Celebrating the Sanitation Learning Hub’s new lease of life

Celebrating the Sanitation Learning Hub’s new lease of life. CLTS Knowledge Hub, November 2019.

Over the past few years, the Sanitation Learning Hub has responded to this challenge by broadening its focus to include an array of community-focused approaches, as an innovator within the sector.

The Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach still plays an important part but is no longer the sole focus of the Hub, and a new, more encompassing name, the Sanitation Learning Hub, promotes and reflects this change in focus.

Going forward, the thrust of the Hub’s work will be to promote timely, rapid and adaptive learning and sharing, alongside honest reflections of what works and what doesn’t.

The Hub will also be playing an important role in tackling essential emerging questions and issues within the sector such as:

• How to achieve safely managed sanitation for all
• The complex and different challenges of urban, peri-urban and rural settings
• How to ‘Leave No One Behind’ in programming
• The value of gender transformative approaches
• How to strengthen supply chains in order to climb the sanitation ladder
• Better understanding of the links between sanitation, hygiene and other endemic issues such as undernutrition
• The need to prioritise hygiene practices, especially handwashing
• How to tackle ‘slippage’ back to open defecation.

Read the complete article.

Why are support mechanisms in rural sanitation programming important?

Why are support mechanisms in rural sanitation programming important? CLTS Knowledge Hub, November 2019.

In this blog I give recommendations for introducing additional support mechanisms into rural sanitation programming. It includes some great case studies from Vietnam, Zambia and Tanzania where support mechanisms have been successfully combined with community-led processes to support the most disadvantaged people gain access to sanitation facilities.

This newsletter is largely inspired by the recent edition of Frontiers: Support Mechanisms to strengthen equality and non-discrimination in rural sanitation (part 2 of 2).

Support mechanisms: what are we talking about?

Support mechanisms encompass both ‘hardware’ mechanisms (for example, financial and physical subsidies) and ‘software’ approaches (for example, inclusive sanitation training, research or policies), as well as various combinations of the two.

Read the complete article.

Tackling slippage – Frontiers of CLTS: Innovations and Insights

Tackling slippage – Frontiers of CLTS: Innovations and Insights, September 2019.

This issue of Frontiers of CLTS explores current thinking and practice on the topic of tackling slippage of open defecation free (ODF) status.

It looks at how slippage is defined and identified, and at different patterns of slippage that are seen after ODF is declared.

Although a considerable amount has been written on how to establish strong Community-Led Total sanitation (CLTS) programmes that prevent slippage from happening, this issue looks at how to reverse slippage that has already taken place.

From the literature, there is little documented evidence on how slippage can be reversed; evidence and guidance tend to focus on prevention. This review begins to address this gap.

Implementers are encouraged to use the proposed patterns of slippage
framework and slippage factors section to understand the type and extent of slippage experienced, then use the examples in the section on tackling slippage to identify potential slippage responses.

CLTS Knowledge Hub webinar – Tackling Slippage

Tackling Slippage – CLTS Knowledge Hub

• Tue, Sep 24, 2019
• 6:00 AM – 7:30 AM EDT

To launch the new Frontiers of CLTS the CLTS Knowledge Hub is holding a webinar focusing on ways to tackle slippage in sanitation programming.

The new issue has two parts – the first looks at how slippage is defined, presents a framework for identifying slippage patterns, and revisits the factors known to contribute to slippage.

The second section provides six case examples of field experience of slippage and the actions taken to reverse it. It is hoped that the review lays the groundwork for more systematic learning and sharing on slippage to inform current and future programming and practice.

There is widespread recognition that slippage of open defecation free status is a challenge to sustainability across many programmes and contexts. Much has been written about how CLTS and other sanitation programmes can be set up for sustainability in order to prevent slippage from happening, this webinar examines what can be done if slippage has already happened.

A presentation will be given by the author Sophie Hickling a hygiene and sanitation specialist and a Senior Associate at MG Africa Consultants Ltd. as well as a number of practitioners who will present examples from the field. This will be followed by a Q&A.

Registration link.

 

New WSSCC resource! EQND Handbook for CLTS Facilitators

The Equality and Non-discrimination (EQND) and Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) Handbook provides practical guidance for ensuring that behaviour change interventions leave no one behind.

Drawing on experience from across the sector, this handbook is specifically targeted towards those implementing or supervising CLTS interventions at the community level. Key features include:

• A summary of EQND principles
• Step-by-step guidance on applying these principles during pre-triggering, triggering meetings, and post-triggering follow-up visits
• Annexes with practical tools, templates, and resources.

Two other documents of excellent reference include the Human Rights Principles and Terminology – Equality and Non-Discrimination: Supporting the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation (WSSCC, SNV and UTS) and Guidance and Tips for learning from people who may be most disadvantaged during the programme process (WSSCC) both collated by Sarah House.

As well, check out new resources published by the CLTS Knowledge Hub:

• Nine ideas for Gender Transformative WASH programming.
• Frontiers 10: Equality and non-discrimination (EQND) in sanitation programmes at scale (Part 1 of 2)
• Frontiers 13: Support mechanisms to strengthen equality and non-discrimination (EQND) in rural sanitation (Part 2 of 2).   

USAID WASHPaLS study – Policy Diffusion in the Rural Sanitation Sector: Lessons from Community-Led Total Sanitation

Policy Diffusion in the Rural Sanitation Sector: Lessons from Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS). World Development, August 2019.

