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Dear SuSanA members and partners,

1. High Attendance at the 23^rd SuSanA meeting in Chennai
2. 4^th International Faecal Sludge Management Conference held in Chennai, in February 2017
3. SFDs at scale at the FSM 4 Conference in Chennai, India
4. SuSanA celebrates its 10th Anniversary and is getting ready for the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development
5. MHM Thematic Online Discussion held on the SuSanA Forum
6. Launch of the SuSanA Regional Chapter Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
7. Thematic Online Discussions on Corporate Engagement and FSM held by the SuSanA India Chapter
8. SuSanA Wikipedia Edit-a-thon improved WASH articles on the online encyclopedia
9. 24^th SuSanA meeting to take place in Stockholm, Sweden on 26 August 2017
10. New and Improved SuSanA Forum
11. Update from the SuSanA Webinar Series
12. SuSanA opens up a new Working Group on Behaviour Change
13. SuSanA Discussion Forum Digest: what has been discussed?
14. Sharing Knowledge: Recently uploaded publications in the SuSanA library
15. SuSanA welcomes new partners!
16. Up-coming training events and courses
     

1.  High Attendance at the 23^rd SuSanA meeting in Chennai

Group Picture 23^rd SuSanA Meeting, Chennai

The 23^rd SuSanA meeting took place in Chennai, India on 18 February 2017 prior to the 4^th Faecal Sludge Management Conference (FSM4). It was organised by the India Sanitation Coalition, Ecosan Services Foundation, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Madras) and the SuSanA Secretariat.
More than 150 sanitation professionals, experts and enthusiasts from India and  abroad joined the meeting and discussed opportunities and challenges of scaling-up sustainable sanitation, planning approaches for urban sanitation, the political drive in India and opportunities for knowledge sharing.  
The plenary meeting, which was held under the umbrella of the SuSanA India Chapter, successfully connected different actors in the region and encouraged lively discussions.

The 23rd SuSanA meeting was complemented by a SuSanA WG7 meeting (WASH in Schools) and an open exchange Forum on 17 February 2017. Working Group 4 (Systems and Technologies) and Working Group 1 (Capacity Development) met during the FSM4 conference as well.
All the presentations of the meeting, videos and pictures can be found here.

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2. 4^th International Faecal Sludge Management Conference held in Chennai, in February 2017

The 4^th conference on developments in Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) took place in Chennai, India where the State Government recently initiated measures to address FSM with regard to policy, regulation and innovative solutions. The conference brought together more than 1000 professionals working in the sector, including utilities, service providers, cities, governments, academics, scientists, consultants, donors and industries, to support the global initiative of disseminating sustainable solutions for FSM. Focus was put upon innovative and practical solutions that can be scaled up. The FSM4 was structured into three tracks: research, case studies, and industry and took place for three days.
SuSanA is the “digital home” for the FSM4 conference and all presentations, audio recordings, conference abstracts and speaker’s biographies are now available on the SuSanA platform here: http://fsm4.susana.org/

FSM4 Workshop in Chennai

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3. SFDs at scale at the FSM 4 Conference in Chennai, India

The FSM 4 Conference held in Chennai presented and discussed the state-of-art of approaches to FSM. The high representation of the SFD approach could be observed in several posters, presentations and in the case study compilation, which contained experiences from Bangladesh, Mozambique, South Africa and Indonesia. In many cases, the approach has been customized to fit the different implementation contexts within different organizations and countries. This represents the value of graphic representation of the flows and fate of excreta for advocacy, planning and decision-support in cities and towns.

The SFD Promotion Initiative presented recent developments of the project and experiences with the SFD approach in five presentations and two posters which can be found here. In the presentation ‘Lessons learnt from developing SFDs at scale which can be found here, the results of the analysis of the outcomes of 47 SFDs was presented and discussed with the audience.

