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!

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CLTS Foundation Global organizes Training of Trainers workshop on Community-Led Total Sanitation in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh

Dr. Kamal Kar being felicitated by the District Magistrate Dr. Sarita Mohan, IAS at the inaugural ceremony of the TOT workshop.

The TOT workshop on CLTS led by Dr. Kamal Kar, chairman, CLTS Foundation Global was organized with an aim of instilling in the participants a better and heightened understanding of the challenges in sanitation. They are expected to increase their knowledge about CLTS, develop necessary skills to facilitate training or apply CLTS in their area and develop action plan for goals set by community.

Dr. Kar addressing the participants of the TOT workshop.

The workshop was attended by Dr. Sarika Mohan, IAS, District of Sitapur and several block development officials and Swachh Bharat representatives from blocks. 68 participants from 19 development blocks of Sitapur District, apart from volunteers (Swacchagrahis) and officials from Panchayati Raj Department (GoUP), and administrators were present during the five day training.

As an immediate outcome of the TOT workshop, local community have dug around 135 pits on their own in the Gram Panchayat of Meernagar in Parsendi block.  The community took charge of their own toilet construction by digging those pits. This was witnessed by the ADO of the block and the community consultants as well.

Photographs of action taken by the community:

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Photo courtesy: Page One

Philippines is in the best position to become Open Defecation Free in the next two years: Kamal Kar

“Philippines is in the best position to achieve Zero Open Defecation (ZOD) in the next two years!”. This was a challenge posed to the Department of Health (DOH) by the pioneer of Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), Dr. Kamal Kar, in a gathering organised by UNICEF for various government and development partners working on sanitation, held in Manila on May 29.

Philippines aims to become Open Defecation Free by 2022 | Manila Conference

Dr. Maria Francia Laxamana, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health, affirmed that achieving ZOD is one of the legacies of the department, and targets to declare the country ZOD by 2022.

Laxamana recalled how the government used to give out toilet bowls in the hope of ending open defecation. However, this has not worked when toilet bowls were not used, because the problem on changing household’s behavior was not changed.

CLTS is a participatory approach to helping households abandon the practice of open defecation. It helps residents in a community realize that having no sanitary toilets is a risk not just to one family but to the whole community as well.

”We have learned from this experience well, and that is why DOH has rolled out CLTS as a key strategy in enabling communities to analyze their sanitation conditions and to collectively decide and take responsibility in stopping open defecation,” said Laxamana.

Kamal Kar in the workshop.

Since the implementation of CLTS in 2008, a shift in the pace of the communities declaring ZOD happened after a majority of development partners signed up to support the government and implement a phased approach to total sanitation (PhATS). From mid-2012 to the mid-2016, ODF achievement was accelerated through CLTS and PhATS, with success rates of 82%.

Emphasizing that no Filipino should be left behind, Laxamana assured that DOH and partners would work towards achieving these goals and would ensure that programs would be implemented with an equity lens and in such a way that would not undermine the community’s sense of agency and resourcefulness.

Also Read: 

How this African country is rewriting its sanitation story in the SDG era

9 innovative ways to make Bijnor open defecation free district

As of 2015, 7.4 million Filipinos still do not have access to sanitation facilities, and are possibly resorting to open defecation. Open defecation is a dangerous practice that results to people being at risk of getting diarrhea, cholera, and other waterborne diseases; intestinal worm infections; and malnutrition and stunting of children.

Kamal Kar.

To date, around 1,062 barangays have been declared open defecation free and 20 municipalities were able to eliminate OD completely.

The event, “Accelerating Sustainable Zero Open Defecation Programming: Supporting the Poorest and Most Vulnerable,” was held at New World Manila Bay Hotel on May 29.

Kamal Kar is the pioneer of the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS), and Prof. Robert Chambers of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) is the founder of participatory rural appraisal tools.

This was originally published here.

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Photo credit: Lefaso.Net

Burkina Faso has made the least progress in sanitation during the MDG period in spite of the fact that most of its neighbouring countries made remarkable progress during the later part of MDG. In Burkina Faso, 75% of the rural population still defecate in the open. The incidence of diarrhoea and child mortality rate of Burkina Faso is alarming. However, Burkina Faso still remains the only country in the Western and Central Africa region that has been providing household sanitation subsidy and also has not institutionalized CLTS in its national sanitation policy.

