Sharing Lessons, Improving Practice: Maximising the potential of Community-Led Total Sanitation

Funded by: IrishAid
Duration: 1st January 2009-31st December 2009

Country focus: global

Team: Petra Bongartz (Coordination, Communication and Networking Officer), Robert Chambers, Kamal Kar

This project forms a bridge between the DFID-funded IDS Research, Action Learning and Networking project Going to Scale? The Potential of Community-led Total Sanitation and new initiatives for which funding is being sought. By supporting activities in 2009, it provides continuity, carries forward the momentum and gives space for scoping and piloting new activities.

The project aims to further extend the action learning and networking components, and during 2009 to assess and enhance their impact. Activities focus on ensuring that lessons are learnt and shared across countries and organisations.

Objective: The overarching aim of the project is to contribute to major gains in human wellbeing. This is intended through the development and spread of good CLTS practices and supportive policies. The intention is to achieve these through the actions below.

Themes and Activities:

Scaling Up

• Collecting, reviewing and learning from experience with diverse approaches in different conditions, countries and organisations. This will include the range of roles of government, projects, donors, NGOs and local champions.
• Making a preliminary assessment of options, outcomes and opportunities.

Influencing policy, practice and research, working with donors, agencies, NGOs

• Where appropriate, providing guidance and support to improve donor practice
• Advising on and supporting governments and NGOs in implementation of CLTS
• Encouraging policy and practice related reflection

Capacity development

• Continuing to work on publications with practical focus (eg guidelines and resource materials)
• Supporting NGOs, governments and donors planning to start CLTS
• Devising approaches and methods for familiarisation workshops for policy makers
• Identifying and supporting good trainers to work internationally, regionally and within countries

Networking, Sharing and Learning

The work on scaling up, influencing policy and practice, and capacity development is based on a strategy of networking, and encouraging learning and sharing across countries and organisations. This includes:

• Networking, sharing and learning exchanges via the website, e-newsletter and mailing list
• Maintaining and expanding the dissemination of key resource materials, and establishing functional linkages within the international CLTS community
• Convening, supporting and taking part in Sharing and Learning Workshops
• Eliciting, collating and disseminating experience through trawls and questionnaires like Favourable/Unfavourable Conditions for CLTS
• Encouraging and supporting the documentation of CLTS experience
• The CLTS website

Events:

• CLTS in Africa workshop, Mombasa, 9-13th March 2009

• Introduction to CLTS for UK NGOs, 24th April 2009

• Call for submissions: Contributions to a Participatory Learning Action (PLA) Issue on Community-Led Total Sanitation in Africa

• Workshop for Scaling-Up Community-Led Approaches on Sanitation for Policy Makers and Programme Managers, Nainital, India

• South East Asia and Pacific Regional Workshop on CLTS

• Writeshop for PLA Notes on CLTS in Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, 23rd to 31st January 2010

Publications:

• Robert Chambers (2009) Going to Scale with Community-led Total Sanitation: Reflections on Experience, Issues and Ways Forward

• Petra Bongartz and Robert Chambers (2009) In Focus Policy Briefing: Beyond Subsidies – Triggering a Revolution in Rural Sanitation

• Translations of the CLTS Handbook into Hindi and Bengali