An estimated two billion people — about one quarter of the global population — live without access to safe, sanitary toilets. To solve this challenge and achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6.2 (‘Access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all by 2030’), we teamed up with USAID to ensure SATO’s innovative and affordable products could be available to even more people around the world.
Launched in October 2021, the Partnership for Better Living (PBL), was a five-year cooperative agreement awarded by USAID to LIXIL to expand the market for SATO’s affordable sanitation and hygiene solutions and to improve the reliability of supply chains for underserved communities in developing markets. Under the Partnership for Better Living, USAID and SATO, part of LIXIL, achieved its goal of creating sustainable sanitation and hygiene markets to improve the lives of more than 2 million people by 2026.
The Partnership ended in January 2025 as part of US Government reductions in foreign aid spending. Despite ending early, PBL achieved many of its targets, including to expand household access to sanitation and increase adoption of key hygiene behaviours through market-based approaches, in support of LIXIL’s overall goal of improving the lives of 100 million people.
The partnership had three primary objectives:
PBL focused on five priority countries as market entry and market expansion targets: Guatemala, Liberia, Madagascar, Philippines, and Senegal.
Working with USAID Missions, NGOs, USAID-funded projects, and supply chain partners such as importers, distributors, retailers, and masons, PBL aimed to increase the availability of affordable toilets and handwashing solutions in all of these countries. Learn more about PBL activities below:
Ensuring people can – and will – invest in toilets and handwashing solutions for their homes, schools, and healthcare facilities means making sure these products are desirable, affordable, and easy to purchase for consumers everywhere. Combining the scale and reach of USAID, with the commercial and innovation expertise of SATO, part of LIXIL, PBL employed a market-based approach to solving the global sanitation challenge.
Through our partnership, we leveraged the resources of the private sector (supply chain partners, local entrepreneurs, plumbers and masons) to ensure consumers have access to goods and services within their communities for the long term.
PBL’s activities built on past USAID and SATO collaborations dating back to 2017 through projects such as Transform WASH in Ethiopia and Uganda Sanitation for Health.
To learn more about the Partnership for Better Living, please reach out to Genevieve Kelly.
Alongside our partner, Global Communities, tested the sanitation and hygiene needs and preferences of households in communities in the Huehuetenango and Quiche Departments. Through the USAID I-WASH project, SATO supported the shipment of SATO Stools and Taps for market testing, and provided product training, installation guides, sample questionnaires, and surveys in Spanish.
PBL collaborated with the USAID Liberia Mission and PSI, implementer of the USAID Countywide Sanitation Activity (CSWA), by developing business plans responsive to the need for a local supply of SATO products, and in support of CWSA programmatic success. We evaluated the potential for local manufacturing, and created tools to improve demand forecasting. These efforts supported SATO’s West Africa expansion, along with our work in neighbouring Senegal.
As a new market for SATO, our focus was to ensure a reliable supply of SATO products by establishing and building a relationship with a local importer/manufacturer, hiring a marketing firm to increase brand awareness of SATO, and developing SATO supply chains in Malagasy cities in support of several donor-funded programs. Through local partner Water and Sanitation for Urban Populations (WSUP), we trained sales agents to drive demand at the household level. Together, these activities have accelerated market development and will help to establish SATO as an affordable, aspirational solution for the Malagasy consumer.
Our work in the Philippines included a partner landscape analysis, supporting demand generation campaigns for SATO products, and testing e-commerce platforms as a channel for consumer access to sanitation solutions.
We established two licensed importers for SATO products who will respond to local demand and ensure the existence of a reliable supply chain, building on the momentum created through prior USAID sanitation projects in Senegal.
To learn more about ways of working with the Partnership for Better Living, please reach out to Genevieve Kelly, Program Director, PBL, SATO (genevieve.kelly@lixil.com). You can also find us on Globalwaters.org.
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