Community-led total sanitation

Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) is an approach to achieve sustained behavior change of people who participate in a guided process of "triggering"; the triggering is intended to lead to spontaneous and long-term change of social behaviours, in particular the abandonment of open defecation. The concept was first developed by Kamal Kar for rural areas in Bangladesh in around the year 2000. The concept originally involved mainly provoking shame and disgust about poor sanitation in order to bring about change. It has been further developed since then by applying the lessons learnt from large scale applications in different rural and urban settings, focussing more on aspects of pride.

CLTS has spread throughout Bangladesh and to many other Asian and African countries (however not significantly in Latin America) with support from the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank, DFID and other bilateral donors, Plan International, WaterAid, CARE, UNICEF, SNV and other large INGOs and many national NGOs. CLTS was successfully included in holistic programs which also included sanitation marketing, governance and sanitation for public institutions with a strong focus on schools using children as messengers of change.

When CLTS was first introduced in a country, NGOs were often in the lead, though India was an exception. Since about 2011, CLTS is an established approach. Governments in many countries have applied it or have even included it in their national policies on sanitation. This change has created a new situation with additional challenges.

The original concept of CLTS - which made it quite unique at the time - did not include the use of subsidies for hardware (such as toilets) and building toilets for the villagers. CLTS proponents believed that by provoking behavior change in the people this will ensure that they take ownership of their own sanitation situation, construct their own toilets (often pit latrines) and pay for necessary improvements themselves. Challenges of CLTS may include possible human rights infringements within the communities, low levels of toilet standards and issues with long-term usage rates. This has been counteracted in some programs by successfully applying subsidies for a limited number of users. Rewards may also be given for successful declaration of "open defecation free" (ODF) villages.

...
Wikipedia