Hence, it can be stated with conviction that there is a dire need for efficient utilization of the available woody biomass and serious alarm needs to be raised not only on the sustainability of the current conservation, management and forms of collection and consumption of fuel wood but regeneration and creation of bio-mass and afforestation.

The Five-day Community Led Total ‘SostGulicha’ Free (CLTSGF) Training Workshop was conducted in January, 2020 by CLTS Foundation Global in co-ordination with Vita to explore the possibilities of utilizing the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach to promote faster uptake of fuel-efficient cook stoves by the rural community in the selected regions of Ethiopia.

The post Community Led Total Adoption of Improved Cook Stove in Ethiopia appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.

Chairman’s Message

The Foundation also participated in major global events like the World Water Week in Stockholm and the Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Conference in New Delhi, India where we connected with major global actors, Ministers and senior officials concerned with the national sanitation programmes of African and Asian nations. This year also marked a decade of the publication of the ‘Handbook on Community- Led Total Sanitation’ which was published by Plan UK and IDS UK in 2008. It has been translated into more than 16 languages and circulated widely. Major portion of the work for our next book titled ‘Scaling up CLTS – From Village to Nation’ was also completed this year and we are excited to announce that the book will be out soon in early 2019.
– Dr Kamal Kar

Highlights of our Work

	Meeting with Cambodia’s Minister of Rural Development on 12th February, 2018 A National level Training of Trainers (ToT) was organized by SNV, Cambodia and CLTS Foundation Global in the Pursat province from the 5th to 9th February 2018. Following the successful training in Pursat, a meeting with the Minister of Rural Development was held on the 12th of February. The meeting was very encouraging and the Minister stated that making Cambodia ODF is one of the major agendas of the Ministry.
	Capacity Strengthening for Community Led Total Sanitation in Mozambique Following a National Sanitation Conference in 2014 and in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, Mozambique aims to become ODF by 2025. In April 2018, CLTS Foundation Global in co-ordination with UNICEF Mozambique and UKAid, worked to strengthen both on-the-ground capacity for scaling up with this target in mind, and the institutional drive to do so.
	Academic Collaboration with IHE Delft Institute for Water Education and IRC WASH Debate We collaborated with IHE Delft Institute for Water Education’s One Year Master of Science programme in Sanitation to develop a sub-module named ‘Community Led Total Sanitation Spotlight” in the Behaviour Change and Advocacy module for the programme.
	CLTS Foundation Global at World Water Week, Stockholm CLTS Foundation Global and Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) organised an informal discussion at World Water Week on how nations can be fast tracked to achieve Open Defecation Free status.
	Community Led Approach to Fuel Efficient Cook Stoves: A joint initiative by CLTS Foundation Global and Vita CLTS Foundation Global joined hands with Vita, an Irish NGO to commit to the cause of contributing to Ethiopia’s strategy to improve efficiency of biomass use which plays a major role in Ethiopia’s vision of becoming a middle-income country with a Climate-Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) by 2025.
	CLTS Foundation Global in National Sanitation Conference 2018, Eritrea CLTS Foundation Global was invited by UNICEF from 30th November 2018 to 12th December 2018 to support Eritrea in scaling up for an ODF Nation by 2022 and for facilitating the First Eritrean National Sanitation Conference.

CLTS Blog

Magic on the sapphire landscape (CLTS in Kiribati) – Ms. Nuzhat Shahzadi “Furthermore, following results of the CLTS training, a total of 90 villages (47 target villages of the “Kiriwatsan I” project) in 11 outer islands declared themselves open-defecation free with the involvement of a total of 30,054 people representing 84% of the target population and 29% of the total population of Kiribati,” writes CLTS champion Nuzhat Shahzadi in this blog.
In conversation: Emily Woods, CTO and Co-Founder, Sanivation Ms Emily Woods is an NSF scholar with a passion for developing innovative and affordable technology solutions. After a chance meeting at the World Water Week this year, we decided to take the conversation forward and learn more about innovations in non-sewered sanitation from Ms Woods herself.
World Toilet Day: How can ‘Reinvented Toilets’ address the global sanitation crisis? While admitting that there has been limited hardware innovations in the sanitation sector, we have to keep in mind that ‘software’ i.e. behaviour change approaches are important for adoption and ownership of toilets. One of the most successful approaches is Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), which has been rolled out in more than 70 countries worldwide.
Human Rights Day: WASH during Emergencies Armed conflicts, floods, droughts, earthquakes are some of the major causes of emergency situations. People caught in such humanitarian situations are much more vulnerable to diseases, often caused by lack of sanitation, inadequate water supply and deplorable hygiene. Increased risk of disease also arises from overcrowding, exposure to new pathogens and the disruption of routine and safe habits.

