The Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2005 in Singapore

  

JACK SIM

World Toilet Organization (WTO) and the Restroom Association (RA)

 

Summary:  Jack Sim founded the Restroom Association in Singapore in 1998, and in 2001, he set up the WTO.  The RA focuses on operations to improve sanitation in Singapore.  The WTO on the other hand, works with country-based partners around the world on creative approaches to break the toilet taboo, advocate for better toilet conditions and build capacity for people to help others and themselves in this effort.  WTO adopts a multi-pronged approach to achieve its mission with strong buy-in from the international sanitation fraternity for its flagship summits, training programmes and other projects.  It has delivered significant results in terms of promoting awareness, enhancing sanitation conditions, building capacity in the sector and influencing public sanitation policies.  All these have been achieved as a result of   innovative partnerships and an extremely low cost organizational structure.

 

KEY STATISTICS

Year Organisation Established

1998 and 2001

Principle Sector(s)

Public health (Sanitation and environment)

Legal Constitution

Not for profit

Organisation Staff

3 Full time, 2 Part time, 15 Volunteers

Geographic Area of Activity

Singapore and worldwide

Number of Direct Beneficiaries

Hundreds of thousands are directly affected by its work

 

The Innovation

 

Mention the words “public toilet” and one is likely to elicit everything from grins to the first public toilet joke that comes to mind.  But when one needs a public toilet and cannot find one, or if upon finding one, it is a wet, smelly mess, good humour is usually displaced by disgust and anger.

 

Jack Sim recognized that much of the problem with addressing the lack of clean public toilets lay in the taboo nature of the subject.  While organizations exist around the world working to deal with the issues related to access to clean and environmentally sound public toilets, their work has been fragmented and piecemeal.  Taking the model of Mechai Viravaidya, the internationally known Thai social entrepreneur who masterfully uses humour to promote condom use in his country, Jack created the WTO (World Toilet Organization) as a global network and service platform where these groups can come together, learn from one another, and leverage media and corporate support and attention that, in turn, influence governments to promote sound sanitation and public health policies – primarily by providing widely accessible and properly maintained public toilets.       

 

In addition to mobilizing good will and more openness to the subject by creating the organization’s ice-breaking acronym –WTO-,  Sim has mastered the art of leverage.  It is hard to believe that with a mere US$250,000 a year he has been able to organize five World Summits that have brought together approximately 400 participants from 25 countries.  He has been able to engage governments and corporations alike to compete for the privilege of being the country with the cleanest public toilets. Through his operational arm in Singapore, the RA, he has come up with the “Happy Toilet” star rating programme in Singapore which rewards the best public toilets that meet design, quality and maintenance criteria, prompting a similar initiative in the UK, the “Loo of the Year” Award – and being replicated elsewhere.  And to advance the research and development aspects of the subject, Sim has spearheaded the World Toilet College in collaboration with Singapore Polytechnic which will introduce courses in restroom design, maintenance and sanitation.  

 

Sim has taken a taboo subject and put it on the international radar screen. In the concluding words of a column written by Dave Barry, internationally syndicated humour columnist, “I applaud the World Toilet Organization for its efforts to improve the world’s public toilets.  I think this concept could be used in tourism advertising (“KOREA – Come for the History; Stay for the Public Toilets”).  You probably can’t attend the summit, but you CAN take part in (I am STILL not making this up) World Toilet Day.  This year, it’s November 19.  Let’s all take a few moments to observe this very special occasion. And then let’s wash our hands”.

 

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