Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) is an approach used mainly in developing countries to improve sanitation and hygiene practices in a community. The approach tries to achieve behavior change in mainly rural people by a process of "triggering". At the heart of CLTS lies the recognition that merely providing toilets does not guarantee their use, nor result in improved sanitation and hygiene. Earlier approaches to sanitation prescribed high initial standards and offered subsidies as an incentive. But this often led to uneven adoption, problems with long-term sustainability and only partial use. It also created a culture of dependence on subsidies. Open defecation and the cycle of faecal–oral contamination continued to spread disease.

CLTS is focused on igniting a change in sanitation behavior rather than constructing toilets. It does this through a process of social participation. It concentrates on the whole community rather than on individual behaviors and the collective benefit from stopping open defecation can encourage a more cooperative approach. People decide together how they will create a clean and hygienic environment that benefits everyone. The approach facilitates communities to conduct their own appraisal and analysis of open defecation, mobilizing people to identify and find solutions to their inadequate sanitation situation.