Integration of Intech in BabyWASH program

We will combine new technology and traditional methodologies to alleviate sanitation related diseases to babies and children bellow 5 years of age. We will create more than 1000 employment.

Inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services can impact child nutritional status through multiple pathways. For example, prolonged exposure to many faecal pathogens leads to frequent episodes of diarrhoea that in turn leads to the flattening of villi and subsequently makes it harder for absorption of nutrients but easier for diseases to take hold (World Bank, 2020). 

Despite the country experiencing 7% annual growth in its gross domestic product (GDP) over the past decade, about 12 million Tanzanians still live below the poverty line. Poverty is worst in rural areas, where around 70% of the population lives(World Bank, 2015).

 On the other, the status of sanitation in the project area is not conducive, According to the January 2023 data from the Sumbawanga municipality, the municipality produces 140 tons of wastes every day, from 60,800 households and 1,422 businesses Centre. Out of that, only 110 tons of wastes are collected and transported to the main dumpsite. The other 30 tons are left unattended and make a huge accumulation of wasted in the project area which pose health risks to the resident in particular women and children.

 In addition to the above, inequity remains a key challenge in Tanzania’s WASH sector. Recent data indicate that wealthier quintiles are gaining access to WASH faster than are poorer quintiles. Current estimates by WHO/UNICEF show that this is likely to continue unless the sector changes radically (Ibid).

 There are number of factors which are connected to WASH that contribute to high rate of deaths of children under the age of 1000 days. These factors are:-

-Exposure of the mother and child to significant health risks and challenges, including infection, sepsis and neonatal death. 

-Infection of the child and mother. Improper breastfeeding which does not consider sanitation causes of death in children under 5 years – pneumonia and diarrhea. Diarrhea and pneumonia contributes up to 25% of child deaths in Tanzania (United Republic of Tanzania, 2012).   

-Contaminated food and associated infections and parasites. Children become infected with intestinal parasitic worms (also known as helminths) by eating contaminated food or through contact with contaminated soil (UNICEF, 2020).

-Exposure of the child to pathogens and disease vectors. During the first year of life, infants spend substantial amounts of time exploring objects (with their eyes, mouths, and hands) that they encounter in their daily environments, including in areas of the house and outhouses. (‘Ibid).

Transmission of vectors: cross contamination may happen in the absence of hand washing. Most children get infection through this way, there is very clear evidence showing the importance of hygienic behaviour, in particular hand-washing with soap at critical times: after defecating and before eating or preparing food (‘Ibid).

Gut diseases such as E-Coli and salmonella have a highly detrimental impact on nutritional status in the first 24 months of life. Animals spread contaminated material as well as possible direct animal to child infection. (‘Ibid). 

BabyWASH is an initiative which aims to improve the integration of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions with maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH), nutrition and early childhood development (ECD), to enable a more profound impact on child health outcomes in the first 1,000 days of life.

This Project will use a twofold intervention to solve BabyWASH problems as stated under the problem statement field. All these intervention will focus on knowledge management to beneficiaries and BabyWASH entrepreneurship. The project will use new technology method like designing a mobile phone application and SMS based information sharing technique; at the same time the project will use traditional method to provide awareness and trainings to mothers and care givers of children through health facilities while attending clinics. Below are are the areas the project will focus with their key interventions.

Early Childhood Development

• Advocacy on continued breastfeeding and hygienically prepared complementary foods and fluids for young children
• Raise awareness on Sanitary and safe teething for children
• Awareness raising on clean play space for children
• Distribute key ECD messages to mothers and caretakers while they are giving birth at a facility and during postnatal visits

Maternal, Newborn and Child Health

• Mothers and trained birth attendants to be counselled to prepare for a water and sanitation safe birth for both home and facility
• Hygienic birth practices will be introduced
• Provide prenatal and postnatal care messages for mothers/ caretakers
• Awareness on improved WASH in health facilities

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

• Raise awareness on proper handwashing at the home to reduces diarrhoeal disease
• Raise awareness on proper disposal of infant faeces
• BabyWASH Marketing and entrepreneurial activities like making and selling of soap
• Awareness on open defecation-free status of a community

Nutrition

• Raise awareness about onset of complementary feeding,
• To facilitate proper nutrition messages are combined with ECD and hygiene messages at the time of birth and during postnatal visits 

The primary target groups for this project are 2000 households, Children of under years old 4,200 antenatal, 3,100 postnatal mothers, 200 women entrepreneurs and 300 youth. The project will also indirectly benefit 5000 community members and 200 midwives in Sumbawanga municipality in Rukwa region, Tanzania. These groups will be engaged primarily based on the records available in hospitals and other government sources and will be reached through different techniques of the project like using mobile phone application, social media, SMS messages, and in person especially by attending beneficiaries to their home, health facilities, women groups and other public gatherings. A user friendly customized mobile phone application and SMS service will be developed and launched for which each target group will be customized with particular service based on its need. For example the antenatal mothers will be able to get information about Hygienic birth practices, prenatal and postnatal care e.t.c, the postnatal mothers will access information about  clean play space for children, breastfeeding and hygienically prepared complementary foods and fluids for young children, proper disposal of infant faeces  e.t.c., the community will access information about WASH and BabyWASH.