Almost 24 countries of Western and Central Africa, have institutionalized CLTS with no hardware household toilet subsidy as a non-negotiable principle into their national sanitation policy. The achievements in terms of sanitation outcome have been remarkable in these countries.

Photo credit: Lefaso.Net

Realizing the lack of an enabling environment in scaling up of CLTS in Burkina, major actors of sanitation including UNICEF in Burkina have been trying to influence the government policy to move beyond the subsidy approach and to adopt community empowerment approach of CLTS.

However, Burkina Faso is one of the last countries in the region to adopt the no subsidy strategy in the government policy and to become open defecation free (ODF). Recently, CLTS Foundation Global was invited by the Government of Burkina Faso and UNICEF Burkina to organize and facilitate a two days institutional triggering workshop on CLTS with the senior ministers, policy and decision makers and heads of national and international organizations in Ouagadougou. Dr. Kamal Kar led the triggering workshop with colleagues from CLTS Foundation Global, UNICEF WCARO, and Burkina Faso.

Photo credit: Lefaso.Net

Recently, Dr. Kamal Kar visited Beniou village on the invitation of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the province of Sissili. On Saturday, February 4, 2017, he facilitated and witnessed the triggering session for ending open defecation in Burkina Faso. During the triggering session, Dr. Kamal Kar has mentioned that the communities should no longer wait for years for state subsidy by continuing to eat their poo. He is absolutely assured and convinced that the people of Burkina Faso can take control of the alarming situation and stop open defecation.

The CLTS triggering session got featured in an esteem news portal of Burkina Faso, lefaso.net. Though it is in French but is indeed a good and informative read.

The article was originally published here in French: http://lefaso.net/spip.php?article75656

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In most of the 24 countries of Western and Central Africa, CLTS has been institutionalized into national sanitation policy with no hardware household toilet subsidy as a non-negotiable principle, and the achievements in terms of sanitation outcome have been remarkable in many countries. However, Burkina Faso still remains the only country in the region that has been providing household sanitation subsidy.

Burkina Faso has made the least progress in sanitation during the MDG period in spite of the fact that most of its neighboring countries made remarkable progress during the later part of MDG. In Burkina Faso, 75% of the rural population still defecate in the open. The incidence of diarrhea and child mortality rate of Burkina Faso are alarming. The stunting rate is 35% which is one of the highest in the region. The Ministry of Water and Sanitation (Government of Burkina Faso) and a few international NGOs like Plan International, Water Aid, and IRC-supported NGOs have been providing an upfront subsidy for toilet construction, yet claiming to apply CLTS approach. Although CLTS was introduced in Burkina in 2007, there are merely 200 ODF villages so far. By any standard, this is a very poor achievement. CLTS with hardware subsidy seems to be the norm of sanitation practices in Burkina.

Realizing the lack of an enabling environment in scaling up of CLTS in Burkina, major actors of sanitation including UNICEF in Burkina have been trying to influence the govt. policy to move away from the subsidy approach and adopt community empowerment approach of CLTS. Another believer of household sanitation subsidy, the neighboring Nigeria, was the last in the region to adopt the no subsidy strategy in the govt. policy recently.

CLTS Foundation Global was invited by the government of Burkina Faso and Unicef Burkina to organize and facilitate a two days institutional triggering workshop on CLTS with the senior ministers, policy and decision makers and heads of national and international organizations in Ouagadougou. Dr. Kamal Kar led the triggering workshop with colleagues from CLTS Foundation Global, UNICEF WCARO, and Burkina Faso.

The two-days national level Institutional Triggering Workshop was held on 31^st Jan & 1^st Feb 2017 at Hotel Laico Ouagadougou wherein 45 senior officers and professionals from 16 organizations including government ministries, global donor agencies, national and local NGOs participated. Before the workshop, a high-level breakfast meeting was organized by Unicef where 4 Ministers, namely Dr. Smalia Ouedraogo, Honorable Minister of Health; Mrs Alizatou Rosine Coulibaly, Honourable Minister of Finance and Budget; Mr Ambroise Niougou Ouedraogo, Honorable Minister of Water and Sanitation; Mrs Metsi Makhetha, Resident Coordination of PNUD met Dr. Kamal Kar, Chairman CLTS Foundation Global, Dr. Anne Vincent (Country Representative of UNICEF Burkina Faso), Mr. Danielle Spaltoff, Chief of WASH, UNICEF Burkina Faso and Ms. Gaelle, Consultant, UNICEF and discussed the sanitation scenario in Burkina Faso.

