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| - Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene did not specify what she was referring to when she discussed the government funding "toilets in Africa." However, USAID did fund the Sanitation Service Delivery initiative, among others, in West African countries, which aimed to increase access to hygienic sanitation services. Likewise, a similar program was ongoing in Liberia, according to a September 2024 USAID report.
On Nov. 24, 2024, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo to discuss (archived) her role on a subcommittee tied to President-elect Donald Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency.
The Georgia Republican said the department was planning to "comb through" numerous funds and initiatives to figure out what they deemed wasteful, including the U.S. government's purported funding of "toilets in Africa."
She then said DOGE would be looking "all over" to identify the government's wasteful spending and added that they would scrutinize:
[…] every single government department, program, grant programs, contracts; it is everywhere. And so when we look into a deep dive into this massive problem that's caused America to be $36 trillion in debt, we're going to have to go into all kinds of buckets. And that's how I'll be separating things on the oversight subcommittee on DOGE. We'll be looking at everything from government-funded media programs like NPR, that spread nothing but Democrat propaganda. We'll be going into grant programs that fund things like sex apps in Malaysia, toilets in Africa, all kinds of programs that don't help the American people.
While Greene did not identify which "toilets in Africa" program she was referring to, the U.S. government has supported sanitation initiatives in Africa through the United States Agency for International Development.
Snopes reached out to USAID to learn more about the specifics of the program, but given that it is a government agency, we have rated the claim that the U.S. government has funded such efforts in the region as true.
USAID supports international development and humanitarian assistance efforts in partner countries. From October 2014 to September 2021, the agency gave almost $20 million to sanitation initiatives in West African countries through the Sanitation Service Delivery program.
According to a webpage on the initiative, SSD aimed to help build better sanitation networks in a series of countries by helping entrepreneurs develop toilet-building initiatives among other areas.
The Sanitation Service Delivery (SSD) program began with an analysis of the urban sanitation markets in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana to identify constraints and potential areas for intervention. Guided by the findings of the analysis, SSD developed sets of interventions called sanitation delivery models to catalyze the creation of a more efficient and inclusive sanitation market system that is attractive to consumers and generates profits for local micro-enterprises. Each country is currently implementing latrine product sales and improved human waste services management. The models are uniquely designed to address the specific local sanitation challenges. Through these interventions, SSD is improving the enabling environment by operationalizing consumer loans for sanitation. SSD efforts are also helping entrepreneurs to develop toilet building businesses, as well as innovate new sanitation technologies and services. In addition, SSD creates sanitation management business models that influence policy and practices across the region. The project is also building government capacity to improve sanitation infrastructure and increase collaboration with the private sector.
While the above effort concluded in 2021, at least one similar USAID funded initiative is ongoing. According to a September 2024 USAID report, the agency is currently funding the Countywide Sanitation Activity — a partnership between local government and private organizations — in the West African country of Liberia, which aims to "address the persistent and widespread issue of open defecation (OD) in five counties" across the nation. The initiative is working with local communities to find durable, environmentally sustainable, locally available and cost-effective ways to carry out toilet construction.
Snopes asked USAID about the present status of the SSD, other similar ongoing efforts and the amount of funds going into the building of actual toilets in countries across Africa. We will update this story if we get more information.
While Greene is correct in saying the U.S. government funds such sanitation initiatives, many commentators have criticized DOGE for what they say are implausible and disruptive plans to cut federal agencies and minimize spending.
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