Community Led Total Sanitation in Africa

Regional Training Workshop on Community Led Total Sanitation for Northern, Eastern and Southern Africa

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,

(12th – 16th February 2007)

Dr. Kamal Kar

Workshop Organised by Plan International Regional East and Southern Africa (RESA)

Johannesburg, South Africa

Contents

Introduction and Background 3

Summary of Dar es Salaam CLTS workshop 3

Workshop Objectives 8

Workshop Schedule 9

Group wise distribution of participants for triggering CLTS in villages 12

Group Presentation after the Day-one village work 13

Group presentations on New Learning on CLTS Approach, Process Applied and Community Facilitation skills 14

Malaika Group 14

Tamau Group 15

Disunyara and Masaki Group 15

Tamau Group 17

At times more than five-six groups of people were working on the huge ground map. The size increased gradually as the people went on to indicate places of emergency defecation, areas of defecation when working on Samba (farm land ) or the children on their way to school. 21

National Workshop on Community Led Total Sanitation 22

Way Forward and Country Plans of Action for Next Six Months 24

Egypt 24

Tanzania 26

Programme Unit: Geita 26

Programme Unit Ifakara 27

Programme Unit Mwanza 28

Kenya 29

Zimbabwe 30

Evaluation of the Workshop 31

Recommendations 32

Recommendation for RESA 36

Sources of global information on CLTS 37

List of Participants of the Workshop 39

Introduction and Background

The Regional East and Southern Africa office of Plan International and Plan Tanzania had jointly organized the five days training workshop on Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from 12th to 16th February 2007. Dr. Khairul Islam Regional Programme Support Manager of Plan International (RESA) and Mr. Amsalu Negussie, Regional WATSAN Advisor and Global Net Work Leader of Water and Sanitation for Plan countries at Johannesburg, South Africa were the key persons who took initiative and introduced CLTS in Plan countries in Africa. In fact Dr. Khirul Islam and Mr. Mac Abbey (the then C.D. of Plan Bangladesh and now C.D. Plan Dominican Republic) introduced CLTS in Plan for the first time in 2001 in Bangladesh. That was the very first entry of CLTS in any Plan countries in the world after the approach was innovated in 1999. I was involved in training and capacity building of the Plan staff in Bangladesh who did a brilliant job of not only introducing the CLTS approach in their programme areas but in spreading it to different parts of the country. Today Plan Bangladesh is a leader in taking CLTS further and in building capacities of the local NGOs and the government in Bangladesh. Since then the CLTS approach spread in many Plan countries in Asia (Nepal, China, Indonesia, and Cambodia), Africa (Ethiopia,) and Latin America (Bolivia). Plan staff from China, Indonesia and many others countries visited CLTS villages of Plan Bangladesh who stopped open defecation with their own collective local actions. I must say Mr. Shorab Bagri International WATSAN Advisor of Plan International U.K took lead in spreading the approach in many Plan countries all over the world through regional workshops and meetings of WATSAN advisors. Mr. Baghri introduced the theoretical concepts of the CLTS approach in Plan Brazil, Sri Lanka and a few other countries through presentations. However not all Plan countries could adopt the no-subsidy CLTS approach for various reasons[1].

Summary of Dar es Salaam CLTS workshop

This five days ‘hands on’ workshop was attended by 42 participants from six Plan Countries of Eastern, Southern, and Northern Africa. The participating Plan countries were Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Malawi and Egypt. Please see the list of participants. All the six Programme Units of Plan Tanzania were represented by the PU Managers and the front line staff responsible for Water and Sanitation. In addition to Plan Tanzania staff, two officers from the health department of government of Tanzania also participated.

During the workshop the participants had at least two opportunities to visit villages and interact with the local communities. In total workshop participants in five sub groups facilitated CLTS in ten villages in two districts of Tanzania in two days field visit. In total roughly 1200 people participated in all the triggering exercises in ten villages. It was heartening to see that in almost all the villages the rural communities decided to stop open defecation with their own initiatives and declare them Open Defecation Free (ODF) within the next four to five months. This was great particularly when all the communities visited were Plan Tanzania’s adopted villages with previous history of subsidy in many sectors of development. In other words the community’s mind-set was framed in receiving external donation and help. This in fact was another acid test for the CLTS approach. Even in such condition the approach could make distinct impact in the minds of the local communities.

On the last day of the five days training a National Workshop was organized in Movinpick hotel in Dar es Salaam where at least three representatives from six communities were invited to present their plans of action of implementing CLTS. Members of donor agencies, Bilateral and Multilateral agencies, the Government of Tanzania and national and international NGOs participated in the National Workshop. Mr. F. Magoma, Assistant Director General of the Ministry of Health inaugurated the workshop and spoke about the need of total sanitation in Tanzania. He also stressed that merely having a open pit for defecation in a few households do not mean open defecation free environment.

I made a power point presentation of the origin, rational and spread of CLTS approach in Asia, Africa and in Latin America. This was followed by a presentation by one of the workshop participants on the new learning and experiences from the five day workshop at Dar es Salaam. After this the most exciting event of the National Workshop took place when the invited village communities presented their experiences of CLTS triggering process and their plans of converting their villages open defecation free within next few months without any external help.

Six communities made excellent presentations using the big charts and posters which they had prepared earlier during the CLTS triggering process in the respective villages. Large maps showing all houses, roads, major land marks and the areas of open defecation were shown in all the maps. They explained the route how the human excreta moves from land to different water bodies and contaminates their only sources of drinking water. How their animals and pets bring shit from the open field to homes and contaminate food. They vividly explained how the open pit latrines near their homes are sources of breeding flies which bring shit all over the places.