The outcome of the workshop was positive wherein the participants discussed on the present sanitation policy of the government of Burkina and highlighted the government’s priority to make the country open defecation free. They called for more capacity building inputs on CLTS and came up with a set of recommendations to fast track the access to sanitation by ending open defecation.

The workshop was held with two major objectives: to analyze the enabling environment for CLTS, and to identify the impediments in scaling up CLTS without subsidy. As an outcome of the workshop, the participants summarized their learnings and understanding of achieving ODF communities through CLTS method and came up with a set of recommendations to the government for strictly adhering to CLTS and to stop upfront household toilet subsidy. It remains to be seen how the government of Burkina Faso finally takes a call on the subsidy issue and the coordination between various stakeholders.

It must be reiterated that CLTS with toilet subsidy amounts to an abuse of CLTS, and it is not happening in any other country of western Africa except for Burkina Faso. So, this workshop was used as an opportunity to trigger the partner NGOs as well as the govt. officers to either do CLTS and stop upfront toilet subsidy or to continue giving toilet subsidy and drop CLTS.

It is clear that most countries of the world are on the track of CLTS with a clear realization of what enabling environment is needed to scale up CLTS. The number of countries using toilet subsidy approach is reducing very fast globally, and so many countries are changing. Although world’s largest number of people practicing open defecation live in India, the total number of such people in sub-Saharan Africa is reducing. With Burkina Faso adopting the right approach to ensuring proper enabling environment, the sanitation scenario of western central Africa will change very fast.

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Dr. Kamal Kar. Photo credit: CLTS Foundation Global

How can Uttar Pradesh, one of the global epicenters of open defecation, eliminate this scourge through Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS)?

A couple of months ago, I was invited to participate in a major state-level advocacy and training workshop, ‘Good Practices on SBM-Gramin: Brainstorming for achieving ODF Uttar Pradesh’ by the Government of Uttar Pradesh as a resource person in Lucknow on 17^th and 18^th September 2016.

A few vibrant and enthusiastic District Magistrates (DMs),Chief Development Officers (CDOs) and District Panchayat Raj Officers (DPROs) from eighteen districts of Uttar Pradesh were invited to participate and share their experiences of implementing Swachh Bharat Mission in their respective districts. Their participation in the two-days workshop highlighted some very interesting and intriguing facts and explicitly explained how the young and energetic officials have been fighting the ‘household subsidy monster’ in making villages open defecation free (ODF) in the state of U.P. In India, upfront household level hardware sanitation subsidy has been a feature of sanitation programmes over the past many decades, with the centre contributing 75% and the state providing the remaining 25%. The subsidy amount has been increased more than ten times over in the last couple of decades, with it now standing at Rs. 12,000/ per household.

The CLTS approach was introduced in India in early 2001-2002 in the state of Maharashtra as a pilot in two districts, Ahmednagar and Nanded. The CLTS pilots were successful and subsequently, the approach was introduced in all the 32 districts in the state through series of hands-on training workshops, advocacy, and post-triggering follow-up activities. The success of CLTS in the state brought high-level delegations including ministers and secretaries from the states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan to the ODF villages in Maharashtra. Interestingly all the state officials who visited the ODF villages were motivated by the power of CLTS in changing the mindsets of the community in stopping open defecation. The then Secretary of Government of India, in a conversation with me, remarked that he was not only very happy but also surprised to see Maharashtra, one of the poorest performing states in the country to emerge as top performing states by adopting CLTS approach.

