USAID has pumped almost $10 million into six Cambodian provinces in the form of development impact bond (DIB) programs to improve rural sanitation.

During the world’s first "pay-for-results" DIB on September 28, Kerry Pelzman, USAID Cambodia Mission Director, said, "This new results-based financing approach to improving rural sanitation demonstrates our commitment to supporting the Royal Government of Cambodia’s goal of eliminating open defecation by 2025."

She added that DIB, which is USAID’s first dedicated financing for village-level sanitation, is an under-utilized but innovative mechanism for collaborating and co-designing solutions with diverse stakeholders, including local private sector partners, to achieve the best possible development results.

iDE has cooperated with the Stone Family Foundation and received support funding from USAID to run the DIB project from November 2019 to June 2023.

The DIB has accelerated efforts to end open defecation and improve rural health in the six provinces of Svay Rieng, Kandal, Prey Veng, Kampong Thom, Siem Reap, and Oddar Meanchey.

John Stone, Founder and Chairman of the Stone Family Foundation, said, "This DIB demonstrates how it is possible to transition from a grant funder to an impact investor and what a great success story. The partnership with iDE has achieved transformational change, providing 1.7 million people in Cambodia with hygienic sanitation."

DIB, a USAID innovation for village-level sanitation, is a unique collaboration tool to achieve development results.

He added that reaching open defecation-free status in these communities is the culmination of a program that started in 2011 when only a small percentage of rural households had access to hygienic sanitation

Kevin Robbins, Country Director, iDE Cambodia, said, "Since 2009, iDE has partnered with the Ministry of Rural Development at both national and provincial levels, and worked hand-in-hand to support sales of sanitary latrines in rural Cambodia. Through the DIB, we have closely collaborated to achieve Open Defecation Free Village claims in over 1,780 villages.

“Despite these achievements, some of the most marginalized communities in Cambodia still lack access to sanitation, including the lowest income households and those living in climate vulnerable, flood-prone, and remote areas.”

He added, “Most rural Cambodians still lack access to affordable services to safely empty their latrine pits. In order to meet the sanitation needs of rural Cambodians, iDE will continue to support the growth and expansion of the rural sanitation market.”

Many rural Cambodian villages lack safe sanitation facilities, forcing people to defecate in the open, which poses a serious risk of water contamination and disease transmission.

However, through the combined efforts of government, the private sector and nongovernmental actors including iDE, rural sanitation coverage in Cambodia increased from 23 percent in 2009 to 67 percent in 2019.

Despite this progress, many of the poorest, most marginalized members of the community still did not own toilets.iDE has been assisting the Royal Government of Cambodia in addressing this challenge for over a decade through its Sanitation Marketing Scale Up Program (SMSU).

In 2019, iDE launched the Cambodia Rural Sanitation Development Impact Bond (CRS-DIB) (2019-2023), a $9.9 million investment in partnership with the Stone Family Foundation and USAID.

This innovative, pay-for-result model provided iDE with the necessary financial flexibility to learn, adapt, and scale up interventions, specifically targeting the last segment of the market.

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