Remarks by Elizabeth Hogan, USAID India Deputy Director at the SWASTHH+ Dissemination Event

April 04, 2008

Beth Hogan shares USAID and UNICEF accomplishments in the SWASTHH Plus – The School Water and Sanitation Through Hygiene and Health Putting Lessons Learnt To Use initiative. Photo Credit:USAID/India

Good morning to everyone, the dignitaries from the government, representatives of development agencies, teachers and students as well as colleagues from UNICEF! I’m absolutely delighted to be present here today at this event representing the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, and along with UNICEF share our experiences and accomplishments in the SWASTHH Plus, or the School Water and Sanitation Through Hygiene and Health Putting Lessons Learnt to Use, initiative with all of you. We at USAID, feel privileged to have been a part of this unique project that met a real health and education need in public primary schools and that could well serve as a model for schools across the country.

In recent years, India has made tremendous progress with the economy growing at around 9%. However, the fruit of this growth has not been equitably distributed, and this has led us all to a major developmental challenge. Approximately 700 million Indians live on less than $2 per day. Education is one means of helping provide greater opportunities for those in this lowest rung of the economy. But poor sanitation facilities and lack of water in schools is a detriment to the learning environment.

With one sixth of the world’s population, one third of the world’s poor, a more inclusive model of growth is critical for India to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education as well as eradicating extreme poverty.

The Government of India has taken multi-pronged measures to increase access to education, supported many innovations to improve the quality of education, enhanced financial allocations manifold; and we do see hugely increased enrolments now. Yet millions of children are still out of school even today. Of those who enroll, a little less than one third drop out at the primary level (grades 1-5), around half drop out by grade 8. And the dropout rate for girls is consistently higher than that of boys. While the Gender Parity Index for enrolment is reasonable at the primary level, it keeps dropping steadily in higher grades.

USAID has been committed to supporting India in addressing these development challenges for over 50 years and our programs reach out to the most disadvantaged sections of society. Our objective is to “create opportunities for vulnerable people” and we recognize that a lack of quality basic education exposes people to lifelong vulnerabilities. Further, we believe that resources are really not a constraint in India. For instance, the Government of India investment in education has steadily increased over the past few years - from about $100 million during the 2001-02 school year to more than $2.5 billion in 2006-07. Our approach, therefore, has been to complement government efforts to improve quality of education at scale. Our programs are designed in close association with the government to demonstrate innovations that are then mainstreamed through government and private resources. Needless to say, these fit meaningfully into the government’s own program and mandate, and have a larger systemic impact. SWASTHH Plus has given us the opportunity to partner in this manner with Government of India, two state governments and UNICEF.

Lack of proper water and sanitation facilities in primary schools is often a major contributor to high drop out and poor attendance, especially among girls. Research findings on the relationship between the water-sanitation-security infrastructure at school and student access and learning show that children enrol in greater numbers, attend school more regularly, remain in school for more years, and learn more effectively when their schools offer clean water, toilets, and a secure environment. Girls are particularly adversely affected when there are no toilets in the schools as it affords them no privacy and also makes them physically vulnerable. Where sanitation facilities exist, communities view the schools more positively and parents are more willing to send their girls to school. I believe that this is particularly so when they have a voice in improving school infrastructure and are able to engage with the school more closely as partners and stakeholders.

The SWASTHH Plus project implemented by UNICEF worked in this direction by building on UNICEF’s earlier successful activities dealing with school health and hygiene. In partnership with the Sarva Shiksa Abhiyan, it was implemented in over five and a half thousand public primary schools in Karnataka and Jharkhand across five districts and reached over a million children. It has led to greater retention of students in schools, particularly girls, by making the school environment safe and hygienic and by incorporating practical aspects of health, hygiene and environment into the classroom transaction and extra curricular activities carried out in the SWASTHH Plus schools. Teachers, Village Education Committees and government education officials have been trained to enable them to support and encourage sound hygiene behavior among students and communities and they are indeed doing it with great commitment. Student cabinets in the SWASTHH Plus schools have been trained to actively monitor the health status and hygiene behaviour of their peers and the maintenance of facilities such as toilets, hand washing area etc. in the school, and my colleagues tell me that the enthusiasm of student cabinets is to be seen to be believed. SWASTHH Plus has been able to demonstrate that it is eminently possible to have a clean and green school where students enjoy the teaching learning process.

The program has leveraged significant resources from various government departments in the states for water, health and hygiene infrastructure and education, and this speaks volumes about the commitment of these departments to the cause. The substantial resources available from the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission for the execution of the Total Sanitation Campaign initiative have contributed immensely to realizing the SWASTHH Plus vision of improved water supply and sanitation facilities in rural schools, thereby leading to better attendance and retention, and eventually better learning in schools.

The conceptual relevance and soundness of the project is evident from the fact that both the Government of India and the Governments of Jharkhand and Karnataka recognize it as integral to achieving the country’s and the states’ vision of universal quality education for primary school age children.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the stakeholders in this project – UNICEF, the Government of India, the relevant departments of Jharkhand and Karnataka governments, the teachers and students in the two states and my own colleagues at USAID. I think it is a wonderful example of a successful multi partner initiative. I hope that with the encouraging results that this project has demonstrated, it will eventually become a model for the Government of India to take to other states as well.

Thank you all once again.