Held every year on 19 November, World Toilet Day aims raise awareness and inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis, which affects 2.4 billion people around the world. Although commitments to clean water and sanitation are enshrined in Sustainable Development Goal 6, the topic is often neglected and shrouded in taboos.
At IDS, much of our work around sanitation has been focussed on Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS), an approach original pioneered in Bangladesh by Dr Kamal Kar, now an Honorary Associate at IDS.
The CLTS methodology, based on a no-subsidy policy rooted in community empowerment and mobilisation, has radically transformed global sanitation policy focus from toilet construction to the process of collective behavioural change. It has spread to over 69 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America where more than 40 million people are now living in open defecation free environments.
Forthcoming events
- 22 November: the CLTS Knowledge Hub hosting the UK launch of Sustainable Sanitation for All: Experiences, Challenges and Innovations, a new book edited by Petra Bongartz, Naomi Vernon and John Fox and published by Practical Action Publishing. This is an invitation only event. If you are interested in attending, please contact Stacey Townsend.
- 29 November: Post-Doc Researcher, Shilpi Srivastava is organising a workshop on CLTS and urban sanitation. For more information, contact Shilpi Srivastava.
Recent publications
IDS and partner publications address both underlying theoretical debates and provide practical advice around CLTS.
Here are some of our recommended readings:
- Shit Matters: The Potential of Community-Led Total Sanitation
- Urban Community-Led Total Sanitation: A Potential Way Forward for Co-Producing Sanitation Services, journal article in Waterlines
- Impact of Community-led Total Sanitation on Women’s Health in Urban Slums: A Case Study from Kalyani Municipality, IDS Evidence Report
- Community-Led total Sanitation and the Politics of Scaling Up, book chapter
- Breaking the Next Taboo: Menstrual Hygiene within CLTS, Frontiers of CLTS series
- Ensuring Women and Girls’ Rights to Water and Sanitation Post-2015, IDS Policy Briefing
- Some for All? Politics and Pathways in Water and Sanituation, IDS Bulletin
Key contacts
