This is to highlight the relation between sanitation and livelihoods in the context of poverty reduction (income generation), health improvements, increased levels of education and environmental protection. The main question to be explored is: how can human excreta disposal, management and re-use improve poor people’s livelihoods in urban and rural areas? 

A livelihoods approach is a people-centred, dynamic concept, with an interest in the action and active involvement of the poor in the context of their struggle against poverty not just to survive, but also to modify their conditions and maintain life improvements. It is a holistic (not a sector) approach paying attention to the relation between the various perspectives: improvement health, environment, income generation, and in the overall conditions of life. 

The poor are not passive beneficiaries but engage in development processes in accordance with their specific physical and cultural context. A special effort has been made to keep the focus on a people-centred strategy, in which improvements in livelihoods start primarily from the efforts of the poor themselves in their households (HH) and communities (CO), and looks at others as ‘enabling’ and supporting partners: community based organisations (CBO), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), private sector (PS), local government (LGO), government (departments) (GO) and others.