The second level groups are the actors that constitute health facilities (4 hospitals, 10 Health Centre, 30 Dispensaries; and 10 CSOs which provide maternal and WASH services. Our team will closely collaborate with these actors in strengthening capacity of the primary beneficiaries to engage and harness increased benefits from the project efforts in Rukwa region. Particular attention will be paid to strengthening relations with the strong and focused institutions that are charged with the mandate of coordinating mother and child health affairs in the region.

The relevant national government ministries, especially the Ministry of health gender children and elderly together with government authorities responsible for health care like Muhimbili hospital and Benjamin Mkapa foundation will be actively engaged in dialogue, harmonization and technical backstopping processes. This is especially relevant in the process of mainstreaming national eye care management in the local health action plans. The project further envisages partnerships with the national CSOs  networks i n Tanzania in pursuing harmonization of policies, budgetary issues, guidelines and regulations and institutional growth of ‘child and mother heath management’ Local Government Authorities (LGAs) through peer mentoring mechanisms will be engaged accordingly.

The team members of this project will be formed from The Life Hood of Children and Development Society (LICHIDE) staffe team. The Life Hood of Children and Development Society is a Non-Government organization established in 1998 and registered in Tanzania under the law of the Board of Trustees Incorporation Ordinance of 1956 cap 375 in 1999. It has strong programs and financial management with qualified staff out of which the team will be composed from. Since then LICHIDE has been working closely with communities in the Rukwa region. For more than 20 years, LICHIDE has had vast experience in implementing gender and community-based projects and has implemented more than 20 large projects in child protection, nutrition, health, and environmental management. Some/examples of these projects are:-

i. Fighting Violence against Women and Children supported by the Foundation for Civil Society from 2017-2022. The project was dealing with educating the community on violence against women and children and identifying cases of violence against women and children and reporting to relevant authorities.

ii. The GBV, Orphans and Vulnerable Children funded by RFA/GTZ and Foundation for Civil Society from 2005-2007 aimed at identification of Most Vulnerable Children (MVCs) linked to GBV, health, nutrition, and training of Village GBV and MVC committees in Rukwa region.

iii. Integrated HIV/AIDS and GBV Prevention Program supported by Walter Reed Program from 2008-2013 through USAID funding.

iv. Pamoja Tuwalee program (2013- 2016) Funded by Pact Tanzania through USAID operated into two regions of Rukwa and Katavi the project was about reducing mother and child dealths.

-Kizazi Kipya program (2016 – 2021), LICHIDE identified MVCs families, Nutrition assessment through MUAC tapes, Baseline survey concerning food preparation, storage, and usage, provide food supplement to malnourished children’s, provide parenting skills to caregivers, identification of violence cases to children, early and childhood Development ( ECD) and caregivers groups and link them to support or services provider’s through referrals.

Thus, 90% of our team involved 100% in the implementation of the above projects. This team is composed of the following.

A. Lead Person (LICHIDE)

1. Benson Aswile Mwang'ombola (Executive Director)

Experience: 30 years in NGOs.

Education: BA in Community Development.

-Roles (Oversee the daily operations)

2. Deborah Nelson (Program Manager)

Experience: 9 years in NGOs.

Education: BA in Community Development

-Roles Activities Coordination

3. Agness Kajela (Finance Manager)

Experience:10 in Financial Management,

Education: BA in Business administration.

Roles: Supervise financial operations

4. Robinson Mwakanyamale (Monitoring and Evaluation Officer)

Experience: 10 in monitoring and evaluation,

Education: BA in Business administration.

With that, the team is composed of vast experienced personnel in spearheading development project especially those are linked to child care. 

As stated above, the project team members have been working in child and mother health and nutrition projects and have implemented a number of similar projects, thus the team have understand the target population through project implementation experience, project implementation reports, peer learning and also have researched from government, think tank and media reports.

In addition, while preparing this proposal the team has undertaken a baseline survey to establish a level of the project compliance and also to relevant needs of the target population. Through this survey, the team has come into conclusion that, the intervention is currently relevant and viable to the project area. 