In 2006 this model was replicated in the state of Himachal Pradesh which brought about a massive transformation in the collective hygiene behaviour across the state. The access to sanitation of Himachal Pradesh shot up from 41% in 2003 to 84% in 2007. Presently, Himachal Pradesh has successfully achieved total rural sanitation coverage of 100 percent in the state, with all 12 districts in the state being both, declared as well as verified as ODF. What was critical to the success of CLTS in these two cases (pilot project in Maharashtra and state wide scaling up in Himachal Pradesh) was the leadership of two senior IAS officers, Mr. BC Khatua, the then Principal Secretary, Water Supply and Sanitation Department, Government of Maharashtra and Mr. Deepak Sanan, the then Secretary of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, and currently Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Himachal Pradesh, who spearheaded the initiatives in their states respectively. These officials were convinced about the ability of CLTS to initiate collective action towards open defecation without waiting for any outside subsidy or dole. The state level CLTS champions realized that household hardware subsidy was blocking the smooth transition of collective local action as households were allured to grab free government subsidy or material without the necessary motivation to change open defecation behaviour. Even those who could afford to build their own toilets without waiting for outside help didn’t do so. Both the senior officers understood that the roll out of CLTS was only possible if an essential enabling environment to empower local communities without any terms dictated by outsiders was ensured. Community empowerment for roll out of CLTS was not possible because of the top-down, prescriptive, hardware subsidy model existed. These officials at the state level challenged the existing situation and did their best to eliminate household hardware subsidy model ensuring right enabling environment through the issuance of government orders and policy adjustment through cabinet approval and assembly legislation. The government of Himachal Pradesh adopted a policy of no subsidies for household toilets backed by appropriate capacity building initiatives to enable roll-out in campaign mode.This brought about a sea change in the collective hygiene behavior in rural communities of Himachal Pradesh. The triggering exercises of CLTS became meaningful and mobilized communities who invested in local resources to build toilets and stop open defecation(OD) without waiting for any help from outside.

Unfortunately this example of ensuring enabling environment through appropriate policy change was not replicated in any other state in the country and the individual household hardware subsidy continued to be the prevalent policy under ‘Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)’ in 1999 as well as the ‘Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA)’ in 2000 to the present ‘Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM)’ in 2014.

Government gives Sanitation the Top Priority: ‘Special Boost for Sanitation in India’

With SBM, sanitation received a renewed thrust and focus in India, making it one of the top four national priorities. Though there is a larger thrust on community mobilization and the need for behaviour change in SBM ever seen before in India, the provision of subsidy is still the guiding framework of all interventions under SBM. The use of the CLTS approach in SBM has been watered down to mere use of triggering tools to generate a need for toilets among community members, after which those eligible are given the sanctioned amount to build toilets. Therefore the focus has continued to remain on acquiring toilets as an individual asset, rather than inspiring collective behaviour change for better sanitation (involving the so-called eligible and not eligible) which is a public good and therefore the responsibility of every single individual in the community. An open defecation free environment guided by shared values, community solidarity and collective action from the community is what sustains this behaviour change as well. With the provision of outside financial assistance, firstly sanitation is externally motivated, seen as someone else’s need and not one’s own and hence not internalized and prioritized by the people. Secondly, when the subsidy is given only to some (those below Poverty line who have not received the same in earlier sanitation programmes) and not the others, there is no scope for collective action as the community gets fragmented. The result as we’ve seen through the many decades and different sanitation programmes in India, is a situation where communities have toilets, but either do not use it or it is used only by some members of the family while others continue to defecate in the open.

Photo source: BBC

Within this policy framework and existing reality, states are trying various innovative ways to achieve their targets and meet the national goal of an ODF India by 2019. This workshop brought to light the techniques being used by some of the administrative officials in Uttar Pradesh.

What was different about this Uttar Pradesh workshop?

The recent two-days workshop in Uttar Pradesh brought to light the experiences and reflections of young district level officers on overcoming the subsidy monster and continuing to motivate local initiatives of the people for stopping OD, as a sincere and desperate move to achieve sustainable results.This was indeed an eye opener as these enthusiastic DMs, CDOs and DPROs from 18 districts of Uttar Pradesh shared how the enormous amount of their energy, resources and time was being spent only to overcome the barrier of subsidy, which is blocking the spontaneous collective community action to end OD unleashed through the triggering of CLTS.

