Freeing the imagination: innovations in CLTS facilitation in Zimbabwe (PLA 61)

Good participatory approaches are premised on the argument that communities know their own situations and can work out their own sustainable solutions. Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) uses participatory tools so that communities can actively and collectively realise and change the realities of their sanitation and hygiene situation. When ‘triggering’ this process in communities, flexibility and innovation is encouraged. Good practice requires CLTS facilitators to adapt to the particular cultural and religious context, and to innovate and share new tools amongst practitioners. CLTS was first introduced in Zimbabwe in November 2008 and this article explores how passionate facilitators and community members (natural leaders) have developed a number of new tools for triggering communities to end open defecation.

Participatory Learning and Action (PLA, formerly PLA Notes) is the world's leading series on participatory learning and action approaches and methods. PLA publishes articles on participation aimed at practitioners, researchers, academics and activists. All articles are peer-reviewed by an international editorial board. See: www.planotes.org

Article in: PLA 61. Guest-edited by: Petra Bongartz, Samuel Musembi Musyoki, Angela Milligan and Holly Ashley.

Keywords: CLTS, Community-Led Total Sanitation, water, hygiene, Kamal Kar, health, PRA, scaling up, policy, triggering, training, facilitation.

To read the full table of contents or download whole issue please click on More information above.