

This post contributed by Mindy Zhang.

Last month, I met Jack Sim, Singaporean social entrepreneur and Ashoka Fellow. His organization, the World Toilet Organization, promotes basic sanitation in developing countries through market-based solutions. According to Jack, one of the major barriers to improving sanitation is consumer perception. Base-of-pyramid consumers simply don’t see toilets as valuable additions to their lives – and therefore don’t bother to invest in them, even when they have enough money to spend. “This is very clear when they have radios, TVs, handphones – and no toilets.”

How did the WTO overcome this challenge? A mix of great product design and sharp business acumen, Jack said. He talked about three pieces of the sanitation puzzle:

#1 – Designing quality, affordable products – To appeal to consumers in developing countries, toilets need to be low-cost and high-quality (so that families don’t have to spend a lot of money fixing and maintaining their sanitation systems). According to Jack, “Western European groups and universities have done a good job researching on ecological sanitation designs and had much success in small scale project over the last 15 years. There are also some non-ecological sanitation small systems costing USD 30 to USD 300 per family that really works well for rural and slums folks… What is needed now is to transform all these hand-made products into mass production.”

#2 – Understanding base-of-pyramid consumers– In addition to being affordable, toilets need to designed with the end consumer in mind. Jack said that humanitarian organizations often forget that poor consumers are also highly status-conscious; they choose to spend on items that contribute to their public image. “Basically people have the same emotional DNA regardless whether you are rich or poor or middle-class. I grew up in a slum during childhood. Despite being very poor, my mother always wear a piece gold to show.” As a result, pushing adoption of sanitation facilities requires trendy product design in addition to just basic functionality. “Because toilets were designed so grey and algae-prone, with porous surfaces that dark and smelly, toilets [were] not sexy,” Jack noted. “But if we design it like IKEA, that'll make a big break-through. Things can only change when toilets for the poor becomes a lifestyle trend and not just a utilitarian product. We need to design them in very stylized and fashionable colors that are culturally and socially appealing to the local taste.” Jack offered some words of wisdom for enterprises targeting low-income consumers. “Businesses need to understand the power of jealousy, aspirations, and trust as effective marketing tools for selling products to the poor. Keeping up with the Joneses is always the same. The rich buys Louis Vuitton to show off the logos, the poor can buy toilets to show off its convenience.”

#3 – Leveraging key partnerships – Improving global sanitation requires the collaboration of different people with different areas of expertise. Since 2001, the WTO has hosted the World Toilet Summit, an event that “brings together all stakeholders: foundations, UN system, businesses, NGO, social entrepreneurs to weaving synergy into their current work.” Additionally, the WTO partners with Singapore Polytechnic to offer sanitation training (including programs in Sustainable Sanitation and Disaster& Emergency Sanitation). To advance sanitation-related R&D, the WTO recently made an in-principle agreement to bring Grameen Creative Lab to Singapore; Jack plans to leverage the partnership as “a sanitation business hub for the base-of-pyramid marketplace.” “In short, from A to Z, we need everyone to participate and are trying our best in coordinating, advocating and matching resources,” he said.

"Today, November 19, is World Toilet Day! Join the WTO by celebrating it here."