USAID/Ethiopia's Lowland WASH project is using USAID’s Collaborating, Learning and Adapting (CLA) framework to help reevaluate and improve the effectiveness of its open defecation interventions.
“I have seen that real change comes from the bottom up, from pressure from society—from good, willing people and action groups who actually put pressure on their governments to change,” says Rolf Luyendijk, executive director of the Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council, in the latest episode of USAID’s Global Waters Radio podcast series. “Linking up with these groups, I think, is critical to get politicians to prioritize investing in sanitation.”
Why it Matters
The 4th International Faecal Sludge Management Conference will take place in Chennai, India, from February 19-23, 2017. To register to attend, click here.
On Wednesday, December 13, 2017, the USAID-funded Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Partnerships and Learning for Sustainability (WASHPaLS) Project held a webinar on the role of community-led total sanitation (CLTS) in helping to end open defecation. WASHPaLS presented key findings from a desk review assessing the knowledge base on CLTS program performance. The findings and identified evidence gaps will inform the WASHPaLS research agenda for subsequent years of the project.
Registration for this event is now closed. The recording of the webinar is now available here.
Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) represents a revolution in the fight to end open defecation, with large-scale programs in place and embedded in national policy in dozens of countries. In their Handbook on Community-Led Total Sanitation, Kar and Chambers (2008) identified an array of variables thought to make program success more or less likely.
This Sunday, November 19, let’s take some time to reflect. For billions in the developing world proper sanitation can mean the difference between education and ignorance, health and illness, prosperity and poverty. But 2.5 billion people still don’t have access to a toilet, and 11 percent of the world’s population still defecates in the open.
Water Currents is produced biweekly by USAID’s E3 Water Office. Each issue contains recent news and articles on water sector issues, partner and donor updates, latest sector research, and a special focus on one topic. Please provide your feedback and suggestions by contacting the waterteam@usaid.gov.
