Strengthening local leadership for sustainable sanitation promotion in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems is important to the overall success of WASH programs. In Cambodia, WaterSHED’s Civic Champions program set out to provide locally-elected elected leaders (commune councillors) with the opportunity to improve their leadership skills and promote sanitation.
This paper draws on a quasi-experimental study combining survey data and in-depth interviews to assess the leadership and sanitation promotion capacities of commune councillors who participated in the 2018/19 cohort of the Civic Champions programme and those who did not.
How did Civic Champions support commune councillors to promote sanitation to different groups within their local area? Findings suggest that participation in the program motivated commune councillors to adapt promotion strategies to specific target groups.
Check out the companion paper, Leadership development programming in rural Cambodia: Motivations and characteristics of leaders.
