Uganda is the place to be this year and it's good to see a lot of familiar faces and also some new ones. This is the 6th time we come together and we have colleagues from 8 different Plan Country Offices, 4 different National Offices and colleagues from IDS and IRC.

Looking back over the years I can say that not only a lot of knowledge has been shared, but also that the discussion have evolved. Of course that is what we were aiming for when implementing a multi-year and multi-country CLTS program, but it is quite interesting to see what the discussions or information requests are focussing on this year, and to see how CLTS has grown over the years in the countries.

We had a long discussion on Urban CLTS and Ethiopia and Kenya shared some of their experiences. Ethiopia saw a lot of opportunities and mentioned that CLTS can work in an urban area, but some of the activities might not work or work at a different stage. Another thing mentioned is the fact that there are many different stakeholders involved in an urban setting and therefore CLTS alone cannot be an intervention on its own, but needs to be supported by other intervention involving the different stakeholders (well that is at least my opinion).

Most countries are starting with urban sanitation activities or are looking into it, so there was quite some interest to learn or hear about the experiences so far. Other issues that will most likely receive some attention this week are sustainability (also looking at what has happened based on the outcomes of the ODF Sustainability Study), menstrual hygiene management, stepping up the sanitation ladder and sanitation marketing, institutional settings, and monitoring.

So look forward to the rest of the week!

Sharon Roose is Program Advisor Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Plan Netherlands