Sustainable Sanitation for All: Experiences, Challenges and Innovations in Community-Led Total Sanitation

Great strides have been made in improving sanitation in many developing countries. Yet, 2.4 billion people worldwide still lack access to adequate sanitation facilities and the poorest and most vulnerable members of society are often not reached and their specific needs are not met. Moreover, sustainability is currently one of the key challenges in CLTS and wider WASH practice, subsuming issues such as behaviour change, equity and inclusion, physical sustainability and sanitation marketing, monitoring and verification, engagement of governments, NGOs and donors, particularly after open defecation free (ODF) status is reached, and more. Achievement of ODF status is now recognised as only the first stage in a long process of change and sanitation improvement, with new challenges emerging every step of the way, such as how to stimulate progress up the sanitation ladder, how to ensure the poorest and marginalised are reached, or how to maintain and embed behaviour change. There have been several useful studies on sustainability that have highlighted some of these different aspects as well as the complexities involved. This book develops these key themes by exploring current experience, practices, challenges, innovations and insights, as well as identifying a future research agenda and gaps in current knowledge. Describing the landscape of sustainability of CLTS and sanitation with reference to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and through examples from Africa and Asia, the book captures a range of experiences and innovations from a broad range of institutions and actors within the WASH sector, and attempts to make recommendations and practical suggestions for policy and practice for practitioners, funders, policy-makers and governments.

Petra Bongartz is the CLTS Knowledge Hub's Strategy, Communications and Networking Officer and has been working on CLTS for almost 10 years. Together with Robert Chambers she created the CLTS Knowledge Hub at IDS in 2009. Petra leads on the Hub's communication activities including the CLTS website, (co)facilitates workshops and develops and implements the Hub's strategy with the other Hub members. She is the co-editor of Tales of Shit: CLTS in Africa.

Naomi Vernon is the Programme Officer for the CLTS Knowledge Hub at the Institute of Development Studies, where she has worked for nine years. She is also the lead editor and designer of the CLTS Knowledge Hub publication series Frontiers of CLTS: Innovations and Insights, and co-authored the issue 'CLTS and Sustainability: Taking Stock'.

John Fox is a development communication consultant, journalist, and Managing Director, iDC, Nairobi. He was the lead author of the facilitator's resource pack, Managing CLTS, for Plan International Kenya in 2013.