CLTS Blog posts
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From the 6th to the 10th August 2012, IDS is convening an international workshop on CLTS Monitoring, Verification, Learning and Information Management in Lilongwe, Malawi. The aim of this specialised workshop is to bring together government and other actors to share learning.
Participants of the workshop are blogging about their learning, insights and reflections on the meeting this week.
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The Namkhana Block in 24 Parganas (South) District in West Bengal has remarkably become ODF in a short time through the combined efforts of GOAL, HCWS ( a local NGO), and the Government. Young women have played a prominent part in triggering and follow up. However, young women, and also young men, face challenges when they trigger CLTS in their own communities. They are young and known and do not carry the authority of outsiders.
In other continents and other countries, young women face the same difficulties and feel unable to use some of the tools. An outsider who is well-educated, confident, and arrives in a vehicle can get away with behaviour that is not feasible or acceptable for them. The problem is ‘You are young, a woman and from here. What can we learn from you?’
Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) as an approach to sanitation promotion is continually being appreciated and promoted by other non governmental actors, an evolvement that is crucial to influencing government buy-in and uptake in Uganda. Having initiated the CLTS approach in Uganda in 2007, Plan Uganda is being relied on by other stakeholders in the country to support them with the start up of CLTS programs, first through training and subsequently advisory support.
At the end of April and beginning of May this year, I conducted CLTS training in Darfur at the invitation of DMT Tearfund UK and Oxfam America. The training took place in Kass town in South Darfur. This was the first CLTS training to take place in this part of Darfur.
Post ODF sustainability
These last few weeks have been exciting and really busy for me. I have found myself doing a lot of juggling – our WASH Advisor and our CLTS Trainer have moved on from Plan, so I have had to step in and ensure that all the balls remain in the air. This week is the climax for me.
I was recently in Darfur to conduct CLTS training. I had been invited by Tearfund UK in conjunction with Oxfam America. During this workshop one of the participants raised a question for which I was not able to provide an answer immediately.
Last year I spent some months in India doing the field research for my PhD. It was a great and enlightening experience at all levels! Part of the research took place in Budni, a block in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
The effects of undernutrition
The undernutrition of babies, infants and children is horrible and a disgraceful blot on our human record. It is not just the immediate suffering, anguish and death. It is also the lasting impact: when stunted at age 2 the damage is largely irreversible. Stunted children are disadvantaged for life – their cognition and immune systems impaired, and their education and earning prospects reduced. Stunting leads to a 10 per cent decrease in lifetime earning. Stunted children start school 7 months later and attend 0.7 years less.
The question on whether it is ethical or right to use ‘shame’ as a resource
for facilitating change has been an emerging critique of Community-Led Total
Sanitation (CLTS). This question could be misleading, as at no point does CLTS require facilitators to say ‘shame on you’ to target audiences for defecating in the open or for eating each others’ shit.
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