Institute of Development Studies

Going to Scale? The Potential of Community-Led Total Sanitation

The total elimination of open defecation holds promise of major gains in enhancing the wellbeing of women, children and men and in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is a participatory approach that started in Bangladesh and has been spread to varying degrees in India, Cambodia, Indonesia, China, Nepal. To a limited degree, it has also been trialled in some African countries.

In a CLTS process, facilitators encourage communities to carry out their own appraisal and analysis of community sanitation. This generally leads them to recognise the volume of human waste they generate and how the practice of open defecation means they are likely to be ingesting one another's faeces. The resulting disgust and desire for self-respect can induce them to take immediate and comprehensive action by digging and building latrines and stopping open defecation without waiting for external support in the form of hardware subsidy.

This project aims to make a difference by reducing the deprivation and enhancing the wellbeing of poor people through research to generate knowledge and insights concerning CLTS, through participatory action research engaging with practice, and through the sharing of knowledge, experience and insights across communities, organisations and countries.

CLTS website

• IDS key contact: Lyla Mehta
• Project dates: April 2006 - December 2010
• Project status: Open
• Funder: Department for International Development (DFID)

Researchers

• Lyla Mehta
• Robert Chambers
• Petra Bongartz
• Jeremy Allouche
• Kamal Kar, Independent researcher

Selected Outputs

• Kar, K. and Milward, K. (2011) 'Digging in, Spreading out and Growing up: Introducing CLTS in Africa', IDS Practice Paper 8, Brighton: IDS
• Mehta, L. and Movik, S. (2011) Shit Matters: The Potential of Community-Led Total Sanitation, Rugby: Practical Action Publishing
• Kar, K., Chambers, R. (2009) Handbook on Community-Led Total Sanitation, IDS
• Deak, A. (2008) 'Taking Community-Led Total Sanitation to Scale: Movement, Spread and Adaptation', IDS Working Paper 298, Brighton: IDS
• Kar, K., and Bongartz, P. (2006) 'Community-Led Total Sanitation' , Brighton: IDS
• Kar, K. (2005) 'Practical Guide to Triggering Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS)' , Brighton: IDS
• Kar, K and Pasteur, K (2005) 'Subsidy of Self-Respect? Community Led Total Sanitation. An Update on Recent Developments', IDS Working Paper 257, Brighton:
• Kar, K. (2003) 'Subsidy or Self-respect? Participatory Total Community Sanitation in Bangladesh', IDS Working Paper 184, Brighton : IDS