The innovation of this project will ultimately be advanced through the progressive implementation of the WASH management investment strategy envisaged as an outcome of this project intervention. The other issue is embedding the issue of BabyWASH in WASH sub sector as an innovative approach to tackle health issues for the poor communities. The investment strategy is expected to incorporate and promote self-financing mechanisms for BabyWASH products marketing and entrepreneurship activities. Here the project team members will be trained to make soap, marketing them and selling. The soap to be made by the team will follow all the health and safety standards as stipulated by the national and international standards. The team will also form groups of young girls on how to make, market, and sell soap for WASH activities; this will help for the project scale up and out.

Secondly, through the harmonized Baby health and WASH response strategies, the team will be in a position to attract resources from various avenues including district and local transfer funds to sustain reasonable annual budgets that support progressive implementation through local environment action plans. It is further envisaged that the team will continue to attract technical and financial support beyond the duration of the project.

The resultant collaboration of the team and the strategic partners provides an institutional avenue for collaborative development of strategic interventions within the framework of the shared vision and strategy framework and the team will continue to exploit this avenue for joint design and implementation of strategic interventions beyond the project duration.

Through the implementation of BabyWASH entrepreneurial through making and selling BabyWASH soap, BabyWASH soap are affordable for rural and urban poor people since at least 80% of the raw materials are obtained in their localities for free. The business pays for itself over time through income generation and savings on soap purchase, the up-front costs represents a large percentage of many people yearly income. Micro-finance systems will be developed to ensure the spread of this entrepreneurial activity and also the project at large. A proactive approach has been prepared by the team by initiating a revolving credit fund. Each new formed girls BabyWASH group contributes a set amount of savings per time, beneficiaries can then acquire credit on a revolving basis.

The inclusion of difference stakeholder including the final beneficiaries in Health initiative provides an avenue mutual understanding and having a common agenda on child health the WASH initiatives.

 LICHIDE management is in the process of strengthening a technical reserve portfolio that would provide access to competitive consultancy support to the member organizations in undertaking technical assignments that meet their needs. Administered on a commission basis, the management expects to raise some income to support its core functions through technical assignments secured on behalf of the CSOs and LGAs. This ranges from various capacity building needs to planning and management support. 

The impact set forth for this intervention conforms to different reputable organizations research results. The estimate of the impact the project will deliver relies on the fact findings from scientific researches done by these organization as shown below but we however customized and localized of the local project implementation level in order to reflect the real results we are anticipating to achieve. Below are the impacts to be delivered by this project.

• At least 3,100 mothers and 4,200 babies saved each year through more hygienic birth practices. (WHO 2014)
• Reduced 45% of child deaths each year linked to malnutrition. (WHO 2016)
• Reduce the 50% of malnutrition associated with unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, or insufficient hygiene. (WHO 2008)
• Reduced diarrhoea rates by 30-40% through proven hygiene practices. (WHO 2014)
• Reduced risk of neonatal mortality by 44% by early initiation of breastfeeding. (Lancet 2014)
• Increase multi-sectoral ownership of ECD, to impact reduction of the 200 million children under five globally who do not reach their full developmental potential due to environmental conditions associated with poverty, malnutrition and poor health. (Lancet 2013)
• Women and youth are economically empowered through marketing and selling of WASH and BabyWASH products
• Improved sanitation to the people of Sumbawanga municipal through reduction of 70% of the municipal unattended wastes.

These presented data and anticipated results are based on the global data as presented by each of those sources, but out team have localized the data based on the current local data and current situation in the project area. The presented data above does not represent the global data as presented by those sources but however the ratio between the international data and local data were calculated and the estimate above was made.

 This project is also the result of looking at different intervention which focused on WASH, However this project has been designed in the different way that it is going to include the issue of BabyWAS as a stand-alone issue, the issue of economic empowerment to women and youth was incorporated in this health based project. On the other hand, projects that rely solely on interventions from a single sector can suffer limitations in their impact because they aren’t addressing the complete needs of a person. This is most obvious in the first 1,000 days, where maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH), nutrition, WASH and early childhood development (ECD) all play a critical part in child health, yet rarely are combined during programming. A survey conducted for this project creation reveals the gaps in programming where BabyWASH may have the biggest impact on maternal, newborn and child health, nutrition and well-being in the first 1,000 days. Therefore, BabyWASH interventions focus on five key hotspots of vulnerability: Pregnancy, Labour & Delivery, Newborn Period, Onset of mobility and exploration and Onset of complementary feeding.

