COMMUNITY LED TOTAL SANITATION. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND SAFETY. HELPING COMMUNITIES LEAD A BETTER LIFE. PROMOTING HEALTH AND WELLBEING

1. EHS 402
COMMUNITY RESEARCH PROJECT
(4 CREDITS)
MS. OLULEGAN

2. “Happiness doesn't result from
what we get, but from what we
give.” ― Ben carson

3. “You give but little when you give of
your possessions. It is when you give of
yourself that you truly give.” ― Kahlil
Gibran
…

4. ACRONYMS AND DEFINITIONS
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CLTS: Community-Led Total Sanitation
CC: Community Consultant
INGO: International Non Government Organization
MDG: Millennium Development Goal
NL: Natural Leader; Leaders emerging from ODF villages
as a result of CLTS triggering process at the local level
OD: Open Defecation
ODF: Open Defecation Free
PRA: Participatory rural appraisal
WSSCC: Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative
Council

5. ACRONYMS AND DEFINITIONS
• IHHS: Individual Household Hardware Subsidy
• IRSP: Integrated Rural Support Programme
• Plan RESA :Plan International, Region of Eastern and
Southern Africa
• PM: Participatory Methodology
• RSPN: Rural Support Programme Network, Pakistan
• TSC: Total Sanitation Campaign of the Indian
Government
• UNICEF: United Nations Children‟s Fund
• VERC: Village Education Resource Centre
• WSP: Water and Sanitation Programme, World Bank

6. Community-Led Total
Sanitation
Community-Led Total Sanitation
(CLTS) focuses on igniting a change
in sanitation behavior rather than
constructing toilets. It does this
through a process of social
awakening that is stimulated by
facilitators from within or outside
the community.

9. When it occurs
well, CLTS
• Is total, meaning that it affects all in the community
and visitors as well
• Is based on collective community decision-making
and action by all
• Is driven by sense of collective achievement and
motivations that are internal to communities, not by
external subsidies or pressures

10. When it occurs
well, CLTS
• Leads to the emergence of new Natural Leaders
and/or highly encourages new commitment of the
existing leaders who do not need or follow a blue
print, but do things their own way
• Generates diverse local actions and innovations
• Revives traditional social practices of self-help and
community cooperation and creates new
examples of social solidarity and cooperation
between rich and the poor in achieving ODF status

11. •
When it occurs well,
CLTSand children in a
Engages men, women, youth
time-bound campaign and local action to end OD
followed by general cleaning up
• Often through the collective drive of communities
attracts local leaders, elected people‟s
representatives, the local government and NGOs to
help, support, encourage and spread ideas

12. When it occurs
well, CLTS
• ODF communities gradually move up along the
sanitation ladder and improve structure and design
of their toilets through better linkages with the local
businessmen and traders/dealers of sanitation
hardware
• Often ODF communities don‟t stop at achieving
ODF status but move on to achieving other
collective common goals like „no hunger or
starvation in the village‟, „no children without school
enrolment and all going to school‟ „equal wages for
all labours and reduced inequality of men‟s and
women‟s labour‟ etc.

14. Two conditions are crucial:
1. The attitudes and behaviour of facilitators:
Not everyone can be a good facilitator. Facilitating
CLTS is an aptitude. It can be learnt, but it will come
more naturally to some than to others. It is different
from facilitating conventional participatory processes
like PRA. Behaviour and attitudes are crucial. What
works best for triggering CLTS is a combination of
boldness, empathy, humour and fun. It demands a
hands-off approach, not teaching or lecturing, but
facilitating to enable people to confront their
unpalatable realities.

15. 2. The sensitive support of institutions.
Not every organization is suitable for promoting CLTS.
Institutional support needs to be consistent and flexible.
Any top-down target and disbursement-driven approach is
liable to undermine CLTS, though general sanitation
campaigns can be effective provided they are used in a
„community empowerment‟ mode rather than a
„prescriptive‟ and „target achievement‟ mode. Two big
dangers are too much money, because CLTS needs
relatively little, and rapid recruitment and inadequate
orientation, training and socializing of staff. This demands a
form of restraint that is difficult in many bureaucracies.

17. The sequence of steps
The following is a rough outline of
sequence of steps which could be
followed, and tools that could be
applied in triggering CLTS in villages.
• Pre-triggering: Selecting a
community, Introduction and
building rapport
• Triggering: Participatory sanitation
profile analysis, Ignition moment
• Post-triggering: Action planning b
the community, Follow up

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