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

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The module, taught by Dr Kamal Kar over a span of two days (10^th and 11^th Sept, 2018), aims to deliver an understanding of the genesis, rationale, principles, methodology, applicability of CLTS in rural sanitation and also to build an appreciation of the attitude-behaviour change (ABC as part of the CLTS methodology) required to implement CLTS in the rural context. It also gives a brief understanding of the evaluation of CLTS through the application of the CRAP Tool. Along with these topics, the module also imparted an understanding of the intricacies of Urban CLTS with a special focus on informal settlements and areas of conflicting interests and synergies. The session wrapped up with emphasizing on the need for an enabling environment and touched upon Institutional Triggering for ensuring quality implementation of CLTS. The module received an overwhelming response with the participation of students from 13 countries across Asia and Africa.

Dr Kar also participated in the WASH Debate hosted by IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and IHE Delft Institute for Water Education on 11th Sept 2018. The debate also featured Dr Om Prasad Gautam from WaterAid and Dr Lina Taing from IHE Delft to engage in a discussion on the essentiality of collective behaviour change as a key to enhance the utilization efficiency of large-scale investments in sanitation and public health.

Read the blog on the debate here https://www.ircwash.org/blog/instituting-sanitation-change

Watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YI1-MmsSzQ

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Join us as we engage in a discussion on the essentiality of collective behaviour change as a key to enhance the utilization efficiency of large-scale investments in sanitation and public health.

For registration, check the link below

https://www.ircwash.org/events/irc-wash-debate-building-institutional-capacity-behaviour-change-sanitation-programming

Read the blog on the debate here https://www.ircwash.org/blog/instituting-sanitation-change

Watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YI1-MmsSzQ

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Join us for an interesting session with Dr. Kamal Kar, Mr. Rolf Luyendijk, Ms. Wilhelmina Malima and Ms. Boluwatito Awe on Tuesday, 28th August 2018

The post Strategy for Fast-Tracking ODF Nations – A Mix, Mingle and Apero Side Session at the World Water Week, Stockholm, 2018 appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.

Stay tuned for more updates!

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CLTS Foundation Global has been invited by the Government of Mozambique, in partnership with UNICEF and UK Aid to hold high-level institutional triggering in Maputo and its provinces between 12^th to 26^th April 2018. The team headed by Dr Kamal Kar will conduct policy level discussions with key functionaries including Ministers, administrators and development professionals to speed up efforts towards ODF Mozambique.

Advocacy meetings to motivate Ministers and senior technical staff in Maputo (25th April 2018)

The two meetings scheduled for 25th April set out to pull together all the work of the last two weeks and present it in advocacy meetings to motivate Ministers and senior technical staff to back the CLTS effort.

To begin: an inter-sectoral meeting of senior National Government staff, along with representatives from partners and international NGOs active in the WASH sector. The aims: to enhance understanding of CLTS; to highlight the need for inter-sectoral coordination and collaboration, and to begin analysis of the practical steps that can be taken towards this.

To enhance understanding of the approach, four District Administrators from Tete and Manica provinces, where CLTS has made good progress, were invited to summarise their successful experience and elaborate on what they did ‘differently’ to get the process going. Participants were then asked to brainstorm in small, intersectoral groups on the concrete steps which could be taken within ministries to enhance collaboration and support scaling up. Their recommendations included aligning monitoring indicators; identifying budget from available sources at Provincial level, and the speedy disbursal of funds to support Provisional and District level plans.

The afternoon’s high level meetings were attended by four key figures:: Higino Francisco de Marrule, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security; Adriano Maleiane, the Minister of Finance; Carlos Bonete Martinho, Minister of Public Works and Dr Zacarias Zindoga, Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Health. The National Director of the Ministry of State Administration also attended, responsible for all of Mozambique’s 151 District Administrators. Other participants included senior technical staff from Ministries and leadership from a number of partner organisations.

The meeting included an overview of Mozambique’s relatively poor performance on sanitation in comparison to ESAR neighbouring countries and a brief orientation on the CLTS approach. It also saw District Administrators from Tete and Manica present their good practice stories to Ministers. Remarkably – and thanks to the CLTS Foundation Global methodology – it also saw engaged discussions on sanitation issues by Ministers in small groups structured to include high level technical staff and partners alongside the guests of honour. While Ministers were not, at this point, ready to state specific commitments, the sanitation situation in Mozambique – and how it can be improved – is once again on the agenda of several powerful actors.

