1. Kampala WASH Symposium: Bringing together the 21^st SuSanA Meeting and the 2016 WASH Sustainability Forum, June 2016
2. SuSanA Thematic Online Discussion: Linking WASH and Nutrition 
3. SuSanA Working Group Wiki: Practitioner’s Tool online
4. News from the SuSanA Indian Chapter: Activities for playful learning on water, hygiene, energy, biodiversity and waste management now available in the SuSanA library
5. Selected key documents on sustainable sanitation topics now available to assist newcomers
6. New SuSanA Webinar Series
7. Recordings of the webinar “Community initiatives for sanitation and health” now online
8. LATINOSAN 2016: Moving towards universal access to sustainable sanitation services
9. How has SuSanA impacted your work? Looking for testimonials, stories and examples
10. New SuSanA featured user: Carol McCreary
11. SuSanA welcomes six new partners
12. SuSanA Discussion Forum Digest: what has been discussed?
13. Sharing knowledge: Recently uploaded publications in the SuSanA library
14. Upcoming events and training courses

1. Kampala WASH Symposium: Bringing together the 21^st SuSanA Meeting and the 2016 WASH Sustainability Forum, June 2016

View on Kampala

For the first time ever, the organisers of the WASH Sustainability Forum and the SuSanA secretariat are joining forces to hold a joint conference: The Kampala WASH Symposium.

The Kampala WASH Symposium will take place in Kampala, Uganda from 20 – 23 June 2016 and the 21st SuSanA meeting will be integrated into the symposium – this will be the 6th SuSanA meeting on the African continent. The event builds on eight years of SuSanA partners work on sustainability in sanitation and five years of the global WASH Sustainability Forum conversations aimed at improving the sustainability of services.

Recognising the critical need for WASH projects to engage the broader system beyond a single project, with governments at the core of that system, the focus of this year’s symposium will be “From Projects to Services: WASH Sustainability through Whole System Approaches”.

We expect that over 150 experts from governments, development partners, civil society, and academic institutions around the world will converge in Uganda for this important set of discussions.

For more information, visit the conference page.

back to top of page

2. SuSanA Thematic Online Discussion: Linking WASH and Nutrition

Philipino Children learning about the importance of WASH

What do water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) have to do with nutrition and how can a multi-sectoral approach be beneficial on the way to better health outcomes?

WASH has been recognised as one major underlying cause for undernutrition and is thus gaining increasingly attention in combating diseases: Last year’s theme of the World Toilet Day was “Sanitation and Nutrition”, the “Bonn WASH Nutrition Forum” brought together experts from both fields and new publications focus on the sectoral interface. Building on key findings and recommendations from the past events, GIZ and ACF warmly invite the SuSanA community to take part in a thematic discussion on WASH and nutrition.

The online discussion is going to take place on the SuSanA discussion forum from 30th March 2016 to 13th April 2016. It contributes to the discourse of challenges and opportunities arising from an integrated approach: WASH and nutrition experts from ACF, CARE, GTO and WaterAid will elaborate on latest findings, point out gaps and present good practices. Part One of the thematic discussion focuses on the on-going discourse, terminology and points of conflict about integration, with lessons learned from own experiences. Part Two sheds light on how collaboration and integration can take place in the future with a focus on advocacy and the challenges for policy making (including joint indicators, monitoring and evaluation).

Weekly summaries of discussions will be posted on the SuSanA Forum as well as a synthesis report of overarching findings at the end. For asking questions, commenting and for sharing your own experiences, please visit the SuSanA Forum. To have a look at previous thematic discussions, visit the SuSanA website.

ACF, GIZ and the SuSanA secretariat are much looking forward to your engagement for a fruitful exchange.

back to top of page

3. SuSanA Working Group Wiki: Practitioner’s Tool online

Since the launch of the SuSanA Working Group Wiki (in December 2015), a range of new pages have been created. One example is the practitioner's tool. The practitioner’s tool is intended for NGOs, town engineers, and other stakeholders active on the ground, who aim at changing the physical accessibility of WASH systems but lack the technical knowledge and the funds for professional assistance.