CLTS Champions

A bureaucrat’s efforts towards Swacch Bharat by using CLTS as a weapon The District Magistrate of Murshidabad (West Bengal) Dr. P. Ulaganathan, IAS talks about his efforts to create an ODF Murshidabad (West Bengal). With his experience as erstwhile District Magistrate of Cooch Behar (West Bengal); an in-depth knowledge of Community Led Total Sanitation, he has managed to create one success story after another. Here he shares some of his challenges and learnings.

CB 88, Salt Lake, Kolkata – 64 cltsfoundation@gmail.com +91 3340651168

The post CLTS Foundation Global Annual Newsletter 2018 appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.

-Van Jones

Founder, Green for All

Last week (20th Nov 2018 to 29^th Nov 2018), CLTS Foundation Global joined hands with Vita, an Irish NGO  to commit to the cause of contributing to Ethiopia’s strategy to improve efficiency of biomass use which plays a major role in Ethiopia’s vision of becoming a middle-income country with a Climate-Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) by 2025.

The World Energy Council defines biomass as sources of energy that is being derived from organic matter provided that they are not embedded in geological formations, i.e., fossilized. Traditional forms of biomass imply forestry and agricultural residues. Data from The World Energy Council reveals that woody biomass is the source of over 10% of all energy supplied annually in the primary energy supply of forest biomass used worldwide. Overall, woody biomass provides about 90% of the primary energy annually sourced from all forms of biomass. About 90% of all the biomass consumption is in the traditional use. The major use of biomass (two-thirds) is in the form of cooking and heating in rural areas of developing countries

Ethiopia has identified Water and Energy to be the key to achieving its goals for CRGE and poverty eradication. Amongst several other implications for the Water and Energy sector’s contribution to Ethiopia’s development, it is alarming to note that by 2030, fuelwood availability in the country will be severely impacted by an increase in temperature and changes in rainfall patterns. The fuelwood final consumption in Ethiopia in the year 2017 was 82,853 thousand cubic meters and the country has already shown a rapid decline in forest cover from 15.2% in the year 1990 to 12.5% in the year 2015 (World Bank, 2015). With the current trend of declining forest cover and ever-growing demand for fuelwood, it has been estimated that up to 8.5 million people will be living in high-risk areas in Ethiopia where they are unable to meet their household energy needs. Hence, it can be stated with conviction that there is a dire need for efficient utilization of the available woody biomass and serious alarm needs to be raised not only on the sustainability of the current conservation, management and forms of collection and consumption of fuelwood but regeneration and creation of biomass and afforestation.

The current strategic priority of Ethiopia for sustainable access to energy under CRGE focuses on improved efficiency of biomass use; in other words, working towards reducing the demand for biomass by increasing fuel efficiency. The traditional cookstoves (Sost Gulicha in Amharic) are the commonly used cookstoves by the Ethiopian rural community. The fuel (charcoal, firewood) used in these do not undergo complete combustion and hence leads to inefficient usage of the resource and excessive demand for fuelwood. Smoke from the traditional cookstoves is a major cause of indoor air pollution and directly impacts the respiratory health of the women and children in particular. It is also dangerous since there is no covering surrounding the fire and can lead to fire hazard and burns. Indiscriminate and widespread collection of fuelwood is also a major cause of deforestation and degradation of the natural environment leading to soil erosion, loss of biodiversity among other impacts.

