The most effective anti-poverty measures are those that create sustainable and self-perpetuating local jobs. This could for instance be achieved by targeted investments in the sanitation sector in developing countries involving social entrepreneurs connecting investors with micro-entrepreneurs to serve the local market’s sanitation needs.
[[File:Lilongwe.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Figure 1: A man selling concrete slabs in Lilongwe, Malawi (source:L. Kappauf, 2011)]] Social franchising approaches are promising in terms of replication and scaling-up. In a franchising system, entrepreneurs with a suitable profile are identified and receive further training and capacity building in various areas, such as business development, marketing, financing, stock management and technical skills. In order to take the "sanitation as a business model (Devine, 2010) (Sim, Groeber, Greenlee, 2010) to the next level, a combined and coordinated effort from several entrepreneurs working together is needed.
Essential to this approach is to consider the economic base of the pyramid. The BOP does not only include the very poor (those living on under EUR 1 per day, for which most likely only subsidised sanitation products realistically can provide sanitation as an alternative to open defecation or unsafe basic facilities) but also those people that have an income of up to EUR 5.68 a day (UNDP, 2008). Millions of people in the BOP – especially in urban settings – are already consumers of items that can be classified as “non-essential” items, such as mobile phones, which illustrates that the poor do have purchasing power to a certain extent. In order to harness the purchasing power of the BOP, sanitation needs to be turned into a demand (Jenkins, 2004). Opportunity means having access to information, products and service, whereas ability refers to necessary resources (financial, time, skills, decision making).