Uttar Pradesh: One of the Global Epicenters of the Practice of Open Defecation

Photo source: Indian Express

Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in India and also one of the top states affected by the scourge of open defecation. According to Census 2011, 78.2% of rural population in Uttar Pradesh defecate in the open. This makes Uttar Pradesh home to the largest number of open defecators in India, a country which contributes to 60% of the open defecation taking place in the world. In accordance to the BLS (Base Line Survey) conducted in 2012 by the Directorate of SBM (Gramin) of U.P, the percentage of households not having toilets is 64.76%. The sanitation coverage of Uttar Pradesh post-BLS in 2012 is 44.13% as on 31st March 2016. After the baseline survey, there is only 2.06% increase in construction and accessibility of sanitation facilities in the state. Uttar Pradesh felt an immediate need to implement CLTS approach for inculcating and empowering behavioral changes in the communities.

Reflections by the DMs, CDOs, and DPROs of Uttar Pradesh on innovative approaches being implemented

In the manner that triggering is being done currently, the triggered communities seem divided. While some of them realize the need to stop OD urgently, the entire community is unable to come together to take collective action due to the divisive nature of eligibility to receive subsidy set by the government. Those given subsidies build toilets but all of them don’t necessarily use the toilets and continue practicing OD. Those not given a subsidy continue to wait for it from the government and in the meanwhile continue OD. With some people continuing to defecate in the open, those using toilets continue being at the risk of contamination. As a result, most communities could not move spontaneously towards achieving ODF status. The community members understood and appreciated the CLTS approach but were allured by the government supported subsidy model.

A few senior district level officers firmly believe that it is essential to create self-empowered communities who will enable ODF environments for themselves through their own innovative collective community initiatives. These officials introduced various innovative models in different districts of Uttar Pradesh to overcome the ceaseless dependence of community members on mere subsidies. Their prime focus has been to reduce the emphasis on the importance of subsidy and in this process, they are creating an enabling environment in the communities for continuing with consistent collective local actions that will help achieve ODF. But it has been extremely challenging to mobilize collective local action of the communities because of the traditional thinking of the community members that improvement in sanitation is possible only when it is externally funded.

Sincere and dedicated efforts are being made by these administrative officials to divert the attention from subsidy towards self-realization, collective local action, and social solidarity for ensuring access to basic sanitation to the community members. In this regard, the CDO, Bijnor and his team undertook a baseline survey, after which they triggered the CLTS process which resulted in local innovations in terms of developing ‘Compressed Demand’ that led to ‘Compressed Subsidy’. Through this process, the district team in Bijnor was able to ensure that the entire demand for toilets in a particular community was met with the amount of money available in total for that community, without making individual household allocations. This is another form of community solidarity as this shows that some families were ready to forego a part of the subsidy amount to enable other households to avail toilets as well. In this way, diverse set of people including people with disabilities, widows, senior citizens etc. were brought under the eligibility criteria.

Pride and Dignity were used as triggers during the introduction of CLTS approach in the community. Stopping open defecation was linked with issues of dignity and pride. Toilets were termed as ‘Izzat Ghar’(Dignity Home) and the empowered community members proactively used local and other available materials to develop low cost and appropriate toilets as they sensed the urgency of stopping the practice of OD.

Another innovation tried out in some villages in Bijnor was to offer the subsidy amount as community-based rewards after the achievement of ODF in the community. In this case, the amount would be used for community goods such as roads, schools, water facilities etc. One of the most cherished outcomes of CLTS is shared responsibilities. It happens when most of the community members are mobilized and take actions collectively for the larger good. CLTS also results in the emergence of Natural Leaders (NLs) who play a more active role than the rest of the community in taking the community towards ODF. Some villages in U.P reported peer pressure as another tool for stopping OD. Once triggered the communities come together to stop any defaulter from defecating outside. Those who do are compelled to pay a fine to the Gram Panchayat. All these innovative approaches have to an extent been able to challenge the blockage caused by subsidies and have produced the desired outcome. Below mentioned is an info-graphical depiction of the innovative approaches:

Still, a lot needs to be done in terms of transforming the institutional attitude in thinking, establishing effective collaborations and mainstreaming the approach within the government. We need to create an ambitious yet realistic goal for ensuring successful elimination of OD in India. It is time to trust the power of social solidarity of the local communities and have faith in their abilities to change by encouraging innovations in accordance with the local situations. Rather than viewing subsidized and prescriptive toilet construction as the only solution, community-led approaches have the inherent potential to bring about rapid and long-lasting transformational change.

It would be a national shame if 80% or more of the districts of our country are being declared ODF by the government when they are not so in reality. In other words, the present statistics of child mortality, the incidence of diarrhea, malnutrition and stunting as a health outcome must coincide with such ambitious declaration.

