Making Sanitation and Hygiene Safer: Reducing Vulnerabilities to Violence
Abstract
Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) aims for total sanitation where no-one practices open defecation, which in itself has potential to reduce vulnerabilities to violence. However, concerns over safety, privacy or dignity when using sanitary facilities can lead to facilities not being used or only being used during hours of darkness. Whilst poor design or siting of latrines or hygiene-related facilities are not the root cause of violence, these issues can contribute to increased vulnerability to violence, as well as fear of violence, which can affect the usage of the facilities and also the ability of communities to become and remain open-defecation-free.
This manual focuses on the issue of safety and vulnerabilities to violence that women, girls - and sometimes boys and men - can face which are related to sanitation and hygiene. It points out areas in which CLTS methodologies, if not used skilfully with awareness and care, can risk creating additional vulnerabilities, for example as a by-product of community pressure to become open-defecation-free. It also looks at good practices within organisations to ensure that those working in the sector know how to reduce vulnerabilities to violence and to ensure that sector actors also do not become the perpetrators of or face violence.
Citation
House, S.; Cavill, S. Making Sanitation and Hygiene Safer: Reducing Vulnerabilities to Violence. Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK (2015) 15 pp.
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