Declaration of ODF Nepal and moving towards Total Sanitation 30 September 2019 Process Report Secretariat, DWSSM, Panipokhari, Kathmandu October 2019 Prepared by ODF Declaration Secretariat (In consultation with PWG and WG) Declaration With Due Respect to the Declaration of 753 Palikas and 77 Districts as Open Defecation Free, I declare Nepal as Open Defecation Country. Besides, I call upon people of Nepal to move towards total sanitation country and achieve the target of Sustainable Development Goal by 2030. K.P. Sharma Oli Prime Minister Date: 30 September 2019 Page. 1 Forewords It is matter of pleasure that Nepal has been declared Open defecation Free Country from 30 September 2019 and moved towards total sanitation. I am thankful to all citizens of Nepal and more than 6 million households who constructed toilets and ended open defecation. I am grateful to all 753 Palikas and 77 districts that took on the ODF challenge and were able to declare their areas Open- Defecation-Free around 8 years in line with the National Sanitation and Hygiene Master Plan formulated in 2011. I would like to express my appreciation to all WASH Sector agencies and partners for their leadership and encouragement; the support of all NGOs and CBOs that inspired people for change; and the sustained interest and attention generated by all public media that helped to transform the sanitation campaign into a nation-wide movement for positive change. I believe that our joint effort as in the ODF campaign is required to move towards total, community- wide, sanitation through local-level initiatives with the vision of a clean Nepal to achieve the sustainable development goal of sanitation and hygiene. As a sectoral lead department, the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage Management call's on all people of Nepal and all Palikas to make sure that no one will need to practice open defecation and to maintain the country ODF, all the time, in every place. My sincere request to all people of Nepal for keeping their home clean, using toilet by all family members, practicing handwashing with soap, using safe water for drinking and food preparation, managing waste and keeping the surroundings clean. I am very hopeful that all Palika administrations will ensure enough toilets are available at public places, manage fecal sludge, wastewater, solid waste, maintain water safety plan and green parks as a part of total sanitation and making a clean Palika. I request all WASH sector agencies and partners to continue to support people in upgrading household sanitation and help Palika administrations to raise environmental sanitation towards a clean Pradesh and Country. I would like to express great respect to Minister Bina Magar, MoWS, Madhav Belbase, Secretary of MoWS and chair NHSC, and to Chandra Bahadur KC, Chair NSHCC who has been driving forces in the process Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support and effort of all of the sector agencies and individuals who supported country declaration process through Mission ODF, PWG and various working groups and management process. Sunil Kumar Das Director-General Department of Water Supply and Sewerage Management Page. 2 Table of Contents Declaration ............................................................................................................................................. 1 Forewords .............................................................................................................................................. 2 Background ............................................................................................................................................ 4 ODF Nation: ............................................................................................................................................ 4 Preparation framework ......................................................................................................................... 5 Group works and outcomes ................................................................................................................... 9 Mission ODF ....................................................................................................................................... 9 Documentation ................................................................................................................................ 10 Media ............................................................................................................................................... 12 Reward and recognition .................................................................................................................. 14 Resource mobilization ..................................................................................................................... 16 Culture program .............................................................................................................................. 18 Participation..................................................................................................................................... 19 Program ................................................................................................................................................ 20 Session Report ..................................................................................................................................... 21 First session: Journey of ODF movement ....................................................................................... 21 Second Session: ODF Nepal Declaration ......................................................................................... 23 Strategy for Total sanitation ................................................................................................................ 26 Dissemination: Conference Model ...................................................................................................... 27 Opinion survey after the ceremony: .................................................................................................... 30 Annex ................................................................................................................................................... 33 Districts with ODF dates .................................................................................................................. 33 The trend of ODF movement (Chart map) ...................................................................................... 35 Ceremony management team ........................................................................................................ 39 ODF Nepal- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) ............................................................................. 41 Page. 3 Background Open Defecation Free (ODF) concept initiated in Nepal after the introduction of the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach in 2003 and School Led Total Sanitation (SLTS) in 2005. Then ODF declaration of school catchments, clusters were started formally. The first VDC was declared ODF in 2005. Sanitation became a social campaign after the International Year of Sanitation-2008. Sanitation and Hygiene Master Plan (SHMP) was formulated in 2011 which provided a nationwide guideline with a target to declare ODF Nepal by 2017. The Local Government (LG)-led ODF movement scaled up nation-wide. In the beginning, the campaign became intense in the western part of Nepal, then to the east and in the center at last. In the eastern Terai, movement became effective only after 2014. Earthquake 2015 affected the movement in some of the districts, as a result target to declare ODF Nepal shifted from 2017 to 2019. The government of Nepal in its annual program (FY 2019/20) has a plan to declare ODF nation and move towards Total Sanitation led by Local Government. National Sanitation and Hygiene Steering Committee (NSHSC) on 28 June 2019 decided to declare Nepal as ODF country by 30 September 2019. At that time, out of 77 districts, 11 districts were remained to be declared as ODF. However, these districts were in final stage of movement. The preparatory working group (PWG) comprising sector partners was formed under leadership of Department of Water Supply and Sewerage Management (DWSSM) on 17 July 2019 and first framework for ODF Nepal declaration was developed on 4 August 2019. Ministry of Water Supply confirmed 30 September 2019 for country declaration because most of the remaining districts had confirmed to declare district as ODF by 17 September 2019 and that happened. NSHSC, NSHCC and PWG meeting held on 25 September approved the process and date for declaration. The country was declared as ODF on 30 September 2019 by the Prime Minister of Nepal. This is the process report of the country Declaration. ODF Nation: As required by SHMP 2011, sector partners including government and nongovernment organizations were involved in a unified ODF campaign mainly at district level joining D-WASH-CC for supporting communities. The movement was localized up to Palika level. The campaign addressed behavioral, social, technical, environmental barriers on sanitation and hygiene. The sanitation campaign also addressed financial issues of people in difficulties for various reasons. People constructed toilets meeting minimum standards and stopped open defecation with community’s own efforts. When every household owned toilet in their homes and institutional toilet at public places, local levels declared their designated area as ODF Palika