UNICEF, LIXIL Partner to Expand Access to Sanitation

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

A partnership has been entered into between UNICEF, world’s leading children’s organization, and LIXIL, maker of pioneering water and housing products, with the aim to help vulnerable children gain access to safe and clean toilets.

The partnership, named “Make a Splash! Toilets for All”, will leverage the two organizations’ complementary strengths to support progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal of achieving access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, and end open defecation by 2030.

“Nearly 800 children die every day from diarrhea caused by unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director. “Through this innovative partnership with LIXIL, we hope to help keep every child healthy and alive.”

UNICEF and LIXIL have already successfully worked together in Africa to provide people in need of toilets with access to sanitation products, designed by LIXIL to fit local conditions. The success led the partners to explore ways to expand their collaboration to improve sanitation for all.

The new partnership is among UNICEF’s most ambitious to date. It signals a new way that UNICEF is working with companies that engages their core business, at various levels, to achieve significant advances for children. It is UNICEF’s first global shared-value partnership in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector, and the first of its kind with a Japanese company.

As part of this new partnership, UNICEF and LIXIL will launch market-driven programmes to help establish a sanitation economy and ensure that sanitation products are available at affordable prices for the people who need them, starting in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya.

Both parties will also engage in joint advocacy efforts that draw attention to the significant development opportunities presented by the sanitation economy and raise fund and carry out engagement activities by LIXIL to support the expansion of the partnership to new countries.

The success of the partnership in expanding access to sanitation will also help to encourage more players to enter and expand this market.

Kinya Seto, LIXIL Group CEO, said: “In many countries, this ‘sanitation crisis’ has devastating consequences for public health and reduces children’s opportunities for the future, as many drop out of school because there is nowhere to go to the bathroom. As a global leader in sanitary products and with a unique brand of products known as SATO that are specifically designed for developing markets, we recognize the opportunity to improve the quality of life for people everywhere by raising sanitation standards, creating genuine social value.”