 This BabyWASH project aims to provide our team a Partnership and national offices (NOs) with the “start up” support they need to advocate, socialize and educate the team on BabyWASH, help to conceptualize into Technical Approaches (TAs) and Technical Programmes (TPs), assist with resource mobilization, plan and implement BabyWASH pilot projects, monitor and evaluate, and eventually scale up intentional integrated BabyWASH activities. At the same the project will stand as a benchmark for economic empowerment through marketing and selling of WASH and BabyWASH products. 

Our solution will use more than one technology as follows:-

First of all, the team will design a mobile phone application as a tool to raise awareness, information management, data collection and products marketing and promotion. A user friendly will app will be designed and be accessed by users through android and iOS mobile phones.

 Secondly, an SMS service will be employed and launched for the same purpose of awareness rising, information management data collection and products marketing and promotion, but this will be designed special for those who neither have android nor iOS phones.

 Thirdly, an existing local soap making technology which is accepted by the Tanzania Bureau of Standards will be employed. The team will be trained on how to apply this local technology which uses law materials available in the project area at a lowest costs to make soap and increase this product’s availability, accessibility, and affordability to the consumers who are the poor mothers and guardians residing in the project area but at the same time do not afford the cost of industrial soap for the day to day general sanitation and baby sanitation consumption.  

 Fourthly, our solution is expecting to deal with biodegradable wastes in order to reduce the amount on wastes left unattended in the Sumbawanga municipality and its nearby small towns. Here the team will not directly implement this activity but will rather train other groups of youth and women who will be recycling biodegradable wasted into fertilizers and animal food. The technology applied here will be the technology currently applied by the small industries development organization (SIDO), SIDO is a governmental organization for small industries development and out team have made a good relation with it.

 Lastly, the combination of these technology are sought to be relevant so solve multiple problems in the WASH and BabyWASH subsectors in the project area. 

This project has not yet been launched and thus the project is expected to directly affect 3,100 mothers and 4,200 babies through health and most particularly WASH and BabyWASH interventions, I addition 300 youth and 200 women will directly benefit from the project through entrepreneurial activities. With that, the project is expected to serve 7800 people within a year period of the project implementation. This number was calculated based on the current available household in the project, with the particular need plus the capability of the project team. 

As with most projects, barriers may influence the project to a certain degree. One such barrier is linked to the hand-over of the project to the sumbawanga municipal council. There is a risk of the municipality not prioritising the project after it has been handed over to them.

We hope to eliminate this barrier by creating a solid support for the project among various community actors, e.g. the public, private corporations, school pupils, volunteers, employees, and etcetera, and thereby increasing the expectations on the municipality administration.

 In addition, during the six-month hand-over phase, the municipal council will be sensitized to SWM and thoroughly introduced to the project. Extensive technical support and training will be given to the municipality by our core team.

 As projects are handed over to the municipality, they also run the risk of becoming politicized and the Self Help Group members risk being used to gain political sympathies in different groups. It is important that all parties are aware of this risk as a barrier and that it is reduced as much as possible through community participation, transparency, and local ownership.

 The cost per product is another obvious a barrier since the main target groups of the project are very poor. It will take some time to convince the public of the project benefits. Hence, in order to get the project rolling, the cost of the marketed products will obviously be very low to the extent these people will afford. On the other hand the delivery method of the products will be door to door delivery; this will also trim down the transport cost for consumers to go get the products some distance away from their homes.

 Another problem related to waste in Tanzania, as in many societies, is that it is considered dirty and filthy, and those dealing with it are perceived as inferior, low class citizens.

Traditionally, people working with waste in the Tanzania – popularly known as rag pickers – usually collect waste and sweep the streets. Hence, the prevailing, informal, waste system also affects how people view waste.

 The waste workers live and work under extensive health risks, and suffer severe exploitation and deprivation. Possible health hazards include raised levels of infant mortality, hand and leg injuries, intestinal and respiratory infections, eye infections, lower back pain, malnutrition, skin disorders, and exposure to hazardous waste, thus all these factor are fetter to the project adoptability, however, our approach involve the use of protective gears like masks, boots and gloves. This will help prevent them from health risks and promote project acceptability among actors.

 Finally, SWM projects in Tanzania run the risk of bypassing and disregarding those people who are already engaged in waste management in the informal sector (i.e. the so-called rag pickers). We are fully aware of this risk as a barrier and will do our uttermost to firstly identify these individuals and thereafter motivate them to join the SWM project as fulltime employees.

