Community Led Total Sanitation

Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is an innovative methodology for mobilising communities to completely eliminate open defecation. CLTS is characterised by participatory facilitation, community analysis and action, and no hardware subsidy. In a matter of often just weeks, communities mobilise themselves to construct latrines and achieve total sanitation.

CLTS is a highly effective entry point for other livelihoods activities as it mobilises community members towards collective action and empowers them to take further action in the future. Sanitation improvements have immediate health benefits which quickly demonstrate the success of collective action in improving personal and community wide wellbeing. CLTS outcomes illustrate what communities can achieve by undertaking further initiatives for their own development.

CLTS was first pioneered in Bangladesh in 1999 and has been widely adopted within that country and beyond, particularly within South and Southeast Asia. There have also been some experiences in Africa. CLTS has great potential for contributing towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals, both directly in water and sanitation, and indirectly through the knock-on impacts on combating major diseases and improving maternal health. However, rapid institutional take-up of CLTS is raising some dilemmas and challenges. Not least of these is the need to shift donor mindsets away from a focus on subsidy.

This Hot Topic forms a part of the project: Going to Scale? The Potential of Community-Led Total Sanitation. This research project is managed by the Institute of Development Studies and funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). See CLTS projects below.

If you would like to be added to a mailing list updating you on CLTS issues and outputs, please email Petra p.bongartz@ids.ac.uk.

Tearfund Newsletter
IDS recently contributed to Tearfund’s newsletter Footsteps whose December 2007 issue is dedicated to the topic of sanitation. HTML

Sanitation and Hygiene Week
On the occasion of Sanitation and Hygiene Week (15-22 March 2008) and World Water Day (22 March 2008), IDS reports back from AfricaSan 2008, highlighting the potential of CLTS to improve the health and wellbeing of the 300 million Africans still lacking access to improved sanitation.

World Water Day March 2007: Resources from Institute of Development Studies
IDS News: Top Five Priorities - What researchers believe are the five top priorities that need to be addressed if we are to cope with water scarcity HTML
IDS News: Spend less to achieve more – donors are urged to rethink their mindsets and methods towards water and sanitation HTML
Podcast from The Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability (STEPS) Centre -MP3
IDS News: Sanitation, suffering and safety - women and water. Petra Bongartz works on the Community-Led Total Sanitation project. She argues that women's issues are one of the most pressing concerns HTML

Sanitation- Reported as 'The Best Medical Advance'
More than 11,000 people worldwide see the development of sanitation as the greatest medical advance in the last 166 years, according to the British Medical Journal - a sign of hope that sanitation is finally getting the recognition it deserves. HTML

UK Parliamentary Enquiry into Water and Sanitation. The International Development Committee is beginning an inquiry into Water and Sanitation. It will examine how donors – notably the UK Department for International Development (DFID) - can support progress towards Millennium Development Goal 7. Interested organisations and individuals – especially those from developing countries – are invited to submit written evidence.
For more on issues and how to sumbit evidence see Details
The IDS STEPS team (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability), argue for a rethinking of conventional approaches in their submission to the new UK Parliament's International Development Committee inquiry into Water and Sanitation. DOC