Institutional Triggering at the sub-national level (23rd April 2018)

Advocacy meeting and Institutional Triggering, Zambezia Province

Bringing CLTS to scale involves changes in the third of the 3 CLTS circles: The Enabling Environment. While the Training of Trainers held between 16-20th April has done much to lay the foundation for the spread of CLTS tools and techniques, and for attitude and behaviour change among key actors, there are still some key factors related to the enabling environment which need to be established if approach is to witness successful scaling up in order to achieve the first ODF Districts in Zambezia and eventually an ODF Province.

In Mozambique, much has been done already to address this domain: the sanitation policy promotes CLTS (here, Santolic) as the sanitation approach, and budgets are in place – through partner support – via the Ministry of Public Works. However, inter-ministerial collaboration remains a challenge, with the result that the clear relevance of sanitation for the Ministries of Health and Education, among others, is not factored within the implementation and monitoring processes.

The advocacy meeting and institutional triggering held on 23rd April began to fill these gaps. Addressed and attended by His Excellency Governor of the Province of Zambezia, as well as key players from the Departments of Health, Education, and Agriculture/Rural Development, and important objective of the meeting was to raise sanitation up to the Provincial agenda and make clear to administrative stakeholders that sanitation has backing at higher levels. However, the meeting also brought together 21 of the 22 District Administrators who will play an important role in inter-departmental coordination at the district level. Institutional triggering aims to upgrade the level of knowledge and understanding of CLTS among such stakeholders, and at the same time to enhance their sense of personal responsibility for solving sanitation failures. This meeting used a huge paper floor map of Zambezia and its Districts in a participatory analysis exercise to bring these administrators to confront the sanitation issue. It then made powerful use of video material collected during village triggering’s during the ToT week, and – most importantly – of a Natural Leader identified during these triggering’s and subsequent presentations at the training – to give ‘live’ demonstrations of the potential of the CLTS approach to change the sanitation profile of the Province. Januario Jocia, community leader and Natural Leader from Mucori B, gave a strong summary of the triggering and the Action Plan developed by the village subsequently. Observers were particularly interested to hear more about how the Calculation of Shit had been done in the village and how the village planned to incorporate all members in solving the problem of open defecation urgently.

District Administrators absorbed this information to then make their own outline plans on three topics: How to make an ODF District? How to monitor progress towards and ODF districts? and Recommendations for enhancing inter-departmental collaboration in support of efforts to create ODF districts. These plans were then synthesised and presented to His Excellency the Governor, alongside a specific Plan of Action developed by the Department of Health. In the words of Kamal Kar, it appears that a new history of Zambezia Province has begun!

Training of Trainers in Zambezia Province (16th to 20th April 2018)

The final day of the Training of Trainers (20th April 2018)

In the final day of the training of trainers, there are four important steps. First, an analysis of how the second triggering improved over the first, and why. Participants brought forward what they did differently the second time, and why this led to better outcomes in terms of triggered communities, ready to make commitments on building pit latrines and working towards ODF. Many observations were important: participants identified better initial mobilization; better children’s triggering’s; better and clearer use of tools; better teamwork and communication among the team; managing to steer discussions away from expectations around the provision of latrine slabs; managing to avoid talking about latrines from the outset and avoiding ‘teaching’ mode. These are all important steps. There were still plenty of learning available from ‘mistakes’ too, including how to avoid losing momentum; how to identify and cash in on that ‘ignition’ moment; and the importance of only moving into ‘Part B’ activities after ignition has taken place.

Second, the discussion moved on to Post-Triggering Follow Up, and how to move from triggering to ODF. The Natural Leaders are key actors in this process – which is why representatives from all of the 6 triggered villages were invited to the training venue to prepare and present their ODF plans of action, facilitated by trainee participants – this was the third step in today’s activities.

Finally, participants also had to prepare their own plans of action – how will they be a CLTS champion? How will they conduct training in their respective institutions/spheres of operation? Groups were formed on a geographical basis in order to facilitate maximum coordination between the different administrative levels of activity. Action plans were then critiqued by key National level and Provincial level actors who would be supporting the process of putting refined versions of these into operation.

