Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) is the most widely employed approach to reduce open defecation in rural areas. It has been implemented in some manner in nearly 60 countries and is part of the national sanitation strategy in approximately half of those countries. Both contextual and implementation factors can bear upon CLTS programme performance and success, forming a “performance envelope” of factors under which the intervention is more likely to succeed. Examining these factors carefully offers insights for improving decision making on where and how CLTS programmes are delivered in the future.
Through the CLTS Performance Envelope research activities, the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Partnerships and Learning for Sustainability (WASHPaLS) project examined how local context and program implementation strategies affect CLTS outcomes across multiple countries. The aim of this research is to provide governments, donors, and implementing organisations with insights to i) better target CLTS activities to areas with the highest likelihood of success and ii) adapt implementation strategies to maximize the chances for their success and sustainability.
WASHPaLS research answered two overarching questions: (1) what contextual factors outside the control of implementers influence CLTS success; and (2) what implementation strategies are successful at achieving and sustaining sanitation gains? For Question 1, they employed a quantitative approach to analyse large CLTS implementation datasets in four countries (Cambodia, Ghana, Liberia, and Zambia). For Question 2, they employed a qualitative approach to allow for in-depth investigation of community-level dynamics in two countries (Cambodia and Ghana). These research questions have evolved since their initial conception due to data limitations.
