Evaluation of community led total sanitation (CLTS) in Ghana : paper prepared for the West Africa Regional Sanitation and Hygiene Symposium, 10-12 Nov 2009, Accra, Ghana

Within the Ghanaian government structure, the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate (EHSD) is the body responsible for the implementation of a National Environmental Sanitation Policy, within which, the concept of Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) has been acknowledged as the preferred approach to scale-up rural sanitation and hygiene in Ghana. Since 2007, a number of different agencies working in the Sanitation and Hygiene Sector have been piloting CLTS strategies. Activities have been taking place in Northern, Eastern, Central and Greater Accra Regions. The organisations spear heading these exercises have set-up and implemented the pilots independently of each other and have adopted slightly different strategic approaches and institutional arrangements. Given the relative newness of the concept and the movement to adopt CLTS as the way forward, the EHSD, in collaboration with UNICEF, decided to conduct an in-depth assessment of the different CLTS approaches and their achievements. This evaluation, currently underway and whose findings are expected within the next few weeks, will provide necessary evidence to the Ministry for the further elaboration and formation of the national policy and strategy in terms of sanitation. The paper submitted will present and discuss the findings from this evaluation and the recommendations to effectively roll-out CLTS in Ghana on a wider scale. As CLTS is an approach being introduced across the West Africa Region, discussion on this evaluation in such a forum will not only serve to inform country level partners within Ghana, but will also be an opportunity for neighboring countries to learn from the Ghanaian experience. (authors abstract)