The National Improved Cook Stoves Programme (NICSP) designed for this purpose has the goal of distributing 30 million improved cookstoves (Gonzeye, Mirt, Opessi and Tikikil) by 2031 and also linking second order benefits such as reduced emissions, deforestation, dam siltation. This would, of course, catalyse a massive positive health impact on millions of rural women, who would be able to protect themselves from respiratory disorders from directly inhaling smoke while cooking in traditional stoves. (Picture of Mirt model of cook stove on left)

The objective of CLTS Foundation Global’s mission was:-

• To explore and identify how the community led approach can be utilised for mobilising communities to adopt fuel-efficient cookstoves.
• To agree on a framework for a new community-based approach to adoption of fuel-efficient cookstoves (Community Led Approach to Fuel-Efficient Cook Stoves).
• To identify what agencies will take part in the pilot programme and what their roles and responsibilities would be and get a commitment from stakeholders.

In order to do so, the CLTS Foundation Global team embarked on a week-long mission in Ethiopia in the last week of November 2018 involving extensive field visits, workshops, discussion and brain-storming sessions with Vita. We were first briefed about the targets and roadmaps in place for faster achievement of fuel-efficient cookstoves. Discussions were held on the availability of improved models of fuel-efficient cookstoves, community preferences of the models and technical issues. Initial participatory exercises with Vita team members revealed the bottlenecks leading to slow adoption of fuel-efficient cookstoves and consensus was reached on the top three biophysical and socio-economic factors that contributed to the slow pace of uptake.

Next up, we tried to zero in on the kebeles (villages) where we would be applying the CLTS methodology to field test our assumptions in the discussions (Picture on the right). Two villages, Molle in Mirab Abaya woreda and Delbo in Arba Minch Zuriya woreda were chosen. The two villages were distinct in terms where Molle had a higher rate of adoption of fuel-efficient cookstoves amounting to 57% and Delbo had a significantly lower rate of 30%. The villages had a common history of introduction and adoption of CLTS and had achieved ODF status through the approach. We also visited one of the local suppliers who produce the fuel-efficient cookstove ‘Mirt’ model which is the most widely used and accredited model of fuel-efficient cook stove developed in Ethiopia. This was initiated in order to understand the bottlenecks on the supply side.

• Applying the CLTS methodology of triggering (picture on the right) in the two villages brought out a host of outcomes: natural leaders from within the community came forward to form a committee of their own to raise awareness and promote the uptake of fuel-efficient cookstoves in their kebeles.
• The committee got together to chart out a plan on how they intend to achieve a 100% traditional cookstove free kebeles.
• The community members along with the supplier were subsequently invited to participate in the workshop in Hawassa (Head Quarter of SNNP Region), which had participants from various governmental departments, non-governmental organisations, members of the Irish Aid consortium apart from Vita and CLTS Foundation Global team members.

The workshop (on the left) aimed to present the community-led methodology to the participants and to gather their reviews on whether it can be a replicable methodology for the initial pilot project to improve uptake of fuel-efficient cookstoves. Audio-visuals of field exercises were used, community presentations of their analysis of fuel use and secondary data on the effectiveness of this method in the water and sanitation sector were used to capture what was done in the field.

What was rewarding from the entire mission was that participants from diverse institutions expressed their interest in the methodology and were intent on delving deeper into it by trying them in selected kebeles, which had a different contextual setting than the first two. The mission was concluded with key institutional players making a commitment to make at least 20 kebeles to be ‘Sost Gulicha Free’ (Traditional Cook Stove Free) and work towards reinforcing the forward linkages in the supply side and urgently bridging the gap between demand in villages and undisposed stockpile of thousands of improved cookstoves at the end of the producer/supplier through Post-Triggering Follow-up activities. One such activity that was proposed to bridge the demand and supply gap involved increasing accessibility of the fuel-efficient cookstoves where trucks loaded with the stoves can be brought to the villages and it can move around the kebeles supplying stoves to the households that have demanded it. It would function as a ‘limited period offer’ provided that there has been significant demand for the stoves (by at least 50 households) from the kebeles. The institutional actors along with the kebeles committees formed through triggering play a major role here for coordinating the logistics and to make it a successful follow-up activity.

Keep following this space for more updates on how we developed the methodology and why CLTS was piggybacked for the project.

The post Community Led Approach to Fuel Efficient Cook Stoves: A joint initiative by CLTS Foundation Global and Vita Ireland appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.

