We answer the question:

“How can we maximise the resources that developing countries have; to do the things they need to do …, while minimizing the burden of public debt”

The World Bank Group President

Jim Yong Kim

About RaHa Solutions

Targeting SDGs, we: build rainwater harvesting systems on schools’ rooftops, on roads crossing water starved areas, on open fields etc; purify rainwater for the ‘over–served’ in order to avail plenty of low-cost municipal water to the underserved; build toilets in toilet-less homes, schools and roads; and, do menstrual hygiene management (MHM) as a tool for managing the toilets.

We work at a rate of one beneficiary per calendar week in least developed countries (LDCs) and lower-middle-income countries. To maintain or enhance dignity of beneficiaries, we apply high quality of products.

Members of public contribute substantially to our work by nominating beneficiaries for our work. So far, all nominees require our work retrofitted to projects done with funds from the traditional sources (e.g. public funds, overseas development assistance, individual donors, foundations and CSR). This shows that funds from the traditional sources aren’t enough for SDGs at the scale that is needed, particularly for LDCs and lower-middle-income countries, which require about $1.4 trillion in annual investments.

Therefore, we mobilize some of $5 trillion currently sitting in cash with the private sector to our work. Companies support SDGs by promoting our work while promoting their products and services. The more the promotion, the more the work we get. The more we do the work, the more the money we get for our work.

For example, we build a toilet in a family home or in a school nominated (for the toilet) by their “urbanised compatriots”. The nominee agrees that they are willing to take our toilet. The nominee also identifies and mentions an organization/corporation/person that they like to associate with.

The compatriot is typically a close relative/friend/leader to the nominee. For the nomination to succeed, the compatriot is compelled to lower their social status, privately discuss with the school/family and jointly decide – in such private discussions, coercion around it being “disgusting” or “undignified” to shit on the open ground, if any, is not expected be harmful to the nominee.

The organization/corporation/person must be one that draws attention to their products, services, candidacy or events in public offline news medium e.g. a political candidate, a business etc. Their role is to support this project in-kind – they promote this project so that there may be more nominations.

Political candidate and family businesses have or want to have connections with their local area – they will be more than happy to support. National and international chains, on the other hand, often have a strong social or community support ethos as part of their corporate policy, providing free or subsidised goods and services – and sometimes funding too – for local community initiatives. Businesses operate as part of communities and hold as much of a stake in supporting local community amenities and promoting civic pride as the locals themselves.

Therefore, families/schools are still toilet-less because: you, their “urbanized compatriots” are about to nominate them for toilets; and or, corporations/organizations/persons are about to support them in-kind.

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RaHa is keen to reduce effects, on the poor, of shame [similar to those in community-led total sanitation (CLTS) and in adverts commonly used in sanitation marketing). To promote the necessary uptake (because any percent of toilet-less-ness is bad, from the public health perspective), we shift effects of promoting conspicuous consumption (i.e. keeping up with or outdoing your neighbour) from the poor (who are affected negatively by this) to you, their urbanised compatriots, and organisations/corporations.

We are guided by an assumption that beneficiaries see little value in low quality products like pit latrines (which may not be meeting UN definition of ‘improved sanitation’) mainly because they know that you, their more urbanized compatriots and favourite organizations, use much better toilets – in this sense, the pit is not different from open defecation (OD), its a mockery.

This explains why our toilets and rainwater harvesting systems are of very high quality standards.

Safepad™, reusable sanitary pads, that we give to teenage girls (especially those that get our toilets) are for purposes of managing our sun-drying toilets – the girls use Safepad™, not because they are less fortunate, but because our sun-drying toilets cannot accept disposable pads.