Community-Led Urban Environmental Sanitation Planning : CLUES : complete guidelines for decision-makers with 30 Tools

The fact that a large majority of the world’s population is without access to adequate water, sanitation, drainage and solid waste services, presents strong evidence that conventional approaches to environmental sanitation are unable to make a significant dent in the backlog which exists in most parts of the developing world. These guidelines present guiding principles for the planning and implementation of environmental sanitation infrastructure and services in disenfranchised urban and peri-urban communities. The planning approach builds on a framework which balances the needs of people with those of the environment to support human dignity and a healthy life. By involving all relevant stakeholders, particularly the beneficiary community, it aims to consider the entirety of perspectives and expectations. This allows finding the best possible environmental sanitation solution in a common agreement. In Part 1 the seven steps of the actual planning approach are explained. Part 2 describes why an enabling environment (political, legal, institutional, financial, socio-cultural and knowledge framework) is needed as a precondition for the success of a planning process and how it can be nurtured. Part 3 provides 30 practical tools in digital form which aim to support and streamline the implementation of the process. The toolbox is provided on the enclosed memory key. [authors abstract]