From 12th to 17th November 2012 SAREP (USAID’s Southern Africa Regional Environmental Program) organized a one week Training of CLTS Facilitators Workshop in Shakawe, north western Botswana.  This was the first training workshop to be held on the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach in Botswana, and the first experimental use of this approach at the community level in Botswana.

Report on progress with CLTS in the North Bank Region of The Gambia, with details of ODF celebrations and the latest numbers.

Download the report

Ghana's Volta Region has set March 2014 as deadline to eliminate open defecation in the region. Mr Francis Ganyaglo, Deputy Volta Regional Minister, set the target when he addressed the closing session of a training workshop on Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) involving over 100 participants comprising environmental health staff, non-governmental organisations, the media and some state institutions.

The District Manual for Managing CLTS in Small Towns is a guide for district managers and other stakeholders in planning and developing CLTS programs in small towns.

It was developed by the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) the Environmental Health and Sanitation Division of the Ministry of Health and the Norther Region Small Towns Water and Sanitation Project (NORST). the NORST project is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency.

The Facilitator’s Manual for Small Towns CLTS Field Work is a guide for field workers who are promoting sanitation improvements at community and household levels, using the CLTS approach applied to the small towns context.

The manual is based on information drawn from:

a) Final Report – “Community Led Total Sanitation in Small Towns: A Pilot Project in the Northern Region of Ghana” (Cowater International)

Chiefs, the media, religious and civil society organisations in the Volta Region have been called to join forces using religious norms to wash the incidence of Open Defecation (OD) in the region. About 50 percent of the population of the region was said to engage in the practice, with 31 percent doing so daily, Mr Ben Arthur, Executive Secretary of the Coalition of Non Governmental Organisation in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS) observed at a workshop.

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has commended Kpale-Xorse for being the first Open Defecation Free (ODF) community in the Ho Municipal area."Indeed you are a good example for other rural communities in Ghana to emulate in addressing their own sanitation challenges," a citation accompanying a certificate and plaque read. The award was presented to representatives of Kpale-Xorse at a workshop held in Ho as part of the Government of Ghana and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Water and Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Programme.

Mr Richard Ahiagbede, Ho Municipal Health Officer has asked chiefs and opinion leaders in 16 communities in the Municipal area to co-operate in the drive to stop open defecation.
Mr Ahiagbede was speaking at a start-up workshop on Water and Sanitation and Health (WASH) Programme of the Ghana Government and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The Programme, initiated in 2012, seeks to among others, encourage Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) drive against Open Defecation in rural communities.

The National Coordinator in charge of Community Led Total Sanitation for the Ghana WASH Project, Dominic Kwame Dapaah, has charged Natural Leaders in the Aowin and Suaman Districts to ensure that members in their communities respond spontaneously to triggering exercises in ensuring that immediate actions are taken to stop open defecation.

This film is about the unfolding story of CLTS in Guna, India against the  backdrop of the Government of India's national Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) which has now been replaced by the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA). These programmes have been implemented in Madhya Pradesh since 2003 but despite 2 million US$ having been spent, by 2011, there were still no ODF villages. However, with recent CLTS efforts, 35 villages (home to around 12,000 people) became ODF between December 2011 and December 2012.

This film was produced by Knowledge Links with support from IDS (April 2013).

This report presents the main discussions, conclusions and recommendations of the National Workshop on Community-Led Approach in the Context of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan held at the Uttarakhand Academy of Administration, Nainital on April 16 to 18 2013.  The workshop was convened by the Key Resource Centre in collaboration with the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and supported by the Government of India and Institute of Development Studies, with facilitation support by Knowledge Links and input from the CLTS Foundation.

This statement presents the main conclusions and recommendations from the National Workshop on Community-Led Approaches to Sanitation in the context of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan held at the Uttarakhand Academy of Administration, Nainital from the 16th to 18th April 2013.

The Key Resource Centre at Uttarakahnd Academy of Administration is organizing the national workshop on Community-Led approaches in collaboration with WSSCC with the support of Ministry of Drinking Water & sanitation, Government of India. 

There is statistical data to show that the height of Indian children is correlated to their and their neighbourhood’s access to toilets.

You can learn a lot from measuring children’s height. How tall a child has grown by the time she is a few years old is one of the most important indicators of her well-being. This is not because height is important in itself, but because height reflects a child’s early-life health, absorbed nutrition and experience of disease.