As the final day reached a conclusion, it was rewarding to see the high levels of motivation to push the training roll-out process forward among a large proportion of participants.

Day 3 & 4 of the Workshop (18th & 19th April 2018) – The triggering days 

Essential factors for triggering are to have a good strategy and good teamwork. Everyone should have a distinct role and be clear about what they need to do. The morning of Day 3 of the training was spent in groups making triggering plans, then – as a learning exercise – helping each other to identify gaps in these in plenary.

No triggering ever goes exactly the same. This means having flexibility and a bank of skills, and a strategy to deal with challenges. All villages will have some kinds of particular challenges – and the villages identified for this training – zones of Zalala, Mucori and Mussangane – are no exceptions. All of these villages, arranged along Mozambique’s long coastline, have sandy soil, making building durable pits more complex. Zalala is built on the sandy hinterland of the beach, only a few hundred meters from the sea. In addition, it is relatively common practice in parts of Zambezia to defecate in the open, but then to cover the shit with earth or ash – Mucori and Mussangane village members use this practice. This means that triggering groups had to be ready to adapt their triggering tools: push for the community to think about what happens to covered shit when it rains, or when cattle/humans step or walk on it; identify and pull forward local technicians who have ideas about what can be done to stop pits collapsing in sandy soils.

On days 3 and 4 of the training, all participants had an opportunity to try out the triggering process for themselves, reflect on the first experience in detail, and then improve on the first attempt with another triggering in a different village. All the triggering exercises were successful in that at least a few individuals committed to starting to make a latrine immediately. However, there was a lot to learn from, in terms of team roles, getting organised, handling big groups of community members, keeping people engaged in the issue, looking for that ‘ignition’ moment, and always refraining from falling into ‘teaching’ mode.

Day 2 of the Workshop (17th April 2018)

Six new participants joined the training today. The government’s format for CLTS implementation currently is to contract private suppliers (companies) to implement in specified areas. To ensure that skills among these suppliers are robust and that they are also able to train new entrants, the CLTS team had requested that a number of these implementers from Zambezia, working at District and sub-district levels, be included in the training.

Learning for the day included live enactments of triggering tools, interspersed with video examples from the CLTS foundation archive. Tools covered included village mapping including for emergency defecation; calculations of shit; the walk of shame; and the food – water – shit tools. Part B of triggering – the ignition moment, making the ODF plan, the children’s procession, and bringing forward potential natural leaders and community consultants were also discussed.

The afternoon brought visits from representatives from the villages to be triggered tomorrow, to do pre-triggering work: discussing the logistics of the visit and starting to build a relationship. Armed with the tools, the CLTS philosophy and principles, plus basic information about the villages to be triggered, participants were then able to begin developing their specific strategies for each location. With nearly everything now set up for the triggering experience, we look forward to a busy and fruitful day tomorrow.

Day 1 of the Workshop (16th April 2018)

The Workshop began with a welcome address by the Provincial head of Public Works, Mr Graciano Artur; Provincial coordinator of UNICEF, Michael Muianga; and Rustina Sumbane; National Ministry of Public Works. There are 31 participants carefully selected to represent different levels of work at National, Provincial and District levels, and for their potential to become excellent CLTS trainers and champions. They come from departments of Education, Health and Public Works as well as from some NGOs and work in 6 of Mozambique’s 11 Provinces: Zambezia, Nampula, Niassa, Manica, Tete, and Maputo (city and Province). Participants have the full range of difference in exposure to and understanding of CLTS: at least 11 are ‘beginners’; about 9 have some theoretical knowledge of CLTS and want to know more about actual implementation; around 7 have good experience as implementers of the whole process from pre-triggering to sustained ODF. We look forward to bringing these people together to learn from each other, learn new skills, and form the backbone of CLTS experience to support scaling-up.

1st & 2nd day in Zambezia Province (13th & 15th April 2018)

In order to scale-up CLTS, commitment and buy-in is necessary at the highest levels, but also across all levels of the government machinery, down to the Province and District levels. The second and third days of this assignment were focused on the final planning of the strategy concerning the upper-middle levels. First, fine-tuning a high-level advocacy meeting and institutional triggering, to be held next week, involving National Directors and technical staff from the Ministries of Health, Education and Public Works. Second, after overnight travel to Quelimane, the administrative Capital of Zambezia Province, the team met with the senior Provincial government officials: Mr Graciano Artur, Provincial Head of Public Works; Mr Aldo Mussasa, Provincial Head of Education; and Mr Oscar, Provincial Head of Health.

