Petra Bongartz, IDS, UK

Day 2: 30th November 2010

The one thing that stood out for me today was a debate about whether or not handwashing should be a criterion for ODF!!! I was shocked that there was even a question about this and the majority of participants seemed to agree with me that this is absolutely crucial. CLTS and ODF are both concerned with breaking the faeco-oral contamination route, so it is about stopping all ways that shit can be transmitted to the mouth. Therefore handwashing _must_ be an ODF criterion.

Archana Patkar, WSSCC, Switzerland

We started bright and early with an excellent overview of the regional situation by Jane Bevan from UNICEF. In brief: 100 million people in 24 countries in West Africa are defecating in the open out of a total population of 300 million odd people. Not impossible to achieve surely I thought – only the size of my home state Maharashtra! But the challenges are huge- seasonality, low investment for sanitation together with low capacity and cultural and geological barriers….CLTS took off first in the early adopters – Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Ghana with some like Burkina Faso and DRC still to really adopt. To date about 1625 villages have been declared ODF. What is impressive is the exponential rate of change: In December 2009 there were 500, in June 1000 and six months later 1600….However out of the total number of villages triggered only about 25 % reach ODF status with clearly huge improvements needed in the post triggering follow up phase.

The presentation and discussion was followed by group work on i) triggering ii) follow up and iii) verification and certification process for ODF. Each group discussed country experiences and drew up a list of Dos and Don’ts for sharing in plenary. There were animated discussions in some of the groups with not a little disagreement.

Lunch has been a big three-course meal every day and today we were spoilt with prawns for starters and mille feuille for dessert. Lunch was followed by group feedback and preparation for the field visits. Another long but interesting day!

Lillian Okwirry, UNICEF Chad

Handwashing is still an issue when it comes to certification and raised quite a lot ofdiscussions among the participants. Yet it is quite simple to see the link between handwashing with soapafter the use of latrine and CLTS. Reducing oral-fecal disease cannot happen without hand washingwith soap after critical moments yetit is amazing seeit how our own perspectives can side linefacts with the debate for and against using handwashing as part of the certification criteria!!