The basic principle of Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is the empowerment of local communities to do their own analysis and take their own action to become open defecation free.
This handbook has been compiled as a source of ideas and experiences that can be used for CLTS orientation workshops, advocacy to stakeholders, training facilitators and natural leaders and implementing CLTS activities. It is a resource book especially for field staff, facilitators and trainers for planning, implementation and follow-up for CLTS.
Users of this handbook must feel free to use its guidelines in the way they find best. The methods described are not the only ones for implementing CLTS. Users are encouraged to explore different ways of preparing for CLTS, for triggering, for post-triggering follow-up, and for supporting and spreading CLTS that fit with local conditions, cultures and opportunities.
Facilitators must feel free to be inventive and adaptive, and to use their best judgment in deciding what to do. The ideas and advice that follow have been tried and tested, but it is for facilitators themselves to decide what works for them.
