November 29, 2024 – The United States Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has introduced the Markets for Sanitation (M4S) project, a transformative $31 million, five-year initiative aimed at improving sanitation, hygiene, and gender equality across Ethiopia. This project will focus on reaching the country’s most vulnerable populations, particularly women and girls.
Building on the success of the $47.5 million USAID Transform WASH project, which supported over 500 sanitation businesses and provided improved sanitation to more than one million Ethiopians, M4S aims to expand access to basic sanitation services for 5.4 million people and ensure 180,000 women and girls have access to menstrual health and hygiene products.
The project will be implemented in multiple regions, including Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, Sidama, Somali, South Ethiopia, Central Ethiopia, and Southwest Ethiopia. It addresses long-standing challenges in Ethiopia’s sanitation sector by fostering a market-driven approach that promotes affordable, accessible, and sustainable sanitation solutions.
“By increasing demand for sanitation and hygiene products while boosting the capacity of Ethiopian businesses to meet that demand, we can harness market forces to create lasting change. This empowers Ethiopian citizens to take ownership of their sanitation needs,” said USAID Ethiopia Mission Director Scott Hocklander.
M4S is part of USAID’s broader Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) portfolio, which is investing $190 million to expand access to safe water, improve sanitation in rural and urban areas, and support water infrastructure development to ensure resilient systems.
