Clean and Green

Open defecation is the primary source of pathogen contamination and spread of disease. In many countries, the policy for rural sanitation is to end open defecation and strengthen basic hygiene practices. Addressing open defecation removes a major contamination source and can be seen as a first important step towards a more integrated management of risks and resources in the local environment.

How? A common approach is to apply a CLTS method. This includes mapping open defecation sites, demonstrating faecal–oral contamination, and triggering disgust and collective action. Emphasizing inclusivity ensures that marginalized households are not left behind.

Infrastructure is not subsidized in the original CLTS approach in order to enhance ownership. In some countries, there is a subsidy of key hardware such as latrine slabs, to ensure that toilets achieve the minimum hygienic standard.

When all households in the community have reached the common sanitation and hygiene goals, there is a verification and certification process to become an open-defecation–free (ODF) village. After a first verification of ODF, the community needs to prove the ability to sustain the new practices for a set period of time before being certified ODF.

References and inspiration:

• Handbook on Community Led Total Sanitation

Understanding the local context is essential for designing a Clean and Green intervention that reflects community realities, priorities and opportunities. This involves early engagement with regional, local and community leaders, along side a baseline study to gather information on current conditions in water, sanitation, hygiene, waste management and agricultural practices. Together, these activities guide Clean and Green implementation, while the baseline study also provides a reference point for later impact evaluation.

Anchoring Clean and Green with relevant leaders

Engaging regional, local and community leaders early on is essential to establish legitimacy and local ownership. It also helps the project team better understand how communities are organized, who is responsible for sanitation and agriculture-related issues, and which ongoing initiatives or constraints need to be taken into account during implementation.

Typical activities include:

• Inception meetings with regional and local authorities, village leaders and associations (e.g. women’s and youth groups, farmer associations, religious leaders).
• At a later stage, restitution of baseline results and discussion of the Clean and Green process and intervention goals, including clarification of roles and expectations.

References and inspiration:

• EcoSan Club publication: Sustainable Sanitation Practices (see p. 6 for an example of introducing reuse projects to community members and leaders)
• Report on the introductory phase of a productive sanitation project in Niger (in French)

Assessing the baseline situation

A baseline study helps build a picture of current conditions and practices. Useful aspects to capture include:

• An overview of current agriculture, WASH and waste management practices
• Insights into attitudes, knowledge, and gender-specific roles related to sanitation and waste management
• Information on fertilizer use (chemical and organic) and household expenditures related to health care and medication.

A conventional baseline approach is based on household surveys to gather quantitative and representative data. Alternatively, participatory rural appraisal (PRA) methods – such as mapping exercises and focus group discussions – can offer a less quantitative but still informative assessment to capture community perspectives.

This stage typically takes one to three months and is usually led by the project implementation team, often in collaboration with local associations, authorities or research institutions.

References and inspiration:

• Household survey results, including indicator tables suitable for pre/post intervention evaluation: Clean and Green Burkina Faso Baseline Study
• Using focus groups for rapid community-level assessments of agriculture and waste management: SEI Resource Flow Mapping Guide (2023), pages 6 and 9.
• Safely managed sanitation questionnaires for inspiration (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene):
  • Monitoring Safely Managed On-Site Sanitation
  • Draft SMOSS monitoring guidance Annex B (household questionnaire)

This step marks the transition from a focus on sanitation coverage to “productive sanitation”, encouraging engagement in the Clean and Green process, with higher ambitions for both risk and resource management.

This step typically takes place shortly after the baseline study and is led by the project team in close collaboration with local authorities and community facilitators. It usually involves a community meeting to share baseline results and highlight key opportunities to reduce risks and recover resources in the local environment.

Clean track – risk management

Reducing health risks through improved waste-flow management and hygiene practices is the core focus of the Clean track. Facilitators can:

• Use baseline data on household health care and medical expenditures to spark discussions on how improved hygiene and risk management can reduce illness and health-related costs.
• Highlight the importance of addressing all relevant waste flows – not only human waste but also animal waste, greywater, solid waste, and food and water hygiene – at both household and community levels.

By engaging in the Clean track, households can strengthen their capacity and adopt practices that reduce risks and improve overall health.

Green track – resource management

Nutrients, organic matter and water are all valuable agricultural inputs found in many local waste-flows. The aim is to help the community recognize the “value in waste”, particularly in human excreta, which represents a large and often untapped local resource.

