African Sanitation Policy Guidelines

The African Sanitation Policy Guidelines (ASPG) have been developed by the Secretariat of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) to provide guidance to African governments on the review, revision, and development of sanitation policies and associated implementation strategies. The Guidelines provide advice on the process and suggested contents of a sanitation policy for policy makers in national and subnational governments and other stakeholders involved in supporting policy reform initiatives and developing implementation strategies.

Part One provides the background and context of the ASPG, explaining what the document is about, why it was important to develop the Guidelines, as well as their scope and application.

Part Two provides guidance on the processes of reviewing and developing an inclusive sanitation policy, while taking into account national policy formulation procedures and local contexts. Although primarily designed to be used at the national level, this process can equally inform a subnational policy. This part details the decision-making process of developing a sanitation policy and the steps to developing a sanitation policy.

Part Three outlines the recommended core elements of a sanitation policy. It consists of eight chapters providing guidance on: vision, objectives, and principles; sanitation systems and service levels; hygiene; institutional arrangements; regulation; capacity development; funding; and monitoring and evaluation.

Part Four provides guidance for developing a policy implementation strategy for sanitation. It considers what an implementation strategy is, its importance, its development process, and it provides guidance on strategy formulation.

There are annexes with supplementary resources for the policy development process, for sanitation policy content, and for an implementation strategy; a suggested outline of a sanitation policy; sources of additional information on sanitation and hygiene, capacity development, regulation, funding, and monitoring and evaluation; a glossary; and an overview of country consultation meetings.