CASE STUDY: CLTS OPEN DEFECATION FREE (ODF) DECLARATION CELEBRATION IN TETUGU

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1 CASE STUDY: CLTS OPEN DEFECATION FREE (ODF) DECLARATION CELEBRATION IN TETUGU ACF Water, Hygiene and Sanitation program has been implemented since 2008 in Orum, Ogor, Olilim sub counties and Otuke Town Council with funding from the Global Water Initiative and the support from Otuke district local government. The goal of ACF is to prevent malnutrition of children under five years of age, by achieving universal access to safe clean drinking water and good hygiene and sanitation practices by the end of the project cycle. ACF has been using the PHAST approach in Hygiene and sanitation promotion in the villages of returnees who have been severely affected by the 20 years long civil war and also providing subsidies (digging kits, sanitation kits and slabs). Sanitation coverage tremendously increased but some villages failed to hit the above 50% coverage mark and bad environmental practices including open defecation and indiscriminate disposal of refuse. ACF then decided to try out the CLTS approach after consultations with other agencies indicated that CLTS had led to more rapid and sustainable behavioral change than other approaches, and at significantly lower program costs. The staff underwent training by NETWAS in November 2010 and selected 28 villages among the 50 where ACF is implementing an environmental sanitation project.

2 Selected villages were new ones (where ACF is working for the first year) and worst performing villages (where ACF started to work from past years). ACF implemented the CLTS approach in these 28 villages. ABOUT THE APROACH CLTS encourages community self analysis of existing defecation patterns and threats, and promotes local solutions to reduce and ultimately eliminate the practice of open defecation. CLTS initiatives do not stress latrine construction per se, and avoid the use of hardware subsidies. Instead, mobilization efforts focus on helping communities and individuals understand the health risks of open defecation and use disgust and shame as triggers to promote action, which ultimately lead to the construction and exclusive use of locally built low cost household latrines. The ultimate goal of CLTS is that communities achieve and maintain open defecation free status. The main difference between CLTS and other approaches are the rejection of hardware subsidies and the use of the shame and disgust trigger as the key motivation for behavior change. Participatory approaches such as PHAST (participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation) have led to significant change in the country but this was not enough as there were still a lot of households without latrines and practicing open defecation. Location Tetugu village is located in Oluru parish, Ogor Sub County in Otuke district. The village had only 4 household latrines at the onset. It has population of 253 people and 45 HHs and is a largely rural subsistence agriculture based economy with a low level of livestock. Community Led Total Sanitation Initiation On the 10 th March 2011 the Hygiene team visited the Tetugu community leaders people and informed them on their intent to study community behaviours (implement CLTS) in their community. In

3 collaboration with the community the facilitators agreed upon a date for the study (triggering process). On the 14 th march 2011, a team of three ACF team members together with the Health assistants from the District local government triggered CLTS in Tetugu using the standard set of CLTS tools. There was significant open defecation even near water sources. The triggering which was a matchbox and a flame ignited shame and disgust and created awareness on the effects of open defecation. The communities then prepared work plans on how to end OD. Community Led Total Sanitation Follow up The LC1 chairperson, from whose compound the faeces were got, acted as the community focal point and as a leader he was very ashamed and rallied other community HHS to have the latrine s constructed. The ACF WASH team assisted by the village health teams, natural leaders, community leaders, and local government health assistants who were trained as CLTS community facilitators, routinely monitored the progress together with providing positive reinforcement to community members who had constructed household latrines, rather than negative feedback towards those who had not. The Extremely Vulnerable Individuals who were unable to sink the pits were assisted by other able bodied community members; an initiative that was fronted by the natural leaders. ACF then used approaches for negotiating improved household hygiene, household behaviors through community mobilization, and using tools from community led total sanitation. Hand washing and sanitation behavior change were reinforced by applying innovative community and household level action such as ideal home competition, home improvement campaigns and drama shows organized by the community members themselves with theme of water hygiene and sanitation.

4 Open Defecation Free Status The realisation of ACF s aspirations came to light when an external monitoring team comprising of District local government and ACF staff visited Tetugu on an Open Defecation Free (ODF) assessment. The team was impressed with the environmental sanitation and latrine construction of the community since all the now 53 HHs had latrines (a rise from 8 to 100%), there was no open defecation and they had also constructed a public latrine at the village square. This inspection team rewarded the community effort by declaring Tetugu ODF on the 14th October All the 53 households have received messages about the importance of hygiene and sanitation were certified "clean and healthy" (using a latrine with a hand washing station, such as a tippy tap. A date was set for an ODF celebration on 14th October The ACF/GWI supported Open Defecation Free celebration in the community was officiated by the Otuke District Resident district commissioner who also inspected five households in Tetugu villages. Sanitation and hygiene facilities (latrine, hand washing facilities, drying rack and lines) was attended by ACF staff, GWI partner s organizations, Otuke technical and political staff, the Tetugu community and representatives of the surrounding communities. The celebrations included speeches, a big lunch and climaxed with dancing and merry making. The RDC in his remarks congratulated the village on being the first in the district to attain 100%

5 household latrines coverage and ODF status which he said was very uncommon. He further thanked ACF, the VHTs and natural leaders for facilitating the community of Tetugu and planted ODF sign post to declare Tetugu as Open Defecation Free Village. Songs and drama with WASH messages (ideal homestead requirement, proper operation and maintenance of water points, proper handling of food and appreciation for ODF status) were presented by the communities and the merry making continued. Community Led Total Sanitation Progress ACF now plans to routinely follow up, encourage and steer the remaining villages to ODF status and declarations. ACF will then scale up CLTS in other 20 communities in the project area using the Natural Leaders that have emerged from the pilot communities, such as Tetugu as CLTS consultants for the scale up. Lessons Learnt It is important to engage societal leaders, such as religious leaders and teachers. It can take a significant amount of time to achieve sustainable ODF status. Transparency and clarity in communicating CLTS ideals are critical.

6 CLTS can greatly increase the confidence of communities, empowering them to develop themselves. 100% latrine target coverage cannot be met through traditional latrine building programmes. New strategies are needed, and the CLTS approach is potentially the best way to rapidly influence behavioural change, reduce open defecation and promote latrine construction in large numbers Further adaptations of the CLTS approach should address specific contextual challenges. One area of discussion is the possible introduction of an incentive programme to reward communities that achieve open defecation free status with water sources.