In Zambezia Province, 72% of the population defecate in the open, the highest level of all Mozambique’s 10 Provinces. While this presents a challenge, along with some strategic and organisational challenge that became clear, the team hopes to be able to deliver a successful Training of Trainers starting on 16th April, Monday – which will establish skills for igniting an ODF movement in Zambezia and beyond.

First day in Maputo (12th April 2018)

The CLTS Foundation Global team met with officials and leaders in the Department Direcção Nacional de Abastecimento de Água e Saneamento (DNAAS – Department of Water Supply and Sanitation), UNICEF and DFID to strategies for a successful mission. The aim for the mission is to lay the groundwork for – and free up blockages to – fast-tracking sanitation work over the coming years. In rural areas of Mozambique, currently 47% of the population – or around 9 million people – still defecate in the open. This leaves a lot of scope for improvement in terms of access and usage of sanitation. This mission is also serving as a good practice for successful outcomes in some areas to be drawn from and utilize its potential for scaling up. Today’s meetings set out to fine tune the agenda for a 5-day Training of Trainers, to be held between 16th-20th April, which will bring Province officials, District level officials, partner staff and academics together to establish strong capacity and skills for taking CLTS implementation forward. The day ended with a meeting with the National Director of DNAAS, Mr. Nilton Trindade, to plan for a high level meeting scheduled at the end of the assignment which will trigger Ministers from a number of Ministries with responsibilities in sanitation – and seek commitments from them to work in coordination to help CLTS flourish at scale.

Report: Capacity Strengthening for Community Led Total Sanitation Report

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International Conference on Community-Led Total Sanitation in Cambodia– Paving the way to Open Defecation Free South East Asia

Phnom Penh, 7 November 2017: Phnom Penh will host an international conference on community-led total sanitation (CLTS) that will gather around 100 WASH experts from South and South East Asia region, to share experiences and discuss the way forward to an open defecation-free South East Asia from15-17 November 2017. The conference will be inaugurated by the Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia, HE Dr. Yim Chhay Ly, in the morning of 15^th November at Hotel Cambodiana in Phnom Penh.

The conference titled ‘From Communities to Open Defecation Free Nations: Fast tracking an ODF South East Asia’ is being jointly hosted by the Royal Government of Cambodia and CLTS Foundation Global in cooperation with Plan International. The WASH experts from Cambodia, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines, Timor L’este, and India would be participating in the 3-day conference. Apart from the representatives of the governments, WASH experts from International development agencies like the World Bank, UNICEF, WaterAid, SNV, World Vision, and WSSCC (Geneva) and national and international media would also participate.

Mr. Chreay Pom, Director, Department of Rural Health Care, Ministry of Rural Development, Royal Government of Cambodia said: “CLTS has contributed significantly to improving our rural sanitation particularly reducing open defecation practice which is a major problem for our country.  However, accelerating progress to enable complete eradication of open defecation and sustaining our ODF achievements to date require more synergy with different initiatives.  I am therefore hopeful that this Conference will bring good outcomes that could support us in our continuing efforts to achieve our rural sanitation and hygiene vision.”

CLTS has been instrumental in enhancing sanitation access for millions of people, especially the rural population, across the developing world, during the past one and a halfdecades. By the close of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) period in 2015, CLTS was institutionalised in the national sanitation policy of at least 35 nations and rolled out as the key approach for sanitation in over 65 countries across the Asia, Africa and Latin America.

CLTS was introduced in Cambodia in 2004 through Concern Worldwide, which was later scaled up in eight provinces of Cambodia under the leadership of the .Ministry of Rural Developmentin collaboration with Plan International, UNICEF and SNV. As a result, more than half of rural Cambodians now have access to improved sanitation, compared to only 11% access to basic sanitation in 1990. The Royal Government of Cambodia is targeting to ensure access to improved sanitation to 60% by 2018 and declare the nation Open Defecation Free by 2025.

