This Playbook is the first in a series designed to support CARE’s evolving role—from direct implementer to enabler of impact at scale.
Zambia has set an ambitious target of achieving 90% basic sanitation coverage by 2030, yet rural access remains critically low, with only 32% of rural households currently having basic sanitation. This gap is driven less by lack of awareness or demand than by the absence of a functional rural sanitation market and effective public-sector mechanisms to sustain and scale solutions. Rural households seek dignity, privacy, and safety but face limited access to desirable, affordable products and financing. At the same time, sanitation entrepreneurs contend with fragmented supply chains, high transport costs, and constrained business capital.
The Market-Based Sanitation (MBS) Scaling Partnership addresses these interconnected barriers through an integrated delivery model. CARE, iDE, and IDinsight are testing a lean approach that leverages Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) to reduce implementation costs, strengthen market penetration, and expand household financing for sanitation investments. This collaboration combines iDE’s technical MBS expertise with CARE’s systems-strengthening capabilities and extensive VSLA networks to unlock economies of scale.
Over the past year, partners have established the evidence base for a pilot in Southern Province across seven rural growth centers in Monze, Pemba, Choma, and Kalomo districts, reaching approximately 11,000 households (56,000 people). This groundwork includes discovery research identifying VSLAs as a potentially transformative mechanism; mapping of VSLA networks in target districts; an enabling-environment review; a willingness-to-pay study to determine viable price points; and development of a monitoring framework with clear success criteria. If successful, the model could be scaled by the Southern Water and Sanitation Company (SWSC) to accelerate rural sanitation coverage under Zambia’s National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme and expand to additional provinces.