Ghana Sanitation
Our WASH work began in northern Ghana in 2015 with an initial human-centered design deep dive aimed at understanding rural Ghanaians' hygiene and sanitation behaviors, needs, barriers, and aspirations across the three northern regions.
Overview
Sama Sama, with the support of Global Affairs Canada, has evolved from simply selling latrines into a service provider focused on creating viable market-based solutions that address rural Ghana’s needs for safe and effective sanitation along the value chain.
Growing pains build sanitation markets
Flexibility. Innovation. Transparency. Lessons learned in building a viable social enterprise for WASH in rural Ghana.
Finance
How much should a latrine cost? How much should you charge to remove fecal sludge? What is the right price for a household handwashing device?
Paying by phone
Taking payments by phone reduces costs and increases collections.
Paying bit-by-bit
Installment payment plans enable more households to purchase, but present new challenges for the sanitation business.
What is the right price?
Finding a balance between affordability and profitability.
Business Design
A successful enterprise needs to ensure it has the right type and number of products in order to stay in business.
Growing wisely
It's important to not get too big, too soon, or you'll outpace your ability to control quality and reputation.
How many products do you need?
A successful enterprise needs to ensure it has the right type and number of products in order to stay in business.
The sales team powers the business
How do you keep a talented and motivated sales team energized and happy in a really tough job?
Impact
The sales impact for Sama Sama is a story of adaptability. While the sales trend has an upward trajectory, each quarter has had its own challenge. The Sama Sama team is focused on ensuring that each sale leads to a happy customer, and with that grounding principle, our sales strategy has continued to shift.
Achieving behavioral change
More than sales, we measure progress by how much our WASH products actually get used.
The role of a social enterprise in achieving WASH impact
In a weak market, building your own business might be the best path to create change.
Gender Equality
Increasing gender equality is central to Sama Sama’s model—from recruitment to staff training to delivering high-quality customer service.
A staffing strategy centered around women
How women are driving change across the sanitation value chain in Ghana.
Gender equality starts at home
Through our work culture, we hope to show how gender discrimination has no place in Ghanaian, or any, society.
Insights from a deep dive into how gender affects purchasing
In Ghana, a woman's place is in the market, not the home, and that makes a huge difference for how we sell.