This conference aims to distill the learnings from experiences and good practices from the region and address the critical questions towards meeting the SDG goal 6.2 of universal sanitation. The different sessions of the conference would discuss the MDG experience of sanitation in the region, key challenges the countries face going forward towards achieving SDG and the critical building blocks for scaling-up in the region.

Deliberations from this conference will be applied to develop a roadmap and action plan for the South East Asia region towards achieving ODF nations in the coming years.

—————————————————————————————————————————

For further information about the conference, please contact:

Conference Secretariat

Ms. Hilda Winarta

hilda.winarta@gmail.com

Mr. Amit Sengupta

CLTS Foundation Global

Phone: (+91)9717984406

Email: amit@cltsfoundation.org

Ms. Preetha Prabhakaran

CLTS Foundation Global

Phone: (+91) 8017681355

Email: preetha@cltsfoundation.org

Mr. Phary Yoeun

Plan International

HP: +855 (0)92 527 092

Email: phary.yoeun@plan-international.org

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The article was first published here: http://wawash.fiu.edu/drupal-cms/news/2017/02/15/dr-kamal-kar-clts-founder-meets-usaid-wa-wash-staff 

The post Dr. Kamal Kar meets with USAID WA-WASH Staffs at Burkina Faso appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.

Lesotho is one of the smallest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with a population of a little over 2 million people, most of which are rural. The country is landlocked within South Africa, one of the most developed countries in the continent in terms of access to basic education, primary health care, access to water and sanitation, infrastructure, per capita income, livelihood opportunities and other basic indicators of development. In contrast, Lesotho’s access to most of these indicators is very dismal and skewed in comparison to even some of the other smaller countries in the region. Lesotho has fallen short of achieving most of its Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and ranks 161 out of 188 countries, in the Human Development Index (HDR 2014). According to the Lesotho Demographic Health Survey (LDHS) 2014, 38% of the rural population continue to practice open defecation (OD). The under-5 mortality rate is high with 85 deaths per 1000 live births and the infant mortality is equally alarming at 59 deaths per 1,000 live births. The maternal mortality ratio has been increasing steadily since 2001 and stood at 1,143 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2011 despite various initiatives. Additionally, the 2014 LDHS survey showed that 33% of children in Lesotho are stunted and 11% are severely stunted. An estimated 3% of children were found to be wasted during the survey while 10% was found to be underweight.

CLTS Foundation Global team (Dr. Kamal Kar and Preetha Prabhakaran) with Mr Tlali Hlasa, Director of DRWS, Ministry of Water (far right) and the World Vision team in Lesotho.

Lesotho’s sanitation story is particularly depressing. Not just because of its current sanitation coverage which stands at only 53% – there are other countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have recorded lower access rates than this. Having said this, the current coverage does not necessarily reflect the toilet usage; there is no official data currently available to know that all the people who have toilets are using them. A look at the above health statistics raises grave doubts in this regard, as the direct links between poor sanitation and low health outcomes are all too well known. Lesotho’s sanitation story is disheartening because, this current scenario when placed in the context of its sanitation history, reveals how an entire generation of people have been deprived of basic sanitation and hygiene, bringing with it the burden of diseases, ill health and under nutrition, most of it preventable, merely because of incorrect planning, management and coordination of resources, guided by ill-informed policies.

At a field mission in Lesotho.

Lesotho’s sanitation tragedy lies in the fact its story wasn’t meant to have unfolded this way. Lesotho started way ahead of its counterparts at the beginning of the MDG period, with 50% of the population already having achieved access to sanitation. It was identified as one of the countries that would steadily make progress and achieve universal access by the end of the MDG period. A sound national rural sanitation programme (NRSP), under the Ministry of Health, had been established way back in 1987 and was fully operational, with principles of community empowerment, collective action, entrepreneurship and self-reliance at the heart of its strategy. Lesotho’s home-grown sanitation model was exceptional and Lesotho was considered a trailblazer, with the potential to set a winning example for other countries in the region. It seemed only a matter of time before Lesotho would fast-track its efforts towards becoming one of the first open defecation free (ODF) nations in the region and inspire other countries in the region to do the same. However, almost a decade and half down the line, as Lesotho embraces the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it stands at the same point where it began in the early 2000s. How did this happen?