The tool tries to guide those stakeholders through the whole process from the first source assessment, through planning of the project, to physical implementation and sustainable operation (O&M). However, the guide is not finalised yet, so all SuSanA members are invited to further enrich the existing pages.

The SuSanA Working Group Wiki is an open platform designed for collective generation and compilation of knowledge allowing every SuSanA member to access all contents and to add, read and edit it at all times.

back to top of page

4. News from the SuSanA Indian Chapter: Activities for playful learning on water, hygiene, energy, biodiversity and waste management now available in the SuSanA library

The SuSanA School Activity Collection combines education on water, hygiene, energy, biodiversity and waste management with activities that enable playful learning. Everyone is invited to use the open source activities for their green club, school teaching, workshops and trainings, or any other environment where innovative learning approaches could be useful. Simultaneously, the collection is meant to grow and become richer in content and diversity by outward contributions. Standard forms for the different topics were developed and are available for download here. These can be filled out and sent to the SuSanA secretariat, which will upload the activities on the SuSanA platform.

The initial set of activities were developed under the umbrella of the ‘Green Wicket Campaign’ that uses cricket as an incentive to promote the four main topics of the campaign: energy, waste, water and hygiene, in order to support environmental education in India. The collection is a result of the joint contribution of the Government of Karnataka, SuSanA partner Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) to the recently started first regional chapter of the SuSanA, which is located in India.

back to top of page

5. Selected key documents on sustainable sanitation topics now available to assist newcomers

The SuSanA platform now offers a selection of small numbers of “key documents” for various topics in the area of sustainable sanitation. If you are new to the sector or you are overwhelmed by the large number of publications available and just want to get an overview of a topic, the SuSanA platform is the right place to look at.
On the SuSanA Forum, top 5 recommended readings (and links) for most of the thematic categories and sub-categories of the SuSanA Forum have been compiled here.

Additionally, the content of the SuSanA library can be filtered by the topics of the Working Groups. In an iterative process and with the support of the Working Group leads and the SuSanA secretariat, Elisabeth von Muench, community manager of the SuSanA Forum, has proposed a selection of about 20-50 publications for each working group to appear in the filtered list of documents of each working group. The aim is to offer a valuable selection of important readings for each working group topic. 

To get an overview, please visit the SuSanA library and tick the relevant working group filter by accessing the filter panel at the top right.

If there are any publications you think are missing (or superfluous), please contact the SuSanA secretariat (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or post your opinion on the SuSanA forum (www.forum.susana.org).

back to top of page

6. New SuSanA Webinar Series

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and the SuSanA Secretariat will be starting a recurring monthly webinar series to provide more webinar opportunities for SuSanA members to present their research and projects and learn from others in a relaxed atmosphere. Our first webinar (about 45 minutes duration) will kick off Thursday, April 28^th and include an informal ‘mingle’ before the presentation and time for discussion and questions about presentations with participants. To start, we warmly invite SuSanA members who would like to do a short presentation of around 5 slides to contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to sign up as a presenter.

For more information visit the SuSanA Forum.

back to top of page

7. Recordings of the webinar “Community initiatives for sanitation and health” now online

Community Health Club in Zimbabwe
Picture by Juliet Waterkeyn

The last SEI-SuSanA webinar focused on community initiatives for sanitation and health and took place on January 28^th. Juliet Waterkeyn (Africa Ahead in Zimbabwe and Rwanda) spoke about community hygiene and health clubs for improving family health. She discussed the advantages of this approach for promoting the sustainability of community sanitation. Monirul Hasan (ZEF, University of Bonn, Germany) talked about the agriculture water, sanitation and hygiene (AG-WATSAN) nexus and improved health in Bangladesh. He presented a behaviour change approach for food hygiene in order to address the health challenges at this nexus.

