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.

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.

 

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.

Webinar (June 27th) Support Mechanisms for Rural Sanitation Programmes

Join the CLTS Knowledge Hub for a free webinar from Dr. Jeremy Kohlitz and Professor Juliet Willett, authors of the forthcoming edition of Frontiers of CLTS: Support Mechanisms for Rural Sanitation Programmes.

Date: Thursday 27th June 2019
Time: 11:00 – 12:30 (BST)
Register here

The webinar will focus on:

• Different individual support mechanisms including financial, in-kind and non-material that go beyond conventional CLTS support processes.
• How these mechanisms can be designed to address the challenges faced by disadvantaged individuals and groups.
• The necessary monitoring systems and knowledge sharing needs
• Recommendations for practice moving forward

It will begin with a presentation by authors Dr. Jeremy Kohlitz and Professor Juliet Willetts followed by a Q&A.

A renewed focus on equity is being driven by the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation framework and Sustainable Development Goal 6, which emphasise the importance of adequate and equitable sanitation for all. Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is based on the idea that sustained, collective improvements in sanitation work best when communities identify and drive their own sanitation solutions. However, there is evidence that CLTS processes to achieve community-wide outcomes are not always systematic, adequate, sustained, or sufficient to meet the needs of disadvantaged groups. To ensure equitable outcomes, there is increasing attention on additional support mechanisms that complement conventional processes of demand creation, behaviour change, community empowerment and community action.

The webinar is based on the forthcoming edition of Frontiers of CLTS: Support Mechanisms for Rural Sanitation Programmes, which will be available in print and online at the end of June/early July 2019. This is the second part of a two part series on the overarching theme of Equality and non-discrimination (EQND) in sanitation programmes at scale. Part one is available to download here.

Nigeria needs a more effective sanitation strategy. Here are some ideas

Nigeria needs a more effective sanitation strategy. Here are some ideas. Phys.org, June 5, 2019.

Our research shows that while community-led total sanitation is effective in Nigeria’s poorer areas, there are two main challenges.

First, community-led total sanitation had no perceivable impact in the wealthier half of our sample. There, open defecation remains widespread. And second, even in poor areas, a large number of households still engaged in open defecation after the intervention.

This suggests that while community-led total sanitation can be better targeted, it needs to be complemented with other policies—subsidies, micro-finance or programmes that promote private sector activity in this under-served market.

Read the complete article.

New Sanitation Market Shaping Blog Series! Read the first of 3 blogs ‘Opportunities for market shaping in West and Central Africa’

New Sanitation Market Shaping Blog Series! Read the first of 3 blogs ‘Opportunities for market shaping in West and Central Africa’

This series of three blogs is based on discussions about market shaping held at a regional sanitation industry consultation in Abuja, Nigeria, convened by UNICEF’s West and Central Africa Regional Office.

This first blog outlines how UNICEF and partners are rising to the challenge, recognising the need to expand market-based approaches to sanitation to fulfil the SDG ambition to improve the quality and sustainability of services.

It then reflects on a sanitation market assessment in Ghana, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire which was validated at the industry consultation where a set of opportunities for strengthening sanitation market systems were developed.

Frontiers 12: Rural Sanitation in Africa: Challenges, Good Practices and Ways Forward

Frontiers 12: Rural Sanitation in Africa: Challenges, Good Practices and Ways Forward In order to achieve universal safely managed sanitation across Africa by 2030 the scale and pace will need to increase drastically.

This edition of Frontiers of CLTS draws on the discussions held across two regional Africa events in 2018, highlighting the challenges faced by programme implementers (both government and non-government staff) at different levels in relation to the Ngor Commitments and the achievement of universal access to safely managed sanitation.

A range of initiatives are presented that show promise in addressing these challenges, along with recommended priority actions.

Benefit‐Cost Analysis of Community‐Led Total Sanitation: Incorporating Results from Recent Evaluations

Benefit‐Cost Analysis of Community‐Led Total Sanitation: Incorporating Results from Recent Evaluations. Prepared for the Benefit‐Cost Analysis Reference Case Guidance Project; Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, January 2019.

We analyze the costs and benefits of “Community-Led Total Sanitation” (CLTS), a
sanitation intervention that relies on community-level behavioral change, in a hypothetical rural region in Sub-Saharan Africa with 200 villages and 100,000 people.

The analysis incorporates data on the effectiveness of CLTS from recent randomized control trials (RCTs) and other evaluations. We value reduced mortality benefits by adjusting estimates for the value of statistical life (VSL) from high income countries to reflect incomes in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Reduced morbidity benefits are calculated using a cost of illness (COI) approach based on recent studies quantifying the cost of diarrheal disease in Sub-Saharan Africa. Time savings from owning a latrine are valued using estimates for the shadow value of time based on a proportion of the average local wage. Costs include the cost of intervention implementation and management, households’ time costs for participating in the community behavioral change activities, and the cost of constructing latrines.

We estimate the net benefits of this intervention both with and without the inclusion of a positive health externality, which is the additional reduction in diarrhea for an individual when a sufficient proportion of other individuals in the community construct and use latrines and thereby decrease the overall load of waterborne pathogens and fecal bacteria in the environment.

We examine the sensitivity of the results to changes in the effectiveness of the CLTS intervention. A probabilistic sensitivity analysis using Monte Carlo simulation is used to examine the sensitivity of the results to changes in all of the parameters in the benefit-cost model.

We find that CLTS interventions would pass a benefit-cost test in many situations, but that benefit-cost metrics are not as favorable as many previous studies suggest. The model results are sensitive to baseline conditions, including the income level used to calculate the VSL, the discount rate, and the time spent traveling to defecation sites.

We conclude that many communities will have economic investment opportunities that are more attractive than CLTS, and recommend careful economic analysis of CLTS in specific locations.