Despite huge amounts of experience of using CLTS in rural context, urban experiences are rare. This new report from Practical Action documents the processes they used and how they adapted CLTS methodologies to the context of low-income settlements in Nakuru, Kenya. The report is based on three years of innovative work funded by Comic Relief and in partnership with Kenyan NGO Umande Trust. The report highlights the very real social and infrastructural challenges of creating ODF zones in an urban context – including understanding what open defecation actually means in urban areas, how triggering needs to happen and with whom, and the myriad stakeholders who need to be involved in tackling the problem. The report goes on to look at experiences and innovations adopted by the project in the pre-triggering, triggering and follow-up phases – including interesting uses of smartphone/GIS monitoring and the local use of Twitter. It challenges the national criteria for ODF verification which are not well-tailored to urban contexts. It summaries 11 key differences between rural and urban CLTS, and overall demonstrates that CLTS can be successfully adapted for urban contexts, but that there is still much to learn.

Download the Nakuru report