Who buys latrines, where and why? : insights from a study of household latrine adoption in rural Benin

This field note aims to explain the concept of household demand for sanitation in developing countries, what stimulates demand among new adopters, and how this knowledge can be used to develop marketing strategies to accelerate sanitation uptake. It draws these insights from an in-depth study of household latrine adoption behavior in rural Benin.
The field note defines sanitation demand as the aggregated choice of individual households to pay for and install home sanitation facilities among a population group at a given time. Where sanitation coverage is low and latrine technologies unfamiliar, primary demand for sanitation must be created. The Benin study illustrates how people learn about sanitation product innovations and how this knowledge and information spreads. The field note includes constraints to acquiring a latrine, gender issues and implications for sanitation demand creation.