Authors: Valentin Zuin; Caroline Delaire; Rachel Peletz; Alice Cock-Esteb; Ranjiv Khush; Jeff Albert

Worldwide, 892 million people practice open defecation, most of whom live in rural areas of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is the most widely deployed approach to generate demand for, and use of sanitation facilities. CLTS relies on behavioral change and community self-enforcement to end open defecation.

Since its genesis in Bangladesh in 1999, CLTS has spread to approximately 60 countries, mostly in Asia and Africa, and is employed by the majority of development organizations operating in rural sanitation. This paper uses a qualitative approach to analyze the reasons and processes that drove the wide diffusion of CLTS.

We show that CLTS was embraced because it was perceived as a fast and effective solution to the problem of open defecation, one which was in line with the decentralization and community participation paradigms, at a time when donors and governments were looking for strategies to meet the MDG for sanitation.

CLTS spread under the leadership of influential donors, NGOs, persuasive practitioners, and academics. Face-to-face interactions among members of this network and local governments at conferences and workshops played a central role in the diffusion of the approach.

The use of experiential learning during study tours and workshop field visits has been crucial to persuade government actors at different levels, NGOs, and donors to use the CLTS approach. Notably, robust scientific evidence played little role in the diffusion of CLTS. We conclude by making suggestions to strengthen the evidence base for rural sanitation policies.

Sustainable Total Sanitation – Nigeria: Final Research Report – Institute for Fiscal Studies

Sustainable Total Sanitation – Nigeria: Final Research Report – Institute for Fiscal Studies, 2019.

Key findings and policy lessons

• Reducing OD is intimately tied to increasing toilet ownership in Nigeria
• CLTS improved sanitation and reduced OD in poor communities
• Door-to-door sales agents are important
• Targeting CLTS interventions based on community characteristics (in particular their relative wealth status) can increase policy impacts.
• CLTS increased toilet ownership among households in poor areas without actually removing financial constraints, but these constraints remain important for households with no toilet.
• SanMark is still a young intervention, and it is difficult to assess its effectiveness at addressing the sanitation gap at this stage.
• Policymakers should monitor and continue to evaluate the costeffectiveness of this intervention further before considering a SanMark scale-up.
• Policymakers should consider alternative policies that address financial constraints in both poor and richer areas, such as targeted subsidies or credit lines. These policies could complement the efforts of both CLTS and SanMark by alleviating households’ main constraints

USAID CLA Case Analysis Deep Dive: Zambia’s Community-Led Total Sanitation Program

USAID CLA Case Analysis Deep Dive: Zambia’s Community-Led Total Sanitation Program, July 2019.

This case study focuses on Akros’ CLA-aligned approach to improving sanitation in Zambia, conducted as part of the Zambian Sanitation and Health Program (ZSHP) in partnership with UNICEF and funded by DFID from 2012 to 2018. Akros’ involvement began in 2014 with its introduction of a Mobile-to-Web (M2W) application to the CLTS process in a small number of pilot districts.

Upon successful completion of these pilots, Akros scaled the M2W application to 68 rural districts. Akros eventually incorporated into its intervention close collaboration with traditional leaders. As part of USAID’s efforts to build the evidence base for CLA and one of two Deep Dive case studies (the other concerns Global Communities’ response efforts to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia), this analysis seeks to assess evidence about whether intentional, systematic, and resourced approaches to CLA made plausible contributions to development outcomes in this case

Conclusions: This deep dive into CLA integration, implementation, and impact in CLTS efforts in Zambia yields a number of insights into the specific contributions CLA made to the response. It suggests that strategic collaborations with government officials, traditional leaders, and community members led to greater feelings of local ownership, self-reliance, and in many cases, effective behavior change.

An important dimension of this shift was rooted in CLA’s focus on social inclusion and facilitating diverse, culture-specific adaptations. Enabled by donor flexibility, and strengthened by a broad range of leadership support and participation, CLA approaches in this case incorporated innovative digital monitoring using the M2W app that led to better quality data and speedier feedback loops.

Chiefs/chieftainesses and headmen/women were also involved in ways that supported development outcomes, thereby demonstrating how traditional leaders can be constructive agents of change rather than anachronistic obstacles to development.

This case study utilizes and adapts innovative methods for assessing the contribution of CLA to intervention outcomes through process tracing and contribution analysis. Drawing on numerous sources of evidence, the study provides detailed descriptions of how CLA was integrated into program activities, which may inform future program design and implementation of CLA approaches for USAID staff, implementing partners, and other development practitioners.

The Nakuru Accord: failing better in the WASH sector

The Nakuru Accord: failing better in the WASH sector. CLTS website, December 20, 2018.

Things can, and do, go wrong in water, sanitation and hygiene.

In July 2018, an event at the Water Engineering Development Centre (WEDC) Conference in Nakuru, Kenya, ‘Blunders, Bloopers and Foul-ups: A WASH Game Show‘ inspired a call for WASH professionals to publicly commit to sharing their failures and learning from one another.

Read the ten principles in the Nakuru Accord asking WASH professional to commit to creating a culture based on transparency and accountability. Be inspired and sign up yourself!

Local governance and sanitation: Eight lessons from Uganda

The magnitude of the sanitation crisis means that sanitation and hygiene solutions must be delivered sustainably, and on a large scale. This requires the close involvement of government at all levels. A new case study outlines eight lessons from the Global Sanitation Fund-supported Uganda Sanitation Fund in coordinating, planning, and implementing Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) at scale through a decentralized government system.

Download the case study or read the feature article on wsscc.org.

Local government health workers and latrine owners proudly display an improved latrine in Lira district, Uganda.©WSSCC/USF