Our current partners are the:-

1. The Sumbawanga Municipal Council

2. The Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO)

This business oriented WASH project is expected to start its operations in 2023 where by one core team will manage the project and 10 self-help entrepreneurial groups (6 youth groups and 4 women groups) will be engaged in making soap, also 2 groups will be making organic fertilizers; and 2 groups will be making animal food produced from wastes. Our current feasibility study show that our business have the capability of processing and making 20 dozens of soap per day (for the start) per each group, making a total of 6,000 dozens combined per month, also the two fertilizer making groups are capable of making 600 bags of fertilizer per month with 50kg each; In addition the two animal food making groups are capable of making 10 tons of animal food per month. The choice of these three entrepreneurial activities is based on the presence of good transportation, food waste availability (law material), energy supply, market viability, soap raw material availability at local setting, plus constantan and permanent water source. The production areas have already been secured in the Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO) area in the Sumbawanga municipality; 0.2 km from the Sumbawanga airport and is bordered with the Open University of Tanzania and within the LICHIDE NGO premises.

 Upon its maturity, our businesses are expecting to be one of the biggest producers of high quality sanitary soap, animal food and horticultural fertilizers in Tanzania with an annual soap production of over 72,000 dozens at the first year and 150,000 dozens of soap at the fifth year. However, taking a recent price of TZS 12,000/= per dozen (≈ US$ 5.2) at local market in addition one bag of fertilizer is currently sold at TZS 80,000 (US$ 35) and one ton of animal food is currently sold at TZS 200,000 (US$ 87). The cost of producing, marketing and selling one dozen of soap at local level is US$2.2 and this makes a profit of US$ 3 per dozen, while the cost of producing, marketing and selling fertilizers is US$ 10 making the business to produce a profit of USD$ 25 per bag and the cost of one ton of animal food is US$ 30 and so the profit here is US$ 57. Based on these current profits per each segment business, thus the monthly profit for the 6,000 monthly produced dozens of soap will be US$ 18,000 while the monthly profit for fertilizers is US$ 15,000 and the monthly profit for the animal feedstuff is US$ 570.    At the first month the business Value Chain is expecting to generate a combined US$ 33,570/=. Based on the same calculation, the annual profit will be US$ 402,840 and this is what make proud of saying waste is money. This indicates the high viability of this business, and to achieve the set goals and targets of our team, we will ensure high quality, constant supply in order to meet placed orders and good customer service.

The overall goal of this business plan is to put clear all business details and critical concentration areas of the business in order to acquire funds from our donor for the overall final financing of this business.

The proposed initial capital for this undertaking will be used to cover for all initial costs and expenses. These include acquiring training of all team members on goods production and entrepreneurial skills, establishment of production sections, and quality control, promotion, marketing, transportation facilities and operating expenses. The outlined initial capital for this business is the realistic amount required to achieve the targeted outcomes of this business.

The best business practices will also be key concentration areas for the success of this business. High hygiene of the processing/production unit will be maintained. Nevertheless all safety precautions measures such as wearing of appropriate gears, supply of oxygen and presence quality assurance section will ensure that the whole process is safe.

The expected social economic benefits of this business are increased income for the owners and the locals, improved livelihood and employment opportunities for both the owners the expected self-help-group members and the local working group especially women groups. Additionally, The Tanzania Revenue Authority is expected to benefit from increased revenues which are to be collected through tax. Yet, WASH projects are an environmentally friendly business.

A Computation of discounted measures of worthiness on appendix has indicated that this business will have a positive Net Present Value (NPV) of US$ 402,840 and an internal rate of return of 227.2%. A worst-case scenario was developed with the assumption of 10% lower sales revenues for the business, gave an IRR of 213% and the NPV of US$ 362,556. A best-case scenario based on 10% higher sales provided an IRR of 244% and the NPV of US$ 443,124. Thus, this business is viable and should be undertaken.

Decentralized solid waste management systems use cost effective, simple intensive machinery and technology. As far as possible, we will use machines that are run manually and not dependent on an assured power supply. This will help trim down the cost of production. The financial sustainability of our business is based on the selling of sanitary soaps; organic fertilizers and animal food made from wastes. Our products will be made from locally available raw materials and thus this will make our cost of production be low and thus our products will also be sold at a lowest price that is affordable to the poor resource beneficiaries. As a consequence we expect our products to gain more popularity and acceptability due to their higher quality and low cost.

 Our Sells are expecting to gain new customers who are currently do not have access to the industrial soaps, animal food and fertilizers. These people are poor people residing within the Sumbawanga municipality and other cities in Tanzania. This target group for our market is the one which constitute the majority of Tanzanians. Thus we are confident with the available market and hence strong financial sustainability of our business.