The recordings are available on the SuSanA YouTube channel (Webinar 10) and the presentations of the speakers on the SuSanA Forum.

back to top of page

8. LATINOSAN 2016: Moving towards universal access to sustainable sanitation services

Participants at the fourth LATINOSAN conference

The fourth Latin American Sanitation Conference (LATINOSAN) was held From March 9th to 11th 2016, in Lima, Peru. Representatives from 16 countries from Latin America and Caribe, civil society and international organisations attended the first international conference in the sector after the adoption of the agenda 2030. The conference programme focused on the gaps to achieve universal coverage of sanitation in the region and had four thematic areas: i) politics and institutionalism; ii) management approaches and models; iii) technologies; iv) culture and performance.
Part of the thematic area on technologies, was a presentation of SuSanA partner GIZ, who introduced the SFD approach, developed for analysing and visualising excreta flows on the city level. The knowledge management of the SFD initiative composed by SuSanA partners is done under the umbrella of the SuSanA.

At the end of the Conference, the Lima Declaration (in Spanish) was made public to participants.
The Lima Declaration corroborates the regional commitment towards the realization of the human right to water and sanitation, focusing on the sustainable provision of water and sanitation services and the progressive reduction of inequalities in access, particularly for rural and vulnerable populations. It reveals the creation of tools and mechanisms for knowledge management and a Technical Platform for Monitoring and Evaluation of the SDG 6, in order to foster collaboration between the peoples and to contribute to the achievement of the SDG6 in the region. Furthermore, it was agreed to “strengthen the coordination inside the countries in order to boost water and sanitation impact on climate change, water resource management, nutrition and health through policies and strategies which emphasize the articulation with sectors such as health, education, environment and, in general, those aimed to social inclusion".

The Declaration also announces the Regional Meeting of Water and Sanitation Ministers (REMISA, its acronym in Spanish), to be convened on March 2017 in Mexico, which besides advancing in terms of national policies and legislation to guarantee universal access to drinking water and sanitation, will discuss and approve the proposal for the creation of an ‘Latin-American and Caribbean Observatory of Water and Sanitation’.

The fifth edition of LATINOSAN will take place in Costa Rica in 2019 and thereafter, the conference will be realized in two years intervals.

Links:
‘Progress on sanitation and drinking water: 2015 update and MDG assessment - Snapshots for LATINOSAN 2016’.
Official Website
Photos
Presentation on SuSanA and SFDs by Cecilia Rodrigues.
 

9. How has SuSanA impacted your work? Looking for testimonials, stories and examples

SEI and the SuSanA Secretariat would like to find out if SuSanA is having useful and positive impacts on your day to day work. We are looking at this from a qualitative viewpoint, which means that we are looking for "testimonials" or "stories" and examples from you, the SuSanA members.

Collecting such statements from SuSanA members is potentially also useful information for our funders and partner organisations that are contributing in-kind and financially to the network, and will be used to promote the value of SuSanA for potential new users (and potential new funders).

We are interested in collecting examples about how SuSanA has impacted your work. For instance, it would be great if you could share your examples of how your involvement in SuSanA has led to:

• New partnerships with other organisations in the WASH sector or beyond
• Grant opportunities
• New directions for your work
• Important critiques or insights
• A new audience for sharing your work
• Discovery of new job opportunities
• Expansion of your personal network
• Learning opportunities, e.g. by following discussions on the forum
• Ability to quickly download or access documents, photos, videos, presentations, posters etc.
• Virtual participation at meetings via Live Streaming
• Other examples??

If you have a testimonial or story with examples to share, please post it on the SuSanA Forum.

In case you have ideas how SuSanA could become more impactful for you or for the WASH sector, please also put those suggestions into this thread.

Thank you for your contributions! We are looking forward to hearing from you!

back to top of page

10. New SuSanA featured user: Carol McCreary

Carol is one of the early members of SuSanA - she joined in January 2009 and since then, she has been contributing in her role as an active SuSanA Forum user and lead of SuSanA Working Group 9.

