Revitalising community-led total sanitation : a process guide

Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is a widely used approach for the promotion of sanitation intended to eradicate open defecation and transform a community’s health and wellbeing for the better. As well as being an insult to human dignity, open defecation is the root cause of faecal-oral transmission of disease and as a result poses an enormous threat to health. To meet target 7C of the millennium development goals (MDGs) the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation needs
to be halved. For Africa to achieve this ambitious goal, Nigeria’s role – as the continent’s most populous nation – is vital. Seeing how CLTS was changing lives in Bangladesh, WaterAid introduced the approach in Nigeria in 2005. Over time it became clear that the practice would need to be adapted to be effective in another country and continent with its own challenges. Drawing on the findings from evaluations and research on CLTS in the country, WaterAid in Nigeria has progressively revitalised the CLTS process. It is now
working well in a number of communities. We hope to be able to present these success stories as ‘learning communities’, examples of good sanitation practice that can be promoted country-wide. This document is a practical guide to implementing the revitalised CLTS approach in Nigeria, and is intended to bring about inclusive, equitable and effective results. It covers the main barriers and triggers to progress likely to be encountered along the way, provides technical advice on dealing with geophysical environments that make latrine construction difficult, and makes recommendations for monitoring and documenting the process to ensure long-term behaviour change. [authors abstract]