Over 2008/09, WaterAid completed a multi-country research study exploring sustainability and equity aspects of community-led total sanitation (CLTS) initiatives in Bangladesh, Nepal and Nigeria.
The study aimed to contribute to global understanding of community-wide open defecation free approaches, focusing on the extent to which these approaches result in sustained and equitable improvements in sanitation behaviour.
The study tested the hypothesis that: ‘Achieving open defecation free (ODF) status is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the entire community to use and maintain hygienic latrines in the long term’.