Dr. Kamal Kar is Chairman, CLTS Foundation Global. He is the recipient of Sarphati Lifetime Achievement in Sanitation Award 2015 at Amesterdam. 

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Haryana: Paving the Pathway towards an Open Defecation Free State through CLTS 

1st intervention by World Bank and CLTS Foundation Global kicks-off in state

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This ToT workshop is organised under the aegis of the World Bank’s intervention on Swachh Bharat Mission in India. This was the first such high level institutional workshop in the state of Haryana in association with CLTS Foundation Global and Government of Haryana. The training participants consisted of block coordinators, village motivators, social work professors, students and other stakeholders. Participants came from nine districts of Haryana namely Karnal, Hisar, Sonipat, Gharunda, Rohtak, Jind, Ambala, Bhiwani.

The 5-day institutional triggering intervention in Karnal district of Haryana was conducted with the following objectives:

1. Gain clear understanding and knowledge on the principles, rationale, methodology, applicability and limitations of Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) in order to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) environments with special reference to respective districts and Haryana context.
2. Understand the importance of all four stages of the CLTS process:pre-triggering, triggering, post triggering follow up and post ODF activities.
3. Understand the importance of triggering usage of toilets through collective behaviour change and achieving ODF instead of focusing on mere latrine construction with no tangible outcomes.
4. Understand the importance of engaging diverse set of stakeholders in the CLTS scaling up process.
5. Discussion and presenting an action plan for expediting CLTS implementation and scaling up process across respective districts in Haryana with a clear emphasis on engaging with Natural Leaders (NL) and a focus on community empowerment.

Participants in the workshop

The initial two days of the training covered the theoretical aspects and preparation for the field work for implementation of the learning in the field. It was observed that many of the participants have been attending numerous trainings before and one of the main challenges during the training was unlearning what they had learnt to focus on the main idea of CLTS approach. Emphasis was given on the quality rather than quantity of ODF.

Many of the participants also shared the failures or challenges of many of the sanitation schemes and the subsidy approach.

Those learnings have been noted down to be presented on the last day of the training when some of the senior Govt. officials of the state are expected to be present and discuss the action plan for carrying out the in their respective districts.

The participants showed ample enthusiasm and dedication during the first two days of the workshop. The participants will be visiting 12 villages of nearby districts on the 17^th and19^th Nov and carry out triggering exercise. These villages are untouched by CLTS approach and we are expecting some of these to be Open Defecation Free (ODF) in coming days.

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From L to R: Ashok Meena, Navjot Sandhu, Kamal Kar, Upneet Singh, Somenath Sen and Nitika Suri

Dr. Kamal Kar was invited by the Government of Haryana and World Bank – WSP programme as a resource person for a workshop that the state organised for its senior bureaucrats including officers from the districts to prepare a pathway for improving the access to sanitation of the state to fulfill the dreams of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan campaign and make an open defecation free Haryana on 1-3 June 2016.

However, even though the state has a provision of individual household level toilet at more than 85 % according to an independent survey (Squat Survey 2014) it was found that 35 % of rural households have at least one member defecating in the open. The Government of Haryana took advise from Dr. Kar in fast tracking its sanitation strategy by incorporating vital elements of community-led total sanitation approach in this workshop which was attended by senior officers from all the 21 districts of Haryana.

Meetings with Govt. of Haryana

During his visit, Dr. Kar met with Ms. Navjot Sandhu, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Haryana Government, Mr. Ashok Meena and other senior bureaucrats of the Government of Haryana and World Bank (WSP). It needs to be mentioned here that Government of India (Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation) is implementing Swachh Bharat Abhiyan campaign to provide access to sanitation to all by 2019 and has recently taken a 1.5 USD Billion loan from World Bank to fast track its progress on the campaign and create an open defecation free India.

Speaking about the visit, Dr. Kar said: “I was pleased to meet the champions of CLTS in Haryana who did a splendid job back in 2005-2006 when CLTS was introduced in Haryana by Dr. Kar. These champions are Dr. Amit Agarwal, IAS, Secretary, Government of Haryana, Mr. Bikas Gupta, IAS among others who introduced community-led total sanitation in the state of Haryana.” The state of Haryana was one of the first states in the country to implement CLTS as a state strategy and stopped subsidy for two years. The focus of the state was on collective behaviour change with strong emphasis on training and building a cadre of facilitators and on ground frontline soldiers for triggering behaviour change and follow up. The state is shifting its strategy and focus on elimination of open defecation at a collective level rather than toilet construction.