Resources in human excreta

• Facilitators introduce the concept of nutrient circularity: To grow well, plants take up nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) from the soil; these nutrients are then part of the food we eat and almost all are later excreted in urine and faeces. If this were not the case, we would continuously gain weight; even in children, only a small fraction of nutrients in the food they eat becomes new body tissue. Nutrients are used by the body, but then excreted and can be safely returned to the soil to sustain new crops, closing the nutrient loop.
• Estimates of nutrient quantities in excreta:
  • Using FAO country data on protein intake, facilitators estimate the average annual nutrient quantity excreted per person and express it in equivalent kilograms of chemical fertilizer – a tangible reference for farmers.
  • Participants then estimate the total fertilizer quantity and monetary value for a typical household and for the entire community.
  • This exercise often leads to a powerful realization of the hidden value in the urine and faeces everyone produces, as well as the importance of managing these resources safely and productively.

Resources in other waste flows:

• Valuable resources are also present in animal excreta, organic waste, ash and greywater. Some are likely already reused, but there is typically untapped potential. For example:
  • Bedding for livestock can absorb urine, significantly increasing the amount of manure compost produced.
  • Greywater, often a health hazard when stagnant, can be safely reused in composting pits or piles, mulch beds, or infiltration systems to support crop production or groundwater recharge.

By engaging in the Green track, households will be able to explore and adopt safe and practical reuse options for all major local waste flows.

Confirming Clean and Green engagement

The session concludes by confirming the community’s engagement in the Clean and Green process – for example, by agreeing on relevant waste flows in their local context and establishing a local Clean and Green committee to coordinate actions on both household and community levels.

References and inspiration: 

Calculation of nutrients in excreta: : In Burkina Faso, calculations showed that urine and faeces contain the equivalent of 15 kg of chemical fertilizer per person per year (NPK (15:15:15) and Urea, common in Burkina Faso), or more than 80 kg for an average household of 5.6 people. This represents a value of EUR 7–15 per person/year or EUR 40–85 per household/year, depending on fertilizer prices. SEI 2023 Report (PDF)

For Clean and Green to succeed, households and communities need to become aware of local health risks and resource opportunities, and build the capacity to manage them safely. This includes understanding how everyday practices can create health risks – not only from waste flows (human and animal excreta, solid waste and greywater), but also from inadequate handwashing, water handling and food hygiene (Clean track).

At the same time, households need to recognize that local waste flows contain valuable nutrients, organic matter and water, and understand how good waste flow management conserves these resources for safe and productive reuse (Green track).

Sensitization and training provide the knowledge and motivation needed for better risk reduction and productive reuse. They are best carried out through participatory sessions that build on baseline findings and the earlier community engagement step. These sessions are typically coordinated by the project team and are often carried out in collaboration with extension agents and community facilitators.

Activities can be organized at the community or neighbourhood level but may also include household visits. Training should be interactive, practical and adapted to local languages and literacy levels, with a strong emphasis on hands-on demonstrations.

A range of participatory tools can be used to help communities understand local risks and resources, as well as to explore possible measures to manage them better. The table below presents a selection of tools that have been used in Clean and Green implementation, their objectives and key references:

Building on awareness and capacity developed in earlier steps, this stage focuses on selecting and adopting technologies and practices that translate Clean and Green ambitions into concrete action at household and community levels. Clean and Green implementation strategies should be technology neutral. This means they focus on the desired outcomes – such as reducing human and environmental exposure risks and enabling the safe and productive reuse of resources – rather than promoting a specific technology or reuse method from the outset. Technologies and practices should be selected based on local needs and preferences, feasibility (including costs, availability of materials and complexity), and proven performance.

National standards and guidelines for sanitation and hygiene must also be respected, particularly those related to toilet design, construction and faecal sludge management.

Clean track – risk management

The Clean track focuses on interrupting exposure pathways beyond open defecation. In rural areas, the basic “Clean” components include safe management of relevant waste flows, safe water handling and hygiene practices:

Clean track components and practical implications

Green track – resource management

The ambition for the Green track is that at least 75% of resources contained in key waste flows are collected and safely reused, linking sanitation to agriculture and, in some cases, energy production. Key resources and the waste flows in which they are found include:

• Nutrient reuse: from human and animal excreta, organic residues and ash
• Water reuse: especially greywater
• Organic matter reuse: e.g. from compost, manure, digestate and biochar
• Energy recovery: potentially biogas production from organic residues and manure

Households and communities need practical ways to collect, treat and reuse the main waste flows. Green components (waste flows) and practical implications aimed to ensure quantity, safety and effectiveness are presented in the table below:

Green track components and practical implications  

References and inspiration:

In the Clean and Green pilot project in Burkina Faso, several low-cost, context-adapted technologies with high productive potential were identified for each type of waste flow. These are listed below as either proven in Burkina Faso (green) or as possible options (yellow).

Learning by doing is one of the most effective ways to build confidence, change perceptions, and ensure safe adoption of new practices. Practical reuse training should be introduced as early as possible in the Clean and Green process.

For example, experiments with urine as a fertilizer – either on crops or to enrich compost – can be carried out with minimal infrastructure, using basic urine collection devices such as a jerry can, funnel and a potty. These early reuse trials can, in turn, motivate households to invest in sanitation and to consistently use toilets and related infrastructure.