Dr Kamal Kar, Founder and Chairman, CLTS Foundation Global had been invited to the Convention and he participated on 1^st and 2^nd October 2018. The plenary sessions focused on the major role played by Swachh Bharat Mission in accelerating India’s progress towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6.2. in terms of the global advancement on those lines. This was followed by parallel sessions of Ministerial Dialogues where dialogues between the participating Ministers were facilitated by global experts in the field on building political will for sanitation, ensuring adequate financing and taking key steps required to work at scale and reach universal access. Dr Kar had the opportunity to meet the Sanitation Ministers and senior officials of various countries of Africa and Asia and we were humbled by the appreciation and respect shown to us by the esteemed representatives.

Below are some glimpses of Dr Kar’s meeting with some of the Hon’ble Ministers and senior delegates of Asia and Africa who were at the Convention.

Republic of Chad

Left: Hon’ble Mr Sidick Abdelkerim Haggar, Minister of Environment, Water and Fishery

Burkina Faso

Left to right: Mr Andre Patinde NONGUIERMA, Director General, Directorate of Sanitation,  Hon’ble Mr Niouga Ambroise Quedraogo, Minister of Water and Sanitation

Madagascar

Left to right: Mr RAZANADAHY Ferdinand, Director of Hygiene Promotion of the Ministry of WASH, Hon’ble Mr ANDRIANAMELASOA Lalaina, Secretary General of the Ministry of WASH

 Malawi

Left: Hon’ble Mr Atupele Austin Muluzi, Minister of Health & Population

Mongolia

Left to right: Ms TUYA Byambasuren, Officer, Division of International Cooperation, Hon’ble Ms BYAMBASUREN Lamjav, Vice Minister of Health

Côte d’Ivoire

Right: Madame BRAGORI Helene Epse YOCOLLY, Director of Rural Sanitation

Republic of Togo

Left: Hon’ble Mr Antoine Lekpa GBEGBENI, Minister of Water and Rural Hydraulic

Nigeria

Left: Hon’ble Mr Suleiman Hussein Adamu, Minister of Water Resources

India 

Hon’ble Shri Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President of India

India 

Hon’ble Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India

India 

Hon’ble Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of State with independent charge, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

India 

Hon’ble Mrs Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs

United Nations

Hon’ble Mr Antonio Gueterres, Secretary General

The post CLTS Foundation Global at Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention, 2018 appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.

The post Rural Sanitation Transformation in Himachal Pradesh appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.

What is a Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial?

A fundamental issue with the process of reviewing any sanitation process, be it CLTS or a subsidy led scheme is that it is usually in the short run. Long run causal relationships with respect to outcomes in health or infrastructure or even change in behaviour have yet to be established. The process of reviewing CLTS is ongoing and so far, a few methods of evaluation have been highlighted and even these are not looking at any significant long run evaluations. One of the methods is a Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial (henceforth RCT). This method is primarily used to review the effectiveness of CLTS to eliminate open defecation, reduce diarrhoea and other gastrointestinal diseases, and decrease stunting in children. Usually, the trial monitors changes in the above indicators for a period of a year after CLTS has been implemented. These trials are also used to compare the effectiveness of other sanitation programmes such as India’s Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) when assessing the effectiveness of the approach. It has been used in rural Mali, where CLTS was implemented via a cluster RCT between 2011 and 2013. The study concluded that CLTS with no monetary subsidies did not affect diarrhoea incidences, but substantially increased child growth (thereby reducing stunting), particularly in children under two years of age.

Randomised Controlled Trials (henceforth RCTs) are in essence, an experimental assessment tool. It has been used in medical science for more than 50 years now and is considered in many ways the standard rational method for measuring the efficacy of drugs. In medical trials, the new treatment is randomly assigned to people participating in the experimental trial. Two groups are selected randomly and are compared, one receiving the new treatment, and the other the ‘control’ group receiving (usually) a placebo drug. This experimental process seeks to establish a better causal link between the treatment drug and the patient’s response, seemingly eliminating to a large extent problem of selection bias and confounding variables. Cluster RCT simply means it’s not individuals but clusters or groups which are being treated separately to decide effectiveness. Cluster RCTs are more frequently used in Social Sciences. Since the early 2000s, Randomised Controlled Trials have begun to have been used in the social sciences, most famously (and originally) by a group of economists from MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (commonly known as JPAL). The ‘lab’ itself was founded in 2003 with the express purpose of carrying out randomised trials in the ‘fight against poverty’.

