Landscape analysis of faecal waste management policy gaps in Eastern Africa

International and national development agendas acknowledge the need for equitable sanitation services. The presence of comprehensive policy documents is crucial for guiding implementation in line with set goals. Beyond mapping the scope of existing policy documents, this landscape analysis examined existing policies for comprehensiveness, coordination and equity. Policies were characterised for content, processes and actors in relation to faecal waste management (FWM) along the entire value chain (capture, containment, emptying, transportation, treatment and safe disposal) in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. We found that FWM was sub-optimally represented in the broader environmental, water and sanitation policies scattered in multiple policy and legal frameworks. Other than Kenya, no country had a ratified stand-alone sanitation and hygiene policy or a ‘home-ministry’ for sanitation. Several aspects of the FWM chain were not exclusively addressed by the policies. Although the responsibility for FWM was shared between the private sector and several relevant government institutions (ministries of health, education, local government and environment), the burden of FWM disproportionately lay on individual households with minimal subsidies for the urban-poor. Comprehensive policy frameworks addressing FWM along the entire value chain are needed to foster the implementation of equitable sanitation services in cities.