The Farmer Field School approach, developed by the FAO in the late 1980s and now applied in more than 90 countries, is a proven participatory method that is well suited for building practical reuse skills.

A typical farmer field school compares the effect of different fertilizers on adjacent plots of land. The setup could may include:

• one plot representing current farmer practice (often low input)
• one plot using the recommended dose of chemical fertilizers
• one or more plots using locally available fertilizers (excreta, compost or combinations thereof)

Through regular field sessions, farmers learn about:

• the characteristics of different types of fertilizers
• the fertilizer dose for each crop type
• how and when to apply the fertilizers
• how to adapt local materials for fertilizer application
• safe handling, the use of protective equipment, and good hygiene.

Over the season, farmers make regular observations of crop development, followed by an evaluation of the agronomic and economic effects (yield and cost/benefit) of the different treatments.

Field visits are often organized so that other farmers, community members and authorities can see results first hand, helping to build wider acceptance and interest.

In Burkina Faso, several ecological sanitation projects have also included complementary trainings on soil and water conservation or compost-making techniques within the farmer field school, depending on community needs.

References and inspiration

• FAO introduction to Farmer Field Schools (PDF)
• Experience of excreta reuse in Burkina Faso and Niger (PDF, p. 7–9)
• Summary presentation of lessons learnt on reuse in Burkina (slides)
• Guide on urine reuse (English, Spanish and French)
• Sustainability of ecological sanitation projects in Burkina Faso:
  • Dickin et al. (2018)
  • Dagerskog et al. (2020)

Monitoring Clean and Green progress helps track whether agreed infrastructure and practices are in place and functioning as intended. Progress is assessed using a set of measurable indicators for each component of the Clean and Green tracks. Results are visualized using a traffic light system:

• Green light: all indicators are achieved.
• Yellow light: one indicator is missing.
• Red light: two or more indicators are not achieved.

This allows households, communities, project staff and local authorities to identify strengths as well as areas requiring improvement.

Clean track – risk management

Progress is the Clean track measured through indicators related to safe human and animal excreta management, solid waste management and greywater management, as well as safe water handling and improved hygiene practices, including handwashing and food hygiene.

Green track – resource management

The Green track emphasizes safe and efficient reuse of recovered resources. Indicators are grouped around three main objectives for each waste flow:

1. Quantity: the majority (>75%) of each waste flow is collected.
2. Safety: measures and knowledge are in place to minimize health risks during reuse, following the WHO (2006) multibarrier approach (e.g. treatment, use of protective equipment, withholding period between application and harvest).
3. Efficiency: nutrient losses are minimized through good practices such as appropriate storage, dosage and application methods of fertilizers (e.g. composted faeces, urine), thereby avoiding crop damage or environmental contamination.

Monitoring roles and methods

Monitoring may be undertaken by different actors, depending on local capacity and institutional arrangements:

• households through self-assessment
• village or neighbourhood Clean and Green committees for collective monitoring and coordination
• NGOs or facilitators for external support and technical verification
• agricultural or sanitation officers for oversight and integration into local government reporting systems.

Indicators are verified through:

• direct observation (e.g. cleanliness, infrastructure condition, containment of waste)
• household interviews or demonstrations (e.g. knowledge of safety measures and reuse modes and doses).

Data collection and learning

Digital tools such as M-Water or KoboCollect can support data collection. Monitoring data can be visualized through dashboards for project teams and authorities, while personalized feedback via QR codes or scorecards can promote learning and continuous improvement. In this way monitoring becomes a process of building local capacity, motivation and shared learning within and across communities.

References and inspiration

• WHO Sanitary inspection packages: For sanitation systems and for small water supplies

• A Clean and Green monitoring guide developed in the pilot project in Burkina Faso (in French)

Recognizing achievements is an important way to sustain motivation and reinforce behaviour change in the Clean and Green process. As in CLTS, where communities are certified as “open defecation free” (ODF), Clean and Green can also include structured recognition of households and villages that meet Clean and/or Green criteria.

Household recognition

As households achieve Clean or Green indicators, simple forms of recognition can help reinforce behaviour change and inspire others. This could involve a verification visit by a local Clean and Green committee and a visible label or certificate (e.g. “Clean household”, “Green household”, or “Clean & Green household”). Household recognition encourages continued engagement and helps build local champions.

Community certification

When all households, institutions and public spaces in a village meet the indicators, the entire community can be formally recognized as “Clean”, “Green”, or “Clean & Green”. Community-level certification typically would require a more formal verification process involving district or municipal authorities, drawing inspiration from existing ODF certification processes.

The Clean and Green recognition and certification system is still under development and will need to be refined through field piloting. Early implementation will help identify practical procedures, clarify roles, and test verification tools suited to the local context.