Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) in Kenya
A rural sanitation methodology in which facilitators trigger communities to collectively analyze their open defecation practices and decide to build latrines by themselves, without hardware subsidy, until reaching Open Defecation Free (ODF) status.
illustrative atlas image · Herbert Goetsch / Unsplash01 The context
Piloted by Plan Kenya in 2007 and adopted by the Ministry of Health as a national strategy. Studies in Siaya and Migori document both coverage increases and a significant reversal of ODF status.
02 How it works
03 What it stands on
The evidence 4 ›
04 Lessons learned
Sustainability is the weak point: more than 70% of villages that received ODF status reverted (66.1% of households in Suna West, Migori partially reverted). Of 11,641 triggered villages only 3,131 reached certification. CLTS boosting (combined interventions) proved 7.92 times more likely to achieve latrine ownership (95% CI 1.77-35.45): reinforcing and following up matters more than just triggering.