Community quality control monitoring of latrines and boreholes in the Central North Region of Burkina Faso

With funding from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, Catholic Relief Services implemented the Kom-Yilma project, “Happy and Healthy Children.” The program served 118 schools in two provinces in the Central North region of Burkina Faso, Bam and Sanmatenga, from March 2014 to August 2017. The purpose of the program was to encourage the adoption of key hygiene practices by the teachers, students, as well as to facilitate access to water and sanitation through social behavior change strategies and by building sex segregated, child-friendly latrines and boreholes. The Kom-Yilma team developed a community accountability approach to more effectively empower and involve local communities in the process of constructing sound infrastructure. This strategy not only ensures the construction quality of the latrines and boreholes, but also sustainable buy-in and community ownership of these new latrines and boreholes so the communities maintain them after the project.