Partners of the project also held a full-day workshop on how to prepare an SFD. It was the first face to face training carried out using the online SFD Graphic Generator launched in December 2016. A live demonstration of the tool can be recapped in the recording of the webinar conducted in January 2017 and in the quick start video

An additional resource to support the production of SFDs is the recently launched FAQ section in the SFD web portal. These questions have been compiled from feedback received and shall evolve. If you have a question that have not yet been answered or if you want to share with us your experiences in using SFDs, get in contact with through the email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . We will be happy to hear from you.

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4. SuSanA celebrates its 10^th Anniversary and is getting ready for the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development

 On 17^th January 2017, Susana celebrated its 10^th anniversary in Eschborn, Germany where SuSanA was founded in 2007 by a range of actors who were actively involved in the sanitation sector. This year’s anniversary celebration took place under the theme "10 years SuSanA: How the changed sanitation paradigm contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals". During the celebration, SuSanA’s achievements, milestones and impact in the sanitation sector were reflected upon. SuSanA’s way forward was paved and the alliance’s contribution to the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development was discussed. Moreover, a final draft of SuSanA’s so-called vision document: “Contribution of Sustainable Sanitation to the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development” was presented to the public for the first time.

The document reflects the new context of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and outlines SuSanA’s contribution to the Agenda 2030. We envisage launching the final version of SuSanA’s vision document at the 24^th SuSanA meeting connected to this year’s Stockholm World Water Week.
The draft version of SuSanA’s Vision document is available on the SuSanA platform and we welcome any feedback on the discussion forum here.
For all the presentations, pictures and videos from SuSanA’s 10^th anniversary, please click here.

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5. MHM Thematic Online Discussion held on the SuSanA Forum

A 2 weeks discussion on how to address taboos and barriers regarding Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) in Schools organized by GIZ together with the SuSanA Secretariat was running on the SuSanA Discussion Forum from 27 March to 09 April 2017.
While nowadays the topic is gaining more and more attention, it has widely been neglected in the past. SDG4 (education), SDG5 (gender equality) and SDG6 (water and sanitation) require female friendly sanitation facilities and available informational materials (on MHM) at schools around the globe.
Taking into account the magnitude of the population affected by issues around MHM, schools provide an ideal environment to reach girls and young women and to address taboos and misconceptions in a culturally sensitive manner.
The discussion was structured along two topics:

1. Theme I - Breaking the taboo around MHM (27 March - 02 April 2017). Thematic Lead: Dr. Marni Sommer (Associate Professor, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health)
2. Theme II - Infrastructural barriers and how to monitor MHM (03 April  – 09 April 2017). Thematic Lead: Thérèse Mahon (Regional Programme Manager South Asia, WaterAid)

Follow the link here to be directed to the respective topics above. A synthesis of the discussion will be made available soon.

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6. Launch of the SuSanA Regional Chapter Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

The SuSanA Secretariat, together with the following SuSanA partners, Cewas Middle East, GIZ, the German WASH Network, BORDA, ACWUA, BENAA and Eawag have set up a SuSanA Regional Chapter for the MENA Region (Middle East and North Africa). The overall goal of the MENA Regional Chapter is to develop and strengthen the capacities of organisations and individuals in the sector of sustainable sanitation in the MENA Region to increase the resilience of vulnerable populations. The MENA Chapter has been launched at the Arab Water Week in Jordan in March 2017 and a roadmap for 2017 has been developed. By establishing a Regional Chapter MENA, SuSanA opens its knowledge pool and makes content relevant and adapted to the MENA context accessible for the Arabic and French speaking communities, for professionals and students looking to advance sustainable sanitation in the region.

The SuSanA Regional Chapter MENA team warmly invites contribution to the different functionalities of the chapter, including relevant publications in Arabic, open source training materials, topics for discussion on the SuSanA forum, past and ongoing project descriptions and new regional partnerships. For contributions. please contact the SuSanA Secretariat at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and for the newly established Mailing List, please register here: www.susana.org/mailinglist-mena-chapter.
More information about the Regional Chapter MENA are available on the SuSanA Platform:  http://www.susana.org/en/regional-chapters/mena-chapter.