This booklet developed by Plan Indonesia contains the story about a sanitation entrepreneur in Grobogan, Indonesia.

View the booklet

in Bahasa

in English

One pager on review and reflection meetings that bring together different stakeholders to enhance scalability and sustainability in Kenya.

In early May 2013, a team of 39 Public health workers, Provincial administrators, Community health Extension Workers, Natural Leaders, Community Health Workers and Plan Kenya staff from Kilifi and Kwale Programme Units visited Nambale ODF District. The purpose of the visit was to learn about the experiences, challenges, strategies and practices that helped Nambale to become ODF.

Read about the learning visit

Plan Kenya has been providing consultancy services in CLTS training to a number of partners who are implementing WASH activities both at national and regional levels. As part of this , from 10^th -14^th December, 2012 a five day CLTS training workshop was organized, targeting the frontline staff (Public Health Officers and Community Health Workers - CHWs) who work at level one in Katilu Division, Turkana South District.  CLTS was introduced in the wider Turkana County by Government of Kenya/UNICEF WASH programme which also targeted another 20 counties in Kenya.

North Tarawa in Kiribati is the first island in the Pacific to be declared open defecation free, thanks to the “Kiriwatsan I Project”. The Ministry of Public Works is implementing this project with technical support from UNICEF and funding from the European Union.

Read more about the success of Tarawa

Short write up about a week-long CLTS training workshop in the capital of Bomi County; Tubmanberg, Western Liberia.

Read about the training and the ooutcomes of the triggering that was part of it.

Between the 18th-24th March 2013 Plan Liberia conducted a CLTS training workshop in Tubmanburg, Bomi County, with participants vowing to end open defecation by adhering to the Open Defecation Free (ODF) community campaign by June of this year. The workshop brought together six communities in Bomi County: Vorkor Town, Sayjillum, Domagbamatina, Jimmy Town, Sawmill and Mana Gbokai communities. The training was also attended by the Government of Liberia (GoL) through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, local staff and partners of Plan-Liberia.

Azafady's Project Magnampy focuses on sanitation and potable water provision, leading communities to implement their own sanitation solutions and to secure safe water sources, drawing on the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) methodology to facilitate sustained change.

Azafady's agents triggered CLTS in six hamlets across the fokontany of Beandry, in September 2011. 12 months later a total of 101 latrines had been constructed using only locally available materials and are in use by 223 households containing 1,038 people -- 100% of the total population.

One pager on involving Micro Finance institutions and Village Savings and Loans Schemes in CLTS based on the Malawian experience.

Presentation on processes, tools and innovative ideas for ODF verification and celebration given by Ashley Meek, Engineers Without Borders Canada at the ODF Malawi Annual Review meeting (20-21 March 2013).

Download the presentation

Look at the ODF verification form

Summary report from the ODF Malawi annual review (March 2013), with updated statistics, and reflections on challenges, sharing of innovations and solutions, as well as useful guidance and resources for CLTS in Malawi.

Download the report

Leaflet that outlines Malawi’s Strategy for Becoming Open Defecation Free (ODF) by 2015.

Download the leaflet

Reaching each and every village in Malawi with a CLTS triggering, and sufficient follow-up support cis could take many years, and a lot of resources. So, the ODF Malawi by 2015 National Strategy has suggested some additional ways to promote the concept of “ODF”. What if religious leaders (pastors, church elders, priests, imams, etc.) traditional leaders (village heads, group village heads, traditional authori-ties and chiefs) or other local leaders (VDCs, ADCs, SMCs, etc.) could be effectively encouraged to promote ODF?

Guidelines for how to promote School-led Total Sanitation and thereby accelerate the achievement of the Malawi ODF strategy.

Download the SLTS guidelines.

About 20 communities in Tillabéri, west Niger, have been declared open defecation-free zones as across the country, very few people have access to proper sanitation. The communities were part of a Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) project, launched in September 2010 in 32 villages in the region by the local office of Plan International.

La cérémonie de certification constitue une suite logique de l’évaluation la mise en œuvre de l’approche Assainissement Total Piloté par la Communauté (ATPC) au niveau des communautés cibles. Au Niger les évaluations jusque là effectuées dans les zones où la mise en œuvre est appuyée par l’UNICEF se sont faites sur la base d’un document consensuel qui prend en compte les éléments suivants :  

As the globe commemorates World Environment Day, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has said that reduction in open defecation will significantly reduce diarrhoea cases in children under five by 90 per cent. UNICEF had in its 2012 report revealed that an estimated 34 million Nigerians practice open defecation and ranked the country amongst top five countries in the world with largest number of people defecating in the open.

