Initially brought to international attention as a success story by the Water and Sanitation Programme-WSP, the post-2003 Sanitation and Hygiene strategy of the regional government of the Southern Nations region (SNNPR) in Ethiopia has now been studied by a DFID-funded research and learning project, the ‘RiPPLE’ Programme, to look at how success was achieved – and how far. Latrine construction and use, hand-washing and water storage/handling by households were surveyed, by quantitative and qualitative methods, in six localities (kebele) in two districts (woreda). The project also studied the policy-making process.