SFP has proven helpful in the development of a national sanitation and hygiene programme in Uganda, with the active involvement of district managers. In the 1990s, integrated WSS projects were launched to ensure that both water and sanitation needs were met in rural areas. It was quickly recognised that hygiene promotion was a key ingredient, particularly as water supply was in higher demand than sanitation and in most cases more heavily subsidised. Health and sanitary inspectors employed at the district level were in the best position to carry out and maintain this type of extension service. As salaries and motivation were very low, and transport and allowances almost non-existent, the projects provided generous payments and transport. In 2000 rural WSS was fiscally decentralised, and the special project arrangements came to an end. Sanitation and hygiene had to compete with acute health services such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. As a result, expenditure on hygiene promotion and environmental health education fell rapidly. The SFP was instrumental in exposing this drastic fall in expenditure and some of the reasons for it, and triggered the creation of earmarked funds. In the short term these funds revived the morale of existing networks and gave them a lease on life. This enabled them to prove their cost-effectiveness in the prevention of water-related disease and stake a firm claim on district health budgets.