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7. Thematic Online Discussions on Corporate Engagement and FSM held by the SuSanA India Chapter

Two more thematic online discussions were held by the SuSanA India Chapter since our last News Mail.

In December 2016, the India Sanitation Coalition organised a four-week discussion on exploring opportunities and challenges of corporate engagement in sanitation.
The discussion not only focused on corporate engagement via Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), but also took on different forms of engagement like microfinancing and starting a business in sanitation. Since the India Companies Act of Section 135 from 2013 was amended to make it compulsory for companies to spend 2% of their net profits on corporate social responsibility, sanitation has been one of the areas of attention.

More information and a synthesis of the discussion are available here.

A second thematic online discussion focused on Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) and took place in January 2017. As India strives for “Swachh Bharat” (clean India) FSM has become a common term, although no fixed definition is in place. With this thematic discussion, the India Sanitation Coalition together with the SuSanA Secretariat drew attention to role of FSM in city sanitation planning and engagement opportunities for the corporate sector.

More information and the synthesis of the discussion are available here.

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8.  SuSanA Wikipedia Edit-a-thon improved WASH articles on the online encyclopedia

With Wikipedia being the ‘go-to’ source of information for much of the world and the fifth most visited site on the Internet, WASH-related topics on Wikipedia are of great value to those working in the sector, like local government actors working on policy and legislation or journalists looking for information on sanitation. International UN days such as World Water Day are occasions when the number of people looking to Wikipedia to gain an understanding of WASH related issues peaks. With that in mind, the SuSanA Wikipedia Edit-a-thon took place prior and during the World Water Day in March 2017 and brought together more than 50 volunteers who edited and improved existing Wikipedia articles, added images and illustrations, created new articles, and translated English articles into other languages. As a result 14 new WASH related articles were created on Wikipedia and more than 120 articles edited.

The SuSanA Wikipedia Edit-a-thon is part of a larger project to support the continued growth and development of SuSanA’s knowledge management services funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. More information about the Edit-a-thon and how you can help editing Wikipedia articles are available here. 

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9. 24^th SuSanA meeting to take place in Stockholm, Sweden on 26 August 2017

We are happy to announce that the 24^th SuSanA meeting, hosted by the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI), will take place in Stockholm, Sweden on 26 August 2017. The meeting will take place prior to Stockholm World Water Week and a live stream is planned for SuSanA members who are unable to make it to Stockholm. To ensure active participation from online participants we will also organise a twitter chat.
More information about the 24^th SuSanA meeting, SuSanA WG meetings and SuSanA sessions at the Stockholm World Water Week will be available here. Please stay tuned!

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10. New and Improved SuSanA Forum

Have you had the chance to look at the new and improved SuSanA discussion forum? As you may know, under the grant from the Gates Foundation to SEI, the SuSanA Forum has been updated to a new Kunena Version. The new version is already online here and we would be very pleased to get your feedback. We recently carried out a usability study for the SuSanA platform (mother website and forum) using the User Experience Centre (USC) at Bentley University in Boston, USA. The changes that have been made are based on the results of the study which you can find here. We would be very keen to hear your feedback on the SuSanA forum. Please provide your comments in this post and we shall consolidate all the feedback that we receive.

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11. Update from the SuSanA Webinar Series

Since our last News Mail, SuSanA has hosted five webinars as part of our webinar series. Recordings are available for all five.

All webinars were hosted by SEI and the SuSanA secretariat as part of a grant to SEI funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Please contact the SuSanA Secretariat (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) in case you would like to organise a webinar. Please find an overview of the SuSanA Webinar Series here: http://www.susana.org/en/resources/webinar-series

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12.  SuSanA opens up a new Working Group on Behaviour Change

Given the large demand by SuSanA members to have a platform to discuss topics around Behaviour Change, a new SuSanA Working Group has been established.
Working Group 13 aims at fostering learning about Behaviour Change amongst SuSanA members, promoting collaboration and synergies amongst those working in Behaviour Change, and raising the profile of the importance of addressing Behaviour Change in relation to sanitation goals.
The Working Group is led by Bijan Manavizadeh (Global Handwashing Partnership), Sarah Dickin (SEI) and Om Prasad Gautama (WaterAid).