The topic of Working Group 9 - Public Awareness, Advocacy and Civil Society Engagement - is the core of Carol's passion concerning sanitation. Carol herself admits having been “toilet blind” before 2007, so she knows about the importance of raising awareness for this topic. Nowadays, Carol believes that toilet availability is a human right and a precondition for physical and mental health. Together with the all-volunteer advocacy-group PHLUSH (Public Hygiene Let Us Stay Human), which she co-founded, she works for reducing the “toilet blindness” of governments and societies. Read (and listen) more about Carol, her visions and her work in the Featured User section of the SuSanA Discussion forum.

Congratulations, Carol, for being selected as the Featured User of the month March 2016! We are happy to have you in our community and looking forward to hearing more from you in the coming months and years!

back to top of page

11. SuSanA welcomes six new partners

We welcome the following new partners who have recently joined SuSanA, bringing the total number to 265 partners. SuSanA members can apply online to have their organisation become a partner here (see also our selection criteria).

Critical Practices LLC (CP) is a USA based organisation that provides services for design and implementation of sustainable technologies. As the originator of the EarthAuger design, Critical Practices manufactures and distributes the technology, provides technical expertise, and trains local partners in construction and sanitation best practices.

Whave Solutions is a non-profit social enterprise based in Uganda. Its Safe Water Security programme alleviates rural poverty and water-borne disease through reliable provision of clean water, promotion of good hygiene practices, and improvement of sanitation conditions. High quality WASH service delivery is achieved and maintained through the establishment of an innovative public-private partnership structure, designed collaboratively with central and local government partners and local community committees.

Serve Train Educate People’s Society-STEPS was established in the year 1993 as a Non-Governmental Organisation at Srikalahasti town, India. STEPS provides better future to rural and slum people, women and children by protecting their health needs and rights through treatment, prevention and awareness raising. The NGO puts special emphasis on health aspects of particularly preventive and curative health related programmes, sanitation and environmental programmes with a special focus on children, adolescents and women.

Indian Dreams Foundation (IDF) is an NGO founded in the year 2005. IDF works in the areas of education, health and women empowerment and works at the grass root level in slums and backward communities. IDF is also running several educational and empowerment programs for children and adolescent girls and is spreading awareness for health, hygiene and sanitation in schools and communities in order to reach out to the vision of the organisation: "A healthy & educated society”.

Association for Gender Awareness & Human Empowerment (AGAHE) is an independent, non-political and not for profit organization established in 2004. AGAHE is working with communities of Southern Punjab in Pakistan to improve sanitation through construction of latrines in schools and communities, rehabilitation of water supply schemes, awareness sessions with teachers, parents and students and leading the advocacy with District Government.

End Water Poverty (EWP) is a global civil society coalition campaigning to end the water and sanitation crisis. It is dedicated to demanding and delivering effective global advocacy which results in universal access to sustainable water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Established in 2007, the coalition has now grown to over 350 members in more than 50 countries around the world, working in all regions across Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and North America.

back to top of page

12. SuSanA Discussion Forum Digest: what has been discussed?

Composting system by Human Endeavors (USA and in future Costa Rica) (1398 Views, 21 Replies)

Public Compost toilet on Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland (and in National Parks in the US, Canada, Ukraine and elsewhere) (1366 Views, 44 Replies)

Innovations and Private Sector: Can They Solve the Sanitation Problem?  (1848 Views, 43 Replies)

Evolution of the EarthAuger UDDT (a hybrid composting and urine diverting dry toilet) - in-field demonstrations in India, Ghana, South Africa and other countries (742 Views, 13 Replies)

New Fecal Sludge Management Toolbox now available for Investors, Planners and Consultants (Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand and partners) (828 Views, 11 Replies)

