Dr Kamal Kar interacting with Mr Cheary Pom, Director, MoRD, Govt. of Cambodia and HE Dr Yim Chhay Ly, Deputy Prime Minister, Cambodia. Photo: Amit Sengupta

The conference was inaugurated by the Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia, HE Dr. Yim Chhay Ly who reiterated the need to accelerate access to sanitation in Cambodia through CLTS approach. The Minister of Rural Development, HE Dr. Ouk Rabun committed to speed up the momentum of sanitation in Cambodia.

HE Dr Yim Chhay Ly, Deputy Prime Minister, Cambodia inaugurating the regional conference in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Photo: Amit Sengupta

More than 100 WASH experts from Cambodia, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines, Timor Leste, India, Pakistan, Nepal deliberated on creating a pathway towards an ODF South East Asia in the 3-day conference. Senior representatives of the governments (Myanmar, Timor Leste, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Lao PDR), WASH experts from International development agencies like Plan International, SNV, WSSCC (Geneva), World Bank, UNICEF, Water Aid, World Vision, and several national NGOs from Cambodia and international media participated in the conference.

Mr Cheary Pom, Director, MoRD, Cambodia making his country presentation in the conference. Photo: Amit Sengupta

HE Dr Ouk Rabun, Minister for Rural Development at the closure ceremony of the conference. Photo: Amit Sengupta

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.”

Mr Chander Badloe, Regional Advisor, UNICEF making a presentation on ‘Overview of Sanitation in South East Asia’. Photo: Amit Sengupta

Dr. Kamal Kar, Chairman, CLTS Foundation Global in his key note speech said that countries which has made progress on sanitation during the MDGs had some of these key commonalities: “They were led by Ministry of Health that focused on health outcomes than toilet infrastructures or counting of toilets; they had a clear national sanitation strategy with a clear road map; most of these countries had a wide network of Natural Leaders and Community Consultants; they also witnessed the emergence of CLTS Champions at the highest leadership levels. Moreover, these countries were able to change the mindset of donor agencies and create an appropriate enabling environment that helped in converging the efforts of multiple actors towards realizing the national goal rather than disconnected and piecemeal success on CLTS.”

Mr Lamberto Pinto, PHD, making a presentation on Timor Leste. Photo: Amit Sengupta

Some of the key sessions of the conference were ‘Overview of sanitation in the entire South East Asia region’, deliberations on 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. One of the interesting sessions was the discussion on Post ODF Sustainability.

Dr Kar reiterated that: “As countries from the South East Asia region move towards the SDGs, they have to make a holistic approach to sanitation right from policy framework, in programming and implementation. Sanitation has to be everyone’s business by involving diverse stakeholders. Sanitation outcomes have to be measured in terms of health outcomes, not by counting of toilets.”

Dr. Than Lwin Tun,
Regional Public Health Director,
Sagaing Region, Myanmar making his country presentation. Photo: Amit Sengupta

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.

CLTS Foundation Global is committed to facilitate capacity building and provide strategic roadmap to all Governments and international development agencies of the South East Asia region in marching towards the country’s ODF dream respectively.

More than 100 WASH participants from 12 countries participated in the workshop. Photo: Amit Sengupta

Some more photos from the conference:

Syed Shah Nasir, Executive Director, IRSP, Pakistan. Photo: Amit Sengupta

Dr. P Ulaganathan, District Magistrate, Murshidabad, Govt. of West Bengal. Photo: Amit Sengupta

James Wicken, Country Director, Water Aid Cambodia. Photo: Amit Sengupta

Dr Imran Agus Nurali, Director, Directorate of Environmental Health, Govt. of Indonesia. Photo: Amit Sengupta

Kiettisak, Ketsadasak from Plan International, Lao PDR. Photo: Amit Sengupta

Hybunna Hang from Plan International, Cambodia. Photo: Amit Sengupta

If you want to get in touch with CLTS Foundation Global, please write to cltsfoundation@gmail.com

Report: CLTS REGIONAL CONFERENCE REPORT-15 to17 Nov,2017, Phnom Penh

The post Regional Conference on CLTS in Cambodia calls for renewed momentum on access to sanitation in South East Asia appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.

The Ministry of Rural Development, Royal Government of Cambodia and CLTS Foundation Global in association with Plan International, Cambodia  are jointly hosting a Regional conference  ‘From Communities to ODF Nations: Fast tracking ODF South East Asia’ in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on 15-17 November 2017. The conference will be inaugurated by the Deputy Prime Minister, Royal Government of Cambodia, His Excellency, Dr. Yim Chhayly. The Deputy Prime Minister is expected to welcome the congregation of more than 100 international delegates from South Asia, South East Asia and the Pacific regions. The conference will witness the active participation of development partners such as SNV, WSSCC, Cambodia, Water Aid and UNICEF along with sanitation experts from the governments, UN agencies, INGOs and other key stakeholders from the region.

Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) has been instrumental in enhancing sanitation access for millions of people, especially the rural population, across the developing world, during the past two decades. By the end of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) period, CLTS was institutionalised in the national sanitation policy of more than 35 nations and rolled out as the key implementation strategy in over 65 countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific regions.

While significant progress has been achieved in the East and South East Asia and the Pacific region, an estimated 659 million people continue to remain without access to improved sanitation, and 83 million people in the region still practice open defecation.[1] This conference aims to address critical questions towards meeting the SDG goal 6.2 of universal sanitation such as: What lessons do South East Asia’s (Cambodia, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Vietnam,  Indonesia, The Philippines etc.)? What does the MDG experience in sanitation hold for achieving an ODF South East Asia region by 2030? What were the crucial factors for success and failure in sanitation programming across the different nations? What are the key challenges that the respective countries face going forward? What are the critical building blocks for scaling up sanitation in the region?

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

Dates: 15-16-17 November

Venue: Phonm Penh, Cambodia

For more information, please contact:

Amit Sengupta

Communications Manager

CLTS Foundation Global

Email: amit@cltsfoundation.org

www.cltsfoundation.org

Skype: amitmishti

Mobile: +91-9717984406

[1] https://www.unicef.org/eapro/Second_Review_of_Community_Led_Total_Sanitation_in_East_Asia_and_Pacific.pdf

The post Royal Government of Cambodia, CLTS Foundation Global and Plan International to co-host a Regional Conference on Sanitation in Cambodia from 15-17 November, 2017 appeared first on CLTS Foundation Global.