Have had the great opportunity to take part in a workshop organised jointly by the CLTS Knowledge Hub at IDS and UNICEF, which looked at how best to support the poorest and most vulnerable in sanitation at scale.

The participants included a mix of some of the leading lights and people active in: CLTS and participatory techniques; smart subsidies; and equity and inclusion. It also included representatives of organisations implementing sanitation at scale:

At the end of last year the CLTS Knowledge Hub heard that the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore, in collaboration with UNICEF and the Government of Madhya Pradesh, were sending 630 of their first year management students to spend a week living in 157 open defecation free (ODF) villages. The villages cut across 13 districts in the central Indian State of Madhya Pradesh. Students were asked to verify ODF status of villages through a household survey and early morning and evening inspections of open defecation sites.

1. Spread pit-emptying, now that the example has been set. Approach and send out a short note in many copies with photos to key influentials especially the following encouraging them to do likewise

Those who have tried toilet training a pet dog or cat know that it can be a difficult proposition. How about toilet training a flock of 30 chickens?
You’re now asking “Um… why would I want to?” Because in poor countries chickens are everywhere, chickens are pooping wherever they want, and chicken poop is dangerous for young children.

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) has long been considered a necessary companion to WASH interventions but the relationship between ‘doing’ and ‘observing’ continues to be a tricky one. Over three sessions during the UNC Water and Health conference last week, Professor Barbara Evans and Dr Jamie Bartram took participants through a highly interactive investigation of where M&E are currently at in the WASH world, which fuelled conversations both in and outside the sessions.