The decision to situate the NRSP when it evolved in 1987, in the Environmental Health Section of the Ministry of Health was a conscious step, keeping in view that health and hygiene should be seen as the main entry point as well as outcomes of sanitation and toilet usage. The government played largely an organisational and facilitative role, focusing on health and hygiene promotion to create user demand through campaigns and education. Communities constructed their own latrines by engaging private- sector latrine builders based in their or neighbouring communities. The entire costs for construction, including materials and builder’s wages were taken up by the households. People reduced their cost by collecting and using local materials for construction. The Ministry of Health invested in training rural community members on technical skills for construction and maintenance and many of these developed into small scale entrepreneurs, who had a direct economic incentive to promote improved sanitation and toilet usage in their communities. In this way, sustainability of the initiative was ensured.

Dr. Kamal Kar and Preetha Prabhakaran of CLTS Foundation Global with government officials from different ministries at Mokhotlong district, Lesotho.

As a result, rural sanitation coverage increased significantly in just over 20 years, from a mere 15 percent at the end of 1980s to over 50 percent by the beginning of the MDG period. Research in Lesotho also suggested a significant reduction in the incidence of sanitation related diseases in areas where water and sanitation projects had been implemented. For reasons unknown or undocumented, however, the whole approach changed track at the beginning of the millennium when the primary mandate for rural sanitation shifted from the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Water, under the Department of Rural Water Supply (DRWS).

Under the DRWS, sanitation was perceived as an extension to provision of water supply facilities. It became a matter of infrastructure over everything else. External private contractors were brought in and the government took on the responsibility to construct toilets for the community with external support. The government thus moved from playing a facilitative and supportive role towards a direct implementation role. Other than building latrines the present approach of DRWS has no provision for initiating collective behaviour change focused towards ensuring usage of the facilities. External donor agencies support the government in providing hardware sanitation subsidy of varying amounts to rural households. This hardware subsidy comes with a universal toilet prescription design built with high external input dependent materials like cement, iron sheet, pans pipes etc. Most of these materials are not always available locally particularly in the remote rural areas and often it not easy to transport the materials to villages located in high mountains or in the valley with difficult access, thus increasing the cost considerably. At the end of it all, even official government data shows that this approach has not met with success in terms of outcomes.

At the end of the MDGs and the dawn of the SDG period, globally nations are consolidating their achievements and lessons of the past, to forge a new path towards success. Additionally, every country is under pressure to respond to regional and international commitments to meet the new global goals. These factors have collectively brought about a new awakening in the Lesotho government and administration for the need of a more sustainable approach to ensure universal sanitation coverage and move towards better sanitation and health outcomes.

The first steps towards initiating this change was notably taken by DRWS, and in November 2014, with the support of UNICEF, the government organized the first national CLTS workshop in Thaba-Tseka district. Among the 11 communities triggered during the training, one village Ha Khupiso has been certified as open defecation free (ODF) and 2 more villages have claimed ODF status. Other districts such as Mafeteng, Botha-Bothe, Quthing and Qacha’s Nek have started triggering their villages. The success of Ha-Khupiso has triggered across the nation a renewed hope of the past, of the community’s power to bring about sustainable change. Key sanitation actors and sector partners are realising that it is impossible to achieve universal coverage with sustained change in sanitation and hygiene behaviour practices unless the community sees sanitation as an internal need and leads its own process of change.

During the recent consultations led by CLTS Foundation Global at the district and national level, stakeholders voiced the need to put in place a national sanitation strategy with CLTS as its core principle, to set a national target date for achieving ODF along with a clear roadmap and milestones to fast track access to basic sanitation in the country. It was felt that being a country with a small population of just over 2 million, Lesotho has the potential to achieve ODF in a very short time. Additionally, this would make Lesotho one of the first ODF countries in the African continent, thus becoming a role model for other countries, especially the BNLS countries in the region. Looking back at the MDG era, while many countries did not achieve their MDG sanitation targets, a great number among them have put in place national policies and strategies focusing on community empowerment to fast track their country’s progress. These efforts need to be streamlined and accelerated to push ahead sanitation progress in the continent during the SDGs. For this, a few quick successes, in the form of ODF nations, is critical for the SDG target to become a reality. In the larger perspective, Lesotho could regain lost ground and play an instrumental role in leading change in the continent by becoming its first ODF nation.

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