Drawbacks of Cluster Randomised Controlled Trials

Certain qualities of cluster RCTs make them unsuitable as a tool for evaluating the effectiveness of the CLTS process. They have being primarily used to judge the effectiveness of the process at the stage of implementation and not so much at the follow up stage, but the paucity of reviewing tools at the moment have increased the reliance on cluster RCTs. To begin with they are not equipped to judge long term impacts.  In the case of Mali, a year long impact was observed. Cleaner latrines and improved hygiene were observed in CLTS villages but no conclusive remarks could be made about impacts on child diarrhea and respiratory diseases, in another case study of assessing the effectiveness of a rural sanitation intervention, within the context of the Government of India’s Total Sanitation Campaign that took place in rural Odisha, India the impact was studied over a period of two and a half years, 2010 May to 2013 December.

The trial in Odisha also made similar inferences about the intervention. Increased latrine coverage was generally believed to be effective for reducing exposure to faecal pathogens and preventing disease; but the trial showed that this outcome could not be assumed.

Randomised controlled trials began in the field of medicine to judge the effectiveness of drugs and experimental treatments. However, their adoption by the field of social sciences has raised questions in the ethical front. This is a second drawback of the cluster RCTs, where they are essentially being used as a tool to judge effectiveness of developmental programmes. With the introduction of this method it has become a preferred tool of intervention in development economics and public health. The Poverty Action Lab has worked or is working in more than 11-12 countries and they have evaluated projects that have affected more than 300 million people. RCT method of evaluation is called ‘the gold standard’ in policy evaluation. However, a crucial point to be noted here is that unlike clinical trials, in social sciences the treatment variable is a developmental intervention, like building roads, erecting bridges or building toilets in the case of sanitation. Which raises the question should a mode of impact assessment involve social ‘experimentation’ on human beings at all. RCT practitioners argue this based on a sort-of utilitarian line, by claiming that their projects are only carried out if there is sufficient evidence to show that the potential positives of conducting a trial outweigh the possible negative effects.

Another more fundamental and more widespread criticism is with regards to the methodology itself. RCTs in medicine, as successful and widespread as they are, have recently come under increasing criticism for their usage in clinical trials itself. However, in social sciences, it is being argued that beyond the moral and ethical dimensions are they as effective in establishing causation as they claim to? RCTs have been claimed to be the most efficient way of isolating true causal variables whereas it has been argued that their solution faces most of the same problems that regular experimental economics does, and some argue that this method does not represent any great advance on other impact assessment methods.

Cluster RCTs have been successful to decide feasibility of CLTS in certain areas, however, newer methods need to be developed to monitor effectiveness of CLTS in health and other developmental outcomes. At the moment self reporting of diarrhoea is considered as one of the tools to assess health impacts as diarrheal and respiratory diseases have been directly linked to sanitation and hygiene, efforts have to be taken to ensure the quality of such reporting as well.

By

Debadrita Gupta

M.A. Development Studies, TISS, Mumbai

Debadrita graduated with B.Sc. Economics(Hons) from Symbiosis School of Economics, Pune. She is currently pursuing her M.A. in Development Studies from TISS, Mumbai. Her areas of interest are Public Health and Development Economics.

The post Drawbacks of Cluster Randomised Trials as a means of Impact Analysis of the CLTS Process appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.

Dr Kamal Kar
Chairperson, Community-Led Total Sanitation Foundation

Honorary Associate, Resource Politics Cluster, IDS

Dr. Kamal Kar. Photo Credits: Amit Sengupta / CLTS Foundation Global

Would the idea of achieving an open defecation free (ODF) world by 2030 be like chasing the wildest dream in view of the grim global sanitation situation and the great sanitation crisis of South Asia region? It is crucial to position the countries of the region against the present SDG 6.2 with a focus on health outcomes.

Dr Kamal Kar will raise some of these vital questions in this talk:

• Are the country governments of South and South East Asia prepared to launch a local community driven campaign using their own resources?
• What is the role of the government policy in enhancing the total sanitation access? How have the lessons from the past and of MDGs been incorporated in the government policies in adjusting their ODF national targets and roadmaps?
• How are the countries going to tackle sanitation challenges in the context of large scale migration due to natural disasters, humanitarian conflicts and unplanned urbanization?