Read more in the Vanguard, 6th June 2013

Rural dwellers across Ogun State have been enjoined to shun open defecation and endeavour to construct latrines for appropriate disposal of their feaces. Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development in the state, Mrs Olayinka Kukoyi gave this charge at a training programme for facilitators on the Community-Led-Total sanitation (CLTs) Approaches, an initiative of the Federal and state governments. Represented by the Programme Manager, Rural Water and Sanitation Agency (RUWATSAN), Mr Olatokunbo Sonde, Mrs.

Wife of the Osun State governor, Mrs. Sherifat Aregbesola has warned Fulani communities  in the state against open defecation practices, saying such  practice was inimical to healthy living and growth in the society. Addressing Fulani residents in Gaatepatan  in Ejigbo Local Government Area of Osun State, during a one-day sensitisation meeting, Mrs.

The Kenema District Health Superintendent in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Mr. Orlai Sankoh stated that Langurama Chiefdom is the first and only Chiefdom in Kenema that has attained Open Defecation Free (ODF) status in Sierra Leone. He made this statement during the ODF celebrations organized by GOAL Sierra Leone last weekend.

Read more in Awareness Times, 3rd April 2013

The Solomon Islands Ministry of Health, UNICEF and NGOs participated in a recent workshop on  Community Led Total Sanitation (CTLS).

The six day event was the first of its kind in Solomon Islands using the concept of community-led development to improve health through safe and sustainable sanitation. Dr. Kamal Kar, founder of the CLTS Foundation, conducted the CLTS Training of Trainers workshop. He encouraged the participants to work together to support the elimination of open defecation in communities in the Solomon Islands.

CLTS was introduced in Western Equatoria State state in October 2011 through a training facilitated by Plan International and sponsored by UNICEF. A number of organizations send representatives to participate in the training. In October 2012 fourteen villages  underwent Open Defecation Free (ODF) verification. These are villages that had been facilitated by one of UNICEF’s partners, Intersos. 10 of the villages had claimed to have attained ODF status and this provided a rationale for conducting the verification.

Tearfund started to work in Aweil Centre County, one of the five counties in Northern Bahr State in April 2011 implementing an integrated programme of water, hygiene and sanitation (WASH) and food security projects. The projects are aimed at supporting   the resettling   of returnees and the internally displaced people in the state.  The second phase of the project started in April 2012 and will come to a close by the end of March 2013; the main approach for sanitation improvement especially at household level has been community-led total sanitation (CLTS).

CLTS continued to gain momentum when the second Open Defecation Free celebration was held in the Republic of South Sudan in Kasia village in Yambio county on 27^th November 2012. The colourful event brought together 4 villages which had been declared ODF in October this year.

Read more about the celebrations in Yambio

There was pomp and dance on 1^st November 2012, when Adiem village held the first ever Open Defecation Free (ODF) celebration in South Sudan. The occasion was well attended by the local community, the ACTED staff, and the State government officials led by the Minister for Health Hon. Dr. Ang’ui Mayuot.

Read more about Adiem's ODF celebrations

Plan Kenya has been providing CLTS capacity support to interested partners to accelerate rural sanitation in and outside Kenya. As a part of this initiative, a five day training of trainers (ToT) was conducted for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) from 18^th -22^nd March, 2013 in Karatu, Tanzania.

Uganda joined the rest of the world in commemorating sanitation week in March 2013. On the 19^th March 2013 the annual event was held in Ngora district. Plan Uganda and other partners supported the Ministry of Health and the district in organizing an event with the theme 'Open Defecation is a shame, use a latrine'. Read an article about the celebrations and activities that took place to mark this day.

Schools have been identified as being the key components that could boost the campaign for Total Sanitation for Mkushi district in Zambia. National Trainer for CLTS, Moses Mutoka issued this statement to ZANIS when he facilitated for the School Led Total Sanitation (SLTS) program at Mkushi’s Council Motel.

Australian and national NGOs are working together to improve access to sanitation through the use of CLTS and other participatory methodologies. 

Read more in allAfrica.com, 5th April 2013