There are around 1 billion “open defecators” (i.e., people who have no access to sanitation and so have to defecate in the open) in the developing world and around two thirds of these “ODers” are in India (further details in the WHO/UNESCO 2008 report Progress on Drinking-water and Sanitation: Special Focus on 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.” [Quote from first link below.] 

►CLTS is probably the only way to achieve the MDG sanitation target in rural areas, so it's very important.  For dispersed rural communities use Arborloos − sanitation and income! 

Community Led Total Sanitation (IDS webpage) − a good place to start to learn about CLTS (see Resources for links to many CLTS publications).

Listen: Ending Open Defecation – One Community at a Time (Think Globally Radio, 2009 − mp3 file)

►The Dynamics and Sustainability of Community-led Total Sanitation: Mapping Challenges and Pathways (STEPS Centre, University of Sussex, 2010) − Quote; “Even though CLTS has the makings of a development success story, many obstacles remain before it can truly be said to offer a viable route to meeting the MDGs. For example: How does CLTS accommodate dynamism and complexity inherent in social-technological-ecological systems? How are women’s, children’s and men’s often diverging needs accounted for? How can CLTS be scaled up to become a major force rather than an approach characterised through piecemeal, scattered projects? Are there lingering assumptions and power relations that hinder or obstruct the spread of CLTS? In short – how sustainable is CLTS, and in what ways is the notion of sustainability understood? This paper offers some perspectives that may help structure thinking around these questions.”

Beyond Subsidies – Triggering a Revolution in Rural Sanitation [CLTS] (IDS In Focus Policy Briefing #10, 2009)

Towards Total Sanitation: Socio-cultural Barriers and Triggers to Total Sanitation in West Africa (WaterAid, 2009)

Taking Community-Led Total Sanitation to Scale: Movement, Spread and Adaptation (IDS, 2008)

CLTS-Plus: Some suggestions for strengthening Community-Led Total Sanitation (IRC, 2008)

One fly is deadlier than a 100 tigers: Total sanitation as a business and community action in Bangladesh and elsewhere (WSSCC, WSP and SDC, 2008). Watch the presentations (click on ‘Total Sanitation’ to access the list of presentations).

Subsidy or Self-Respect? Participatory Total Community Sanitation in Bangladesh (IDS, 2003)         − empowering local people to analyse the extent and risk of environmental pollution caused by open defecation, and to construct toilets without any external subsidies. Open defecation has been completely stopped by the community in more than 400 villages in Bangladesh. This new approach demonstrates the impact a simple facilitative process can have on changing age-old practices, where the onus for progress is placed almost entirely on the community.

Sanitation Movement Gains Ground in Pakistan (WSP, 2007)

Videos: Awakening – Total Sanitation in Bangladesh:  Part 1   Part 2   Part 3

Shame or subsidy revisited: social mobilization for sanitation in Orissa, India (Bull. WHO, 2009) – India’s Total Sanitation Campaign (= CLTS)

Community led total sanitation (CLTS): Addressing the challenges of scale and sustainability in rural Africa (Desalination, 2009)

An Evaluation of WaterAid’s CLTS Programme in Nigeria (WaterAid, 2007)
This report defines ‘Total Sanitation’ as:
−Total use of hygienic latrines − i.e., no open defecation or open/hanging latrine in
   use,
−Hygienic latrines well maintained,
−Good personal hygienic practices,
−Using sandals when defecating,
−Effective hand washing after defecation and before taking or handling food,
−Water points well managed,
−Safe water use for all domestic purposes,
−Food and water covered,
−Garbage disposal in a fixed place and domestic animal excreta disposed of in a
   hygienic way,
−Waste water disposal in a hygienic way,
−Clean courtyards and roadsides, and
−No spitting in public places.
►If all this is done, rural people will have a hugely improved quality of life. 

A WORD OF CAUTION! Moving Beyond Open Defecation Free Sanitation in Pakistan From: WSP Access Newsletter, October 2009      Pakistan has taken an important step towards improved sanitation through a major sector assessment and setting up of a core group that seeks to move communities beyond open defecation free (ODF) status. The Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach has already enabled more than 1,500 villages in Pakistan to achieve ODF status and is expected to reach 15,000 villages by June 2011. This will mean that a third of the rural population of Pakistan would be covered.      To consolidate this progress and scale up learning, a Core Group was formed in August 2008 to advise the government in policy refinement and implementation of its nation-wide sanitation policy. The Core Group includes senior officials from the key national ministries of Environment and Health, as well as Provincial Planning and Development Departments and international agencies, including WSP. The group commissioned an assessment of CLTS pilots in nine villages in the country. The evidence gathered revealed that CLTS had the potential to motivate communities to achieve ODF status. However, it did not create demand for "improved sanitation," which, according to the Joint Monitoring Program, implies use of sanitation facilities "that ensure hygienic separation of human excreta from human contact".  The surveyed communities were found using unimproved and unhygienic latrines without taking any substantial effort to upgrade or replace damaged latrines due to limited knowledge of different latrine options available at the household level. A countrywide CLTS implementation strategy will be developed based on the recommendations of the review, and is likely to benefit all communities living in rural areas by 2015. [Emphasis added]

International Glossary of Shit (CLTS, undated) – “In CLTS, the crude local word for shit is always used, cutting through the deadly silence around open defecation.”