Fertiliser qualities of excreta products from UDDTs compared to vermicompost digester (695 Views, 19 Replies)

back to top of page

13. Sharing knowledge: Recently uploaded publications in the SuSanA library

Several new publications have been added to SuSanA Library summing to 2049 entries till date. We would like to highlight the following publications to you (click here for the complete library):

• Deegener, S., Samwel, M. (2015). Urine Diverting Dry Toilets - Principles, Operation and Construction. Women in Europe for a Common Future  
   
• Spears, D., Haddad, L. (2015). The Power of WASH - Why Sanitation Matters for Nutrition. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
   

• Grange, C. (2016). Faecal Sludge Management - WASH in Emergencies, Problem Exploration Report. HIF (Humanitarian Innovation Fund)

• McCreary, C., Brown, A., Holiman, J., Sharma, P. (2015). Public Toilet Advocacy Toolkit. PHLUSH

• WSTF (2015). Design and Technologies of Decentralised Treatment Facilities - Manuals and further documents developed in the context of GIZ’s Water Sector Reform Programme. Water Services Trust Fund (WSTF), Nairobi, Kenya
   

• WASHplus (2015). A Teacher’s Guide to Integrating WASH in Schools. Washington DC: USAID/WASHplus Project

• Colonna, K., Walter, E., Teague, J., Matthews, E. (2015). Global Advocacy for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene - A Resource Guide. WASH Advocates.

• Harada, H., Schoebitz, L., Strande, L. (2015). SFD Report - Danang, Vietnam - SFD Promotion Initiative. The Department of Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development (Sandec) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag).

back to top of page

14. Upcoming events and training courses

Have a look at the highlights on upcoming conferences, sanitation events and courses in this section. 

Waste Expo
06.06.2016 - 09.06.2016 (Las Vegas, USA)

13th IWA Leading Edge Conference on Water and Wastewater Technologies
13.06.2016 - 16.06.2016 (Jerez de la Frontera, Spain)

 

21st SuSanA Meeting at the Kampala WASH Symposium
20.06.2016 - 23.06.2016 (Kampala, Uganda)

The Kampala WASH Symposium will take place in Kampala, Uganda from 20 – 23 June 2016 and the 21st SuSanA meeting will be integrated into the symposium – this will be the 6th SuSanA meeting on the African continent. The event builds on eight years of SuSanA partners work on sustainability in sanitation and five years of the global WASH Sustainability Forum conversations aimed at improving the sustainability of services.

 

AIDF Asia Summit 2016
21.06.2016 - 22.06.2016 (United Nations Conference Centre Bangkok, Thailand)

The Summit will focus on enabling quicker and better disaster response, ensuring more effective aid delivery and community engagement, improving humanitarian operations and logistics, and innovations for regional health and WASH programmes.

 

39th WEDC International Conference
11.07.2016 - 15.07.2016 (Kumasi, Ghana)

The WEDC International Conference is a comprehensive and interactive learning event, which provides continued professional development for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector professionals. In 2016 the respective contributions to the achievement of the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are considered. The invitation is open for partners, and those conducting significant or innovative programmes and projects with interesting experiences, to share those in the event.

 

Stockholm World Water Week
29.08.2016 - 02.09.2016 (Stockholm, Sweden)

The theme of the 2016 Stockholm World Water Week will address sustainable growth for all by focusing on inclusiveness in terms of the societal and human dimensions in all regions of the world. While the primary focus will be the “water for sustainable growth” theme, the Week will also follow up more generally on the implementation of the water related SDGs and the new climate agreement. Firmly placed at the intersection between policy, research and practice the World Water Week is also a natural place for exploring new ideas and perspectives in the area of water and sustainable growth between a diverse set of actors.

back to top of page

Arne Panesar, Trevor Surridge, Annkathrin Tempel, Jasmin Friedrich and Raphaela Andres
on behalf of the SuSanA secretariat
Website: www.susana.org
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Skype: susana.secretariat
Follow us on facebook: www.facebook.com/susana.org
Twitter: @susana_org
Discussion forum: www.forum.susana.org