Shit Matters: The potential of community-led total sanitation

Sanitation remains one of the biggest development challenges of our time, and a long neglected issue associated with taboos and stigma. Despite growing attention and efforts, many top-down approaches to sanitation have failed, reflecting that simply providing people with a toilet does not necessarily guarantee its use. The Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach offers a more promising alternative, focusing on facilitating a profound change in people’s behaviour through participatory techniques. By raising local people’s awareness of the linkages between open defecation and disease through the release of powerful emotions such as disgust and shame, they are encouraged to analyse their own sanitation situation and take action themselves. The approach has proved immensely successful, however, like any development success story challenges still remain regarding scaling up with quality, inclusion of the poorest and sustainability.This book addresses both the potential and challenges of CLTS by drawing on research in Asia as well as experiences from Africa.

Table of Contents:
Prelims (Foreword - Kamal Kar) 1. Introduction Lyla Mehta and Synne Movik 2. Shit Matters: Community-Led Total Sanitation and the Sanitation Challenge for the 21st Century Lyla Mehta BANGLADESH 3. Community-Led Total Sanitation in Bangladesh: Chronicles of a people’s movement Shafiul Azam Ahmed 4. Exploring the social dynamics of CLTS in Bangladesh: The inclusion of children, women and vulnerable people Amina Mahbub 5. NGOs and the implementation of CLTS in Bangladesh: Selected case studies Mick Howes, Enamul Huda and Abu Naser 6. The challenges of facilitating CLTS Anowarul Haq and Brigitta Bode INDIA 7. The CLTS Story in India: The Sanitation Story of the Millennium Deepak Sanan 8. Institutional Arrangements and Social Norms Influencing Sanitation Behaviour in Rural India A. Dyalchand, M. Khale, S. Vasudevan, and N. Kale 9. The Impact of Rural Sanitation on Water Quality and Waterborne Diseases Manisha Khale and Ashok Dyalchand 10. Doing CLTS in a Countrywide Program Context in India: Public Good, Private Good? Nisheeth Kumar and J.P.Shukla INDONESIA 11. The CLTS Story in Indonesia: Empowering communities, transforming institutions, furthering decentralization Nilanjana Mukherjee and Nina Shatifan 12. CLTS – Learning from communities in Indonesia Owin Jamasy and Nina Shatifan 13. Institutional dimensions of scaling up in Indonesia Edy Priyono SYNTHESIS 14. CLTS in India and Indonesia: Institutions, Incentives and Politics Anu Joshi 15. CLTS, Dynamics and Sustainability: Perspectives on Challenges and Pathways Synne Movik 16. Reaching Out, Scaling Up: The Future of CLTS Robert Chambers and Kamal Kar Back Matter (APPENDIX: Notes on resources, conference material, networks, partnerships, etc.)