World Toilet Day 2014: Unilever announces foundation Toilet Board Coalition

Unilever and Domestos marked World Toilet Day 2014 announcing the foundation of the Toilet Board Coalition, an initiative which aims to help tackle the world’s sanitation crisis through collaboration.

The coalition is built in partnership with some of the most forward-thinking NGOs, companies and academic organisations in sanitation, is a significant move towards building a brighter future for millions.

According to the initiators the coalition will ensure close collaboration between private, public and non-profit players to bring together the best technologies, expertise, financial resources and networks to develop market-based sanitation initiatives that can be implemented at scale.

Unilever’s leading hygiene brand, Domestos, has recently committed to helping 25 million people gain improved access to toilets by 2020.

Introducing missin ingredients
As Jean-Laurent Ingles, Senior VP, Household Care of Unilever and Chairman of the Toilet Board Coalition, explains: "The Toilet Board introduces an essential, missing ingredient in the fight towards improving sanitation globally."

He adds: "By working with development experts, businesses can select, improve and nurture scalable initiatives that will increase demand for toilets and address every step of the value chain in a commercially sustainable way.”

Partners and initiatives
Joining Unilever on the Toilet Board Coalition are Kimberly-Clark, LIXIL Corporation, and Firmenich, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Leeds University, plus The Stone Family Foundation, WaterAid, the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Programme, BRAC, Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), the Asian Development Bank, the World Toilet Organization, Water and Sanitation for Africa, UNICEF, Agence Française De Développement, and the UK’s Department for International Development.

A number of initiatives have already been started by the Toilet Board Coalition including projects to introduce mobile toilets in urban Ghana, partnerships with rural sanitation agencies to test sustainable solutions for villages in India, Bangladesh and Cambodia, and the launch of an open innovation team to explore next-generation sanitation solutions.

This news item was originally published on the website of Unilever.

More information
Toilet Board Coalition
toiletboard@hystra.com
www.toiletboard.org

Unilever/Domestos and UNICEF are working together to help tackle the global sanitation crisis.