History

SAREP has been operating a Community-Led Total Sanitation Program in Botswana since 2012, having started in Shakawe with a CLTS Facilitator training for members of the community. Although representatives of the District Health Management Team, the North West District Council and the Okavango sub-District Council were invited, only Keneilwe Seidisa, then representing the Okavango sub-District Council, attended the training. The program spread from Shakawe to 9 other sites (Samochima, Gani,  Xakao, Gumare, Sehithwa, Bodibeng, Bothathogo, Shorobe, and Habu) in Botswana.

SAREP has run a number of national and district level workshops to advocate for CLTS to be included in District and National sanitation strategies and programs, and also invited members of the District Council, North West DHMT, National government (Ministry of Health and Ministry of Local Government). Unfortunately, however, these efforts have not seen the inclusion of CLTS in government initiatives.

On 23rd June 2016, following a presentation of the CLTS program results at the National Consultative Meeting for Environmental Health Officers, a resolution was taken to revive the National Rural Sanitation Strategy with the inclusion of the CLTS methodology in the strategy document.

Achievements

• CLTS Facilitation training has been conducted in two sites – Shakawe and Gumare and a group of approximately 8 active CLTS Facilitators established – who can do triggerings in other villages.
• Triggerings have been completed in 10 sites
• CLTS baseline surveys have been conducted in all 10 sites and baseline survey training for 6 LEOs from the NWDC and Okavango sub-District Council.
• A CLTS tracker database has been completed and is up to date
• A CLTS M&E Toolkit has been developed and tested in both Angola and Botswana and finalized. The Toolkit is available in English and Setswana.
• CLTS M&E training has been conducted for the Shakawe and Gumare Facilitators and also for members of the NWDC Environmental Health team, but they have not had a great deal of practice.
• CLTS continues to gain ground in all 10 SAREP sites and it is understood that Xakao – being one of the smaller villages in the group – is approaching ODF status.

Results
3,066 people with improved sanitation from 241 latrines built. No materials were provided by SAREP for any of these latrines and all were built by householders at their own cost. There are more than 40 latrines under construction. 32 of those are in Bodibeng, where the community has applied (to date, unsuccessfully) to the NWDC for a digger because the ground is very rocky. 8 latrines are under construction in the cluster that includes Gumare, Shakawe, Samochima and Xakao, and 4 latrines are under construction in Habu.

Challenges
Government interaction with the program has been sporadic, despite advocacy meetings, workshops and trainings offered. Presentations on CLTS have been made at various levels:

• to the North West District Council Technical Management team in September 2013,
• at the EHO Consultative Meeting in Kasane in August 2014,
• at a meeting of the North West DDC in November 2014,
• at a CLTS Advocacy Breakfast meeting in September 2014,
• at a CLTS / Sanitation workshop in March 2015; and
• most recently at the EHO Consultative meeting in Mahalapye on 23rd June 2016.

Only at that final meeting was a resolution taken to inculcate CLTS into the National Sanitation Strategy which is now to be revived. These challenges have meant that it has not been possible to transfer CLTS programming, and CLTS Monitoring and Evaluation capacity to government institutions in Botswana.

Documents produced
A number of key documents have been produced from the CLTS program in Botswana that are relevant if the program is to be continued by the Government of Botswana:

• The CLTS Strategy for the NWDC: The CLTS strategy document outlines all institutional structures and mechanisms necessary to implement each of the steps in the ODF Protocol – at a District scale, by the North West District Council only.
• The CLTS strategy for national-scale implementation in Botswana: The CLTS strategy for Botswana outlines all institutional structures and mechanisms necessary to implement each of the steps in the ODF Protocol if CLTS is to be implemented at a national scale in Botswana, with the Ministry of Local Government, the Ministry of Health, and relevant local councils.
• The CLTS M&E Toolkit: The CLTS M&E Toolkit contains all necessary tools to implement the steps of the ODF Protocol, from the definition of ODF to the ODF Certification process, and also includes training materials and a manual. The manual is available in English and Setswana – as mentioned in Section 2 above.

The way forward
CLTS will continue to develop in the communities that were targeted by SAREP and there is constant progress on the ground, toward ODF status. What is not evident at this stage, is buy-in at the national government level. There is excellent CLTS Facilitation capacity in communities, but little CLTS programming and CLTS Program management capacity at government level.

(September 2016)