However the one day planned meeting with all the deputy commisisoners was called off because of unforseen circumstances related to law and order of the state. This meeting has been called off and will be rescheduled at a later date.

“The next day i.e. 3 June there was a state level meeting in Chandigarh where the senior officers from the government, Haryana Institute of Rural Development, Ministry of Education and many champions of CLTS participated. The meeting discussed the pros and cons of developing a more effective sanitation strategy of the state which enhances the local empowerment for sustainable sanitation improvement using community-led total sanitation,” observed Dr. Kar.

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Dr. Kamal Kar is a renowned international development specialist in rural development and natural resources and a prolific social entrepreneur who has taken the challenge of ending open defecation head on in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Being a specialist in livestock production, agriculture and natural resources Dr. Kar has pioneered a number of innovative approaches in natural resources management and low cost appropriate technologies in farming. He has also been a leading figure in the field of collective management of pasture and natural resources (Nukhurluls) in the Gobi region in Mongolia. His other areas of work include urban poverty, slum improvement, and local governance in India, Mongolia, Bangladesh and Cambodia.

Watch Dr Kar speaking at Amsterdam upon receiving the Sarphati Lifetime Sanitation Achievement Award in 2015:

Dr. Kar pioneered the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach in Bangladesh in1999-2000. The CLTS methodology which is based on a no-subsidy policy and rooted in a model of community empowerment and mobilisation, has radically transformed global sanitation policy focus from toilet construction to the process of collective behaviour change. It has spread to more than 69 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America where more than 40 million people are now living in open defecation free (ODF) environments. CLTS has also been mainstreamed in the sanitation policies of more than 25 countries in these regions.

He has worked extensively in poverty reduction and empowerment, which includes analysis of poverty reduction strategy papers, dynamics of community based organisations, marginalisation and extreme poverty including gender, and addressing microfinance, environment including ecological agriculture and labour market issues in programme development.

He has worked in gender analysis and social development: universality and difference and potential inter-linkages and tensions between different social development aims and policies (e.g. poverty alleviation and/or environment and/or gender policy).

Kar has contributed substantially in rights based approach, including expertise in conducting contextual analysis and developing evidence based advocacy programme, facilitating campaign for social inclusion, facilitating rights analysis in developing country strategic plan, and maintaining higher level networking for advocacy in Bangladesh, Mongolia and Ethiopia.

For more than two decades, he worked in the development of participatory development approaches including local level participation of the farming community by ensuring and leading participatory research team, grassroots learning, livelihood security analysis, social and economic inclusion/exclusion, social capital, policy analysis, grassroots movements and inter-linkages between specific forms of participation and broader social change.

Over the last 15 years, Dr. Kar has played an instrumental role in the spread of CLTS globally by providing capacity building, policy advice and process support to national governments and international agencies like, WSP, DFID, UNICEF, WSSCC, Irish Aid, WHO, Plan international, Water Aid, CARE and many more. After introducing the approach in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Pakistan and a few other countries in Asia, Kar introduced the approach in the countries in Eastern and Southern Africa from 2006, which included Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Eritrea, Sudan, Ghana and Madagascar. He took the approach to West Africa in 2007 by facilitating major training workshops in Sierra Leone, Mali, Nigeria and Chad in 2009.

The ‘Handbook and the Trainers Guide on CLTS’ authored by Dr. Kar has been translated into more than ten different languages. Additionally, he has written several practice papers on CLTS. He is a Honorary Associate at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, UK. The prestigious Foreign Policy Magazine of Washington DC selected Dr. Kar amongst the Top Hundred Global Thinkers of the World in 2010. The Asian Development Bank declared Dr. Kar as the Water Champion of 2011. Dr. Kar is the recipient of Sarphati Sanitation Lifetime Achievement Award 2015 given by World Waternet, Netherlands Water Partnership at Amsterdam, which is a recognition of the immense work he has done in the sanitation sector spanning many continents, governments and communities.

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