The communities then explained how they were going to mobilize their own communities and initiate village wide action to stop open defecation and improve all the open pit latrines. They answered all the questions asked to them by the visiting members of different agencies.

The national workshop provided ample opportunity to all the interested organizations like the Water Aid, Concern World Wide, Water and Sanitation Programme of the World Bank, the Government of Tanzania and other NGOs to discuss and deliberate on the new approach. A good discussion followed and a number of agencies expressed their desire to adopt the CLTS approach and wanted to get their staff trained.

On demand a few literature on CLTS was provided to some and the web link to IDS, Sussex website on CLTS was provided to all the participants. WSP and the Water Aid was particularly interested to initiate CLTS through their institutional set ups.

The national workshop ended with the vote of thanks from Mr. Gashaw Dagnew, PSM, Plan Tanzania. This followed by a lunch at the Movinpick hotel. The visiting members of the communities enjoyed the lunch together with all of us and were sent back to their respective villages by Plan vehicles.

Mr. Emanuel Mwachulla, Programme Unit Manager of Kisarawe PU brilliantly facilitated the National workshop with his unique style of mixing Kisoheli and English for the benefit of all present at the workshop. Mr. Mwachulla also facilitated the rotating presentations by the six village communities which was excellent.

Ms. Stella Tungalaza PU Manager of Gaita PU did an excellent job of facilitating the general discussion after the community presentation. It was a great event where all the members of the visiting communities and the guests had ample opportunity to speak out their minds frankly and discuss all issues related to CLTS approach. Some of the comments made by the communities and the visiting institutions are as follows:

Comments from the members of the visiting communities:

· ‘We will impose a general rule in our village where by no one would be allowed to defecate in the open and the near the water point.”

· “We will construct general toilets and bathrooms near the water points which could be used by the ladies”

· “All the open pit latrines will be covered within one week time.”

· “We have already covered 23 open pit latrines during the last two days after triggering was done. “

· “Until we analyzed our own sanitation profile, we didn’t know that we were eating and drinking one another’s shit due to open defecation.”

· “We thought every one in the village had toilets but our analysis revealed that open defecation was going on and most latrines were open which allowed flies to move in and out constantly. This was horrible.”

· “Children defecate in the open around homes; adults defecate in the open in their sambas, during people defecate behind their homes and in the bushes which are spreading shit everywhere.”

· “We will declare our village ODF first then we would spread this idea to our neighboring villages.”

Comments from the Visitors of the National Workshop

· “This (CLTS) is a very powerful approach of community empowerment. We will try to introduce this approach in our programme.” Representative of Concern World Wide, Tanzania

· “Some of our staff should have been invited to participate in the CLTS training workshop. One good thing about this approach is that the community is free to decide their own toilet design to safely confine the excreta. No external toilet model is imposed on them.” Country Representative Water Aid Tanzania

· “We need more information and literature on CLTS. Guidelines on how to trigger CLTS in villages need to be made available and translated in Kiswahili for wider use.” “We will first learn from the pilots and then spread the approach in all the districts of Tanzania” Officer from the Ministry of Health Government of Tanzania.

After the national workshop at Movenpick hotel all participants returned to main CLTS workshop venue in Blue Pearl hotel in Dar es Salaam and met in an evening session which continued till 9.30 in the evening. In this session all the participating countries presented their back-home plan of action for the next six months. This exercise was given to them the day before on which the groups worked and finalized before hand. This was basically a plan of action on where to go from this workshop? Please see the country wise plans at the end of the report.

The five day workshop was evaluated by the participants at the end in the evening session. The participatory evaluation was a non conventional type which all the participants enjoyed. Participants evaluated the workshop as very successful and found quite useful in their work. Please see the details of evaluation at the end of the report.

All the ten villages where CLTS was triggered were located in Kisarawe and Kibaha districts of Coastal Region of Tanzania. There are twenty six Regions in Tanzania of which Plan is working in four regions e.g. Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Coastal and Mwanza Regions.

Workshop Objectives

The five days workshop has the following objectives;

1. To expose the participants on the Community Led Total Sanitation approach, it’s origin, development, methodology spread and applicability in East Africa

2. To impart knowledge and kills of facilitation of CLTS to the participants

3. Through field exercise, triggering CLTS in villages and sharing experiences of selected communities with all interested institutions working on sanitation

4. Based on the first experience of CLTS triggering, developing a plan of action of introducing and implementing CLTS by the participating organizations for the next six months

Workshop Schedule

Regional Training Workshop on Community Led Total Sanitation

Plan Region for Eastern and Southern Africa

Blue Pearl Hotel, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

(12th – 16th February 2007)

Day
Date / Time / Activity / Facilitator
DAY-I
12th Feb 2007 / 8.30 – 8.40 / Welcome / Mr. Gashaw Dagnew, PSM, Plan Tanzania
8.40 – 9.10 / Introduction of participants (Seed mixer) / Kamal Kar
9.10- 9.45 / Expectations of the participants from the workshop / K.K
9.45-10 / Objectives of the workshop / Mr. Amsalu, Global Net Work Manager. Plan International
10.00-10.15 / Workshop Schedule / Mr. Francis Mtitu
WATSAN Advisor, Plan Tanzania
10.15 – 10.35 / Tea/Coffee Break / Blue Pearl
10.35 – 12.30 / Session-I
Sharing experiences and challenges of sanitation in East Africa / Group work and presentation