The talk will provide insights into how national and regional policies can use sanitation as an entry point and create an enabling environment for holistic development.

Where: Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK

When: Monday 18^th December. 13.00 – 14.30 hours

Convening Space

Everyone is welcome to attend!

The post Talk: Dr Kamal Kar to speak at IDS, UK on 18 December, 2017 appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.

FROM COMMUNITIES TO OPEN DEFECATION FREE NATIONS – FAST TRACKING ODF SOUTH EAST ASIA

SYNOPSIS

To Register Click here

This announcement was originally published on the website of LKY School of Public Policy. 

The post Dr Kamal Kar to speak at LKY School of Public Policy appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.

CLTS Foundation Global, as a part of its collaborative efforts with Government of Haryana and World Bank India is organising a five-day CLTS training workshop in Nuh district of Haryana from 13 to 17 February 2017.

It is the third in the series of trainings that CLTS Foundation Global has organized in Haryana as part of the institutional capacity building for SBM (G) to boost efforts of elimination of open defecation in the state. 70 participants have participated from 5 districts of Haryana namely, Nuh, Rohtak, Mohendragarh, Jind, and Sonipat. These districts have made the least progress in sanitation by the Government of Haryana.

The participants are from varied background and is an ideal mix of government officials, district coordinators, block coordinators, stakeholders from the community such as Imam (religious leader), sarpanch (village chief), members of local non-profit organisations.

The objectives of the workshop are:

1. To gain clear understanding and knowledge of the principles, rationale, methodology, applicability and limitations of CLTS, ODF, and its sustainability requirements.
2. To understand all four stages of the CLTS process e.g. pre-triggering, triggering, post triggering follow-up and post ODF activities including monitoring and verification of ODF.
3. To gain skills in CLTS triggering for collective behaviour change to achieve sustained ODF status instead of focusing on mere latrine construction with no tangible health outcomes.
4. To understand the importance of engaging a diverse set of stakeholders, Natural Leaders, and Community Consultants to scale up CLTS.
5. To understand the importance of Enabling environment and the right policy framework for CLTS implementation.
6. To understand the uniqueness of sanitation challenges in Haryana, and suitability of CLTS method for genuine and sustainable outcomes.

Dr. Kamal Kar on the dias speaking to fellow panelists.

The workshop was inaugurated by the D.C. of Nuh district, Mr. Maniram Sharma. In his welcome speech, he has mentioned about the sanitation challenges that the district is facing but also appreciated the sincere efforts of various people engaged in improving the sanitation situation. He shared how he was triggered during the orientation workshop by Dr. Kar in July 2016 and decided to introduce CLTS approach and orient his own staff.

On the inauguration day, various religious leaders (Imams) from the community were also present. Nuh district has a majority of Muslim population. 10 Imams assured that by this Friday, 17 February 2017 they will stop open defecation in their respective villages and will invite the other participants to visit their community.

On the first and second day of the training, the participants learnt about the CLTS principles, tools and techniques. The participants acquired knowledge and skills about facilitation through the introduction of each tool and its appropriate usage. It was emphasized during the training that they are not supposed to lecture or use force while introducing CLTS approach in the community. Instead, they should empower and encourage the community to take responsibility and to collective action. On 15 and 16 February 2017, the participants will be visiting villages for triggering.

Haryana has been in the rush to declare the state open defecation free (ODF) by March 2017 and there has been immense pressure on the districts to declare ODF. CLTS Foundation Global is trying to ensure that the participants in the training understand the proper meaning of CLTS approach and do not compromise on the principles. They should directly facilitate and trigger CLTS with the local communities and provide post-triggering follow up. However, it remains a big challenge.

The post CLTS Foundation Global conducts Training of Trainers workshop in Nuh District of Haryana appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.

Are these MOOCs free to take?

Both MOOCs will be free of charge for all learners who enroll. There are no prerequisites; both MOOCs are open for enrolment by everyone. 

Are these MOOCs professionally endorsed?

The Global Water Partnership (GWP) has endorsed these two MOOCs, and instructor Prof. Whittington was a member of the GWP Technical Committee.

