The CLTS Knowledge Hub, based at the Institute of Development Studies, WaterAid, WSSCC and UNICEF co-convened a regional workshop in Saly, Senegal, 25th-28th June 2018 with support from AGETIP. The event brought together those engaged in rural WASH programming from 14 countries across the region (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic Congo (DRC), Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo) alongside experts working at regional and global levels. Over the course of four days participants shared latest experiences, innovations, challenges and research, mapped knowledge gaps and discussed ways forward with the aim of improving capacity and knowledge.

This learning brief presents the common challenges identified across the region, summarises some of the discussions held, highlights some promising practices and considers priority actions moving forward.

Headline recommendations from the brief include:

• Urgently advocate to increase domestic resource allocation
• Create specific country-level strategies for reaching the ‘last mile’
• Use of evidence on last mile demographics and practices to encourage inclusion
• Avoid rigid policies and practices and be less dogmatic about what approaches are used
• Use area-wide approaches
• Systematise post-ODF interventions
• Identify, strengthen and promote local technological solutions
• Conduct formative research on the 'last mile', sustainable local solutions and long-term behaviour change
• Strengthen knowledge management initiatives to better support the region, especially Francophone region.
• Collect, make publically available and respond to data