More information about WG 13 are available on the SuSanA website http://www.susana.org/en/working-groups/behaviour-change and the Discussion Forum: http://forum.susana.org/component/kunena/274-wg-13-behaviour-change

Join the Mailing List of the WG by logging into the SuSanA website with your user credentials and changing your subscription settings.

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

• The world can't wait for sewers - WSUP / EY Report on Clean Team Ghana (199 views, 4 replies)
• Exploring how to address on-going taboos and silence around MHM for girls in school (1117 views, 23 replies)
• Addressing infrastructural barriers to MHM in schools to support inclusive and quality learning for all (159 views, 3 replies)
• Best decentralized treatment solution for a city without a centralized sewage system? (Question about Kabul, Afghanistan) (2409 views, 37 replies)
• Vermi-Trickling Filters for Sewage Treatment (looking for help to design) (886 views, 19 replies)
• SuSanA Wikipedia Edit-a-thon (19-21 March) - continue to make your edits count until 31 March #edit4impact (2008 views, 16 replies)

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

Several new publications have been added to the SuSanA Library summing up to 2299 entries to date. We would like to highlight the following publications to you (click here for the complete library)

• UNESCO (2017). WASTEWATER - The Untapped Resource.
• UKS, GIZ and UNICEF (2016). Kenapa Berdarah? - “Why bleeding?”
• Shepard, J., Stevens, C., Mikhael, G. (2017). The world can’t wait for sewers - Advancing container-based sanitation businesses as a viable answer to the global sanitation crisis. EY, WSUP
• Tilley, E. et al. (2017). Arabic Compendium of Sanitation Systems - نُظموتقنياتالصرفالصحي. IWA, Eawag
• Luthra, B. et al. (2016). Pipe Dream - Cleaning Ganga - Down to Earth Cover Story. Down to Earth Magazine
• Naina Lal Kidwai (2016). Tying up with sanitation ecosystems. Down to Earth Magazine
• Rohilla, S., Watwani, J., et al. (2016). Urban Shit - Where does this sludge go?. Down to Earth Magazine
• Saxena, S., Nath, V., Shahpuri, A., Bauer, M. (2017). Corporates in Sanitation - The value proposition - White Paper. India Sanitation Coalition
• Jacob, N., Bauer, M., Falkenhausen, A. (2017). Faecal Sludge Management - The pathway to ‘Clean India’? - A Thematic Discussion Series hosted by India Sanitation Coalition and SuSanA. SuSanA
• Toetzke, J. (2016). Linking WASH & Nutrition – A Roadmap towards Better Health - Thematic Discussion Synthesis. Sustainable Sanitation Alliance, Germany

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15. SuSanA welcomes new partners!

We welcome the following new partners who have recently joined SuSanA, bringing the total number to 293 partners. SuSanA members can apply online to have their organisation become a partner here (see also our selection criteria).

Biome Environmental Trust from India Biome Environmental Trust has been conducting research, public education, practice-to-policy bridging and policy advocacy in the areas of land-use planning, energy, water and sanitation for more than fifteen years in India. It takes solution centric approach and knowledge-based activism through action research, engagement with citizenry and governing institutions.

BENAA from Egypt BENAA is doing youth capacity building in order to build-up sustainable development projects, and create an enabling environment in the MENA region. BENAA's youth and projects are integrated and cooperating with the public community to lead action towards sustainable development, by enhancing the socio-economic, socio-cultural, and governance environments.

Institute of Water Resources Planning from Vietnam The Institute of Water Resources Planning (IWRP) is a part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Vietnam and deals with studies related to river systems. IWRP specializes in policies, planning, engineering and consultancy. Their tasks include regulating the use of water resources, as well as protecting and developing water resources and the environment in a sustainable way.

