These guidelines have been developed under the Water Research Commission (WRC) funded project to develop guidance on how to demonstrate and test innovative sanitation systems in real world environments prior to manufacture and commercialization. The guidelines were developed by the Engineering Field Testing Platform (EFTP) under this WRC funded project. The EFTP is a partnership between the Pollution Research Group (PRG), the School of Built Environment and Development Studies (BEDS) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), eThekwini Municipality’s water and sanitation unit (EWS), and Khanyisa Projects, an independent engineering consulting firm. The guidelines are intended to provide standardized sanitation field-testing and demonstration guidelines for local technology and commercialization partners (LTCPs) in South Africa. The guidelines are based on the experiences of the EFTP, which tested nearly 20 prototype sanitation systems in the laboratory, in communities, in households and schools between 2017 and 2020. It was prepared with input from members of each organization that makes up the EFTP team, as well as two workshops that were held to obtain additional input from LTCPs and regulators.