What are these two MOOCs about?

The two MOOCs can be taken in a sequence, or separately, depending on learners’ interests.

Part 1, sub-titled ‘Understanding Complex Problems’ allows you to develop skills to examine critical current conditions and trends in water supply and sanitation services in low and middle-income countries around the world. Part 1 explores the underlying political, economic, and technical reasons why a billion people still lack access to improved water supplies, and about two billion do not have improved sanitation services. Part 1 covers water problems in megacities, peri-urban slums, and rural communities, as well as insights from the UK water sector’s history. Part 1 invites learners to write a real-world ‘policy memo’ assignment to develop and justify practical and measurable performance indicators for evaluating water supply and sanitation programs in Africa.

Part 2, sub-titled ‘Developing Effective Interventions’, assists you to develop skills to understand what can be done to solve global water supply and sanitation problems. Learners examine the main strategies that national governments and donors have tried to improve water and sanitation conditions, and lessons learned from these experiences. Part 2 addresses some deep-rooted reasons why communities may resist even well-meaning, well-designed water and sanitation reforms. Part 2 also explores water pricing and tariff design issues, and changes to water institutions like privatization and regulation. Part 2 invites learners to write an ‘information strategy’ assignment on water tariff reform in Egypt.

Both MOOCs also feature guest contributions from practitioners, scholars and innovators, including: Clive Agnew, Eduardo Araral, Leong Ching, Barbara Evans, Regina Finn, Arif Hasan, Marc Jeuland, Don Lauria, Diana Mitlin, Kamal Kar, Stephen Littlechild, and Wu Xun.

What can I expect to learn from these MOOCs?

You will develop skills to come to an in-depth understanding of the current water and sanitation situation in low and middle-income countries. You will also be exposed to a range of significant problems that water and sanitation professionals face, as well as the latest thinking and practices about how to overcome these challenges successfully.

How do MOOCs work? Are they interactive? Will I receive a certificate?

Both MOOCs feature video lectures, quizzes and topic-driven, interactive discussion forums. The forums allow learners to discuss ideas with other interested individuals, and to form networks with people from all around the world. you receive a Coursera Statement of Accomplishment for each MOOC that you complete.

How many learners typically take these MOOCs?

When the Part 1 MOOC first launched in 2014 around 17,000 learners from over 190 countries enrolled. This led to lively online discussions between a diverse group of people with a strong interest in water and sanitation policy, and with rich experiences of their own water supply and sanitation conditions from around the world.

Who are the MOOC instructors?

Dale Whittington is a Professor at the Alliance Manchester Business School in the UK, also at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the United States, and Visiting Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. Dale has worked on water and sanitation policy and planning issues for over 40 years in many low and middle-income countries. He has worked with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, OECD, and United States Agency for International Development. He has served on the Technical Committee of the Global Water Partnership and is the Chair of the Board of the Environment-for-Development, a network of research centers in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, South Africa, Costa Rica, Colombia, Chile, India, China, and Vietnam.

Dr Duncan Thomas has researched the UK and European water sectors for 15 years, focusing on overcoming barriers to technological, organizational, regulatory and policy innovations that could improve sustainability and climate change resilience issues. He has advised Ofwat, the UK Government, the European Commission, the International Water Association, and various water utilities. Duncan is a Lecturer at the Alliance Manchester Business School.

How do I enroll for these MOOCs?

Both MOOCs will run in an ‘on demand session’ format. Sessions for this course are automatically scheduled every 4 weeks on Monday with an enrollment period of 5 days. The first session begins on 01/29/2017. Future sessions will be scheduled automatically.

To enroll, simply visit either or both of the MOOC course pages on the Coursera system and enroll onto each course. New students will be asked to complete the Coursera sign-up process first.

For Part 1, Water Supply and Sanitation Policy in Developing Countries: Understanding Complex Problems, go to: https://coursera.org/learn/water

For Part 2, Water Supply and Sanitation Policy in Developing Countries: Developing Effective Interventions, go to: https://coursera.org/learn/water-part-2

You will then receive a welcome email from Coursera. Once your course starts Coursera will email you with further details.

The post Two MOOCs on Water Supply and Sanitation Policy in Developing Countries appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.