Water Services Trust Fund from Kenya Water Services Trust Fund (WSTF) operates under the Ministry of Water and Irrigation in Kenya. The mandate of the Fund is to provide conditional and unconditional grants to the Counties and Water Service Providers without adequate services and to assist in financing the water services in the marginalized and underserved areas.

Frank Water from the UK FRANK Water partners with organisations that local people trust to help them build their own water systems, access funding from the local and national government to build toilets and learn more about hygiene and health.

	Habitat for Humanity India Habitat for Humanity India (HFH India) is part of Habitat for Humanity International - a global non-governmental organization that seeks to eliminate housing poverty. HFH India's areas of focus are housing, sanitation, disaster response and access to water. In 2012 HFH India began working towards providing improved access to sanitation facilities.
	Reaching hand from India Reaching Hand aims to empower vulnerable children, marginalized women & underprivileged families by providing them with improved public health measures, quality education and skill development opportunities. Reaching Hand acts as a catalyst for social change and envisions a promising future for all.
	Empower and Care Organisation from Uganda EACO is a Community Based Organization committed to reducing poverty in rural Uganda through economic empowerment, educational opportunities and support for marginalised groups of people. EACO does trainings on hygiene promotion, construction of latrines, repairing boreholes and WASH and create awareness regarding the linkages between water, sanitation and health.
	Bangladesh Environment Development Society Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS) is a non-profit organization working towards sustainable socio-economic development, conservation of natural resources, use of clean energy and protection of the environment through research and implementation of specific activities. BEDS helps create and develop initiation strategies for participation of the local communities in decision-making processes, as well as to expand and explore its own initiatives through similar national and international organizations, research institutes, think tanks, universities, etc.
	Centre de Recherches et des Technologies des Eaux (CERTE) from Tunisia CERTE is a research centre constituted by five laboratories working in different sectors of water and wastewater. It contributes to the development and dissemination of science and water-related technologies.
	Beaumont from the United States of America Beaumont is a Honolulu-based company that provides industrial design, mechanical engineering, systems architecture, and project management services. Beaumont is currently developing sanitation technologies to improve sanitation and health conditions of 100 million people by 2025.
	Governance Systems International from Uganda Governance Systems International (GSI) is a multi-disciplinary consulting firm providing technical expertise to National/Sub national Governments, Private Sector Companies and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) across the African continent. GSI responds to the current capacity gaps in provision of consulting services in governance and development work in many African countries.
	Clean Up Nepal Clean up Nepal is a for-purpose, non-government organization that works to provide an enabling environment to improve sanitation and hygiene in Nepal by connecting, educating and empowering local communities and relevant stakeholders through a people-centered, strength based approach to improve community health, well-being and opportunity.
	European Environment and Health Youth Coalition (EEHYC) from Lithuania The European Environment and Health Youth Coalition (EEHYC) promotes the understanding of the inherent links between environment and health. Through its membership, it interlinks the activities of different organisations, bringing experiences and ideas to international fora instigated by the WHO Regional Office for Europe. In partnership with the WHO Europe, UNEP, European Commission and other actors, the Coalition works to ensure long term sustainability of the lived environment.
	Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGMVP) from India RGMVP is a women’s empowerment organization that primarily mobilises women from the poorest and most backward districts of Uttar Pradesh into Women’s Self Help Groups and their federations. Through these social platforms, RGMVP runs programmes around financial inclusion, livelihoods, health, education, sanitation, local governance and leadership development
	AKUT Environmental Engineers Burkard & Partner from Germany AKUT Environmental Engineers Burkard & Partner is involved in international development cooperation. AKUT focuses on institutional strengthening of drinking water and sanitation service providers, water and wastewater associations, construction of water and waste water facilities and continuous education and training of their local staff (capacity building).

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16. Upcoming events and training courses

Get updated on SuSanA events by visiting our events calendar here.  A few up-coming events worth noting are:

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Arne Panesar, Annkathrin Tempel, Doreen Mbalo, Shobana Srinivasan, and Alokananda Nath
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
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Discussion forum: www.forum.susana.org