Over half the world’s population now lives in urban areas and a large proportion of them lives without improved sanitation. Efforts to tackle open defecation in rural areas has been led by the Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) movement. But how can the community mobilization techniques of CLTS be adapted to the more complex situations and transient populations in urban areas? How can landlords as well as tenants be motivated to provide and use safely managed sanitation?

Innovations in Urban Sanitation has been developed in response to calls from practitioners for practical guidance on how to mobilize communities and improve different parts of the sanitation chain in urban areas. Urban Community-Led Total Sanitation is potentially an important piece of a bigger puzzle. It offers a set of approaches, tools and tactics for practitioners to move towards safely managed sanitation services. The book provides examples of towns and cities in Africa, South Asia and South-East Asia which have used these approaches.
The approach has the potential to contribute not only to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 on water, sanitation and hygiene and SDG 11 on cities but also those concerning the reduction of inequalities and the promotion of inclusive societies. As a pro-poor development strategy, U-CLTS can mobilize the urban poor to take their own collective action and demand a response from others to provide safely managed sanitation, hygiene and water services which leave no one behind.

The urban sanitation sector suffers from a lack of effective engagement with the people who will use the services. Developments are usually driven by engineers, technology and regulations, with little heed paid to the capacities, aspirations, motivations and affordability of the sanitation services to the user. Innovations for Urban Sanitation: Adapting Community-Led Approaches contributes to redressing that balance and giving voice to the community and sanitation users. This useful new book applies what has been learned from using participatory tools in rural and urban sanitation to provide practical approaches to partner better with communities in urban sanitation projects – big and small. As a workbook it provides a menu of tools and techniques to mix and match for different types of urban sanitation project. Projects and programmes which systematically use these approaches will achieve better community engagement and increased ownership and thus improve the sustainability and outcomes of urban sanitation investments.
Isabel Blackett, Consultant, Inclusive Sanitation in Practice (ISP)

A timely and valuable book for anyone wanting to better understand the complexities of CLTS in urban settings. The authors helpfully combine comprehensive descriptions, practical guidance and tools for integrating CLTS into sustainable urban sanitation services.
Rebecca Scott, Lecturer in Public Health Engineering, WEDC, Loughborough University, UK

Jamie Myers
Jamie Myers is a Research Officer at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex

Sue Cavill
Sue Cavill has been working as a specialist advisor to the UK’s Department for International Development in recent years and has also worked with non-governmental organisations and international networks of community-based organisations. Widely published in peer-reviewed journals.

Samuel Musyoki
Samuel Musyoki is Country Director for Plan International, Zambia

Katherine Pasteur
Katherine Pasteur was the International Programme Coordinator in the Reducing Vulnerability Team at Practical Action. She has more than 15 years’ experience in international development, specializing in sustainable livelihoods, natural resource management and disaster risk reduction, in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Lucy Stevens
At the time of writing Dr Lucy Stevens was Programme Co-ordinator, Access to Services, Practical Action