Sustainable Sanitation Alliance
The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) is a loose network of organizations who are "working along the same lines towards achieving sustainable sanitation".[1] It began its work in 2007, one year before the United Nations International Year of Sanitation in 2008. The intention of creating SuSanA was to have a joint label for the planned activities for 2008 and to align the various organizations for further initiatives.
SuSanA has over 360 partner organizations and over 13,000 individual members (as of March 2021).
SuSanA is not a non-governmental organization (NGO). It has no legal structure and takes no membership fees. It encourages other organizations to join the network and to become active members in the thematic working groups.
The SuSanA secretariat is funded by the
Overview
SuSanA is dedicated to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and in particular SDG6 (Goal Number 6) which is "water and sanitation for all".[1] This is done by promoting sustainable sanitation systems. These systems should be "economically viable, socially acceptable, technically and institutionally appropriate, and protect health, the environment and natural resources".[5]
SuSanA is one of several knowledge management platform in the WASH sector such as the LinkedIn Discussion Group "Community of Practice on Sanitation and Hygiene in Developing Countries" by WSSCC (now defunct), Blue Planet, International Water Association (IWA), Akvopedia and others.[6]
Activities
Since 2007, SuSanA has held 23 meetings in different locations around the world. Each year one meeting takes place before or after the
SuSanA members are contributing to
Funding sources
SuSanA has no legal structure, budget nor income. Partners contribute time and resources from their own budgets. The SuSanA secretariat is funded by the
Several active core group partners, for example SEI, seecon, BORDA, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, IWA, and WASTE, have also funded various travel costs of SuSanA members, seminars, the printing of SuSanA publications and so forth.[10]
In 2020, the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council announced a stronger collaboration with SuSanA by merging their Community of Practice group into the SuSanA Discussion Forum, including financial support to the moderation of the SuSanA Discussion Forum.[13]
Impacts
The activities of the SuSanA network have contributed to increasing awareness about sustainability in the sanitation sector. SuSanA members were active in the Post-2015 Development Agenda and helped to shape the Sustainable Development Goals where Goal Number 6 now includes a goal of universal use of sustainable sanitation services that protect public health and dignity.[citation needed]
Other actors have picked up on the theme of innovative sanitation (often with
SuSanA fulfills an "intermediary role" in a global innovation system. It was found to be a "prime mover" in the development of "safely managed non-grid sanitation".[15]
Structure
Thematic working groups
SuSanA has 13 thematic working groups covering areas of sustainable sanitation where conceptual and knowledge management work is required:[16]
- Capacity development
- Market development
- Renewable energies and climate change
- Sanitation systems, technology options, hygiene and health – includes hand washing
- reuse of excreta)
- Cities and planning
- Community, rural and schools (with gender and social aspects) – includes community-led total sanitation
- Emergency and reconstruction situations (emergency sanitation)
- Public Awareness, advocacy and civil society engagement
- Operation and maintenance
- Groundwater protection – includes groundwater pollution issues
- WASH and nutrition – includes issues on malnutrition
- Behavior change
Partner organizations
SuSanA has over 360 partner organizations (as of March 2021).[2] The partners are of the following types: Local NGO, International NGO, private sector, research and education, governmental / state-owned organization, multi-lateral organizations, associations and networks and others.[10] All prospective new SuSanA partner organizations have to agree to the vision document when they join.[citation needed]
A
Individual members
Individuals can join as members. There are nearly 13,000 members (as of March 2021).[3]
Challenges and difficulties
SuSanA has been criticized by some in the
The activities of SuSanA so far have a tendency to take place and be driven by actors in the Global North, especially by European actors.
SuSanA has no regional nodes, offices or secretariats. It also has limited impact so far in the non-English speaking parts of the world, notably Russia or Central Asia.
The SuSanA core group has reacted to these criticisms by defining a mission statement in 2014, a roadmap for 2013 onwards and by hosting an open discussion forum where such issues can be discussed.[10] Recommendations made in 2014 to the SuSanA network for its future development and to further develop relationships among partners include: Continue to hold meetings in different locations around the world, establish regional nodes, re-activate the working groups, and create more active members through engagement.[17]
History
SuSanA started in January 2007 with a first meeting in Eschborn, Germany, at
A research project in 2020 has split the development of SuSanA into the following phases:[15]
- Phase 1 (2007–2009): Alignment and articulation
- Phase 2 (2010–2016): Supporting learning processes
- Phase 3 (from 2017 onwards): Directionality and global reach
See also
- List of abbreviations used in sanitation
- List of water supply and sanitation by country
- Sanitation
- WASH
- Human right to water and sanitation
- Water issues in developing countries
References
- ^ a b "Vision". Sustainable Sanitation Alliance. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
- ^ a b "Partners". Sustainable Sanitation Alliance. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ a b "Discussion forum statistics". Discussion Forum. Sustainable Sanitation Alliance. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
- ^ SuSanA (2008). Towards more sustainable sanitation solutions - SuSanA Vision Document. Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA)
- ^ "Sustainable sanitation". Sustainable Sanitation Alliance. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
- ^ Cranston, P. (2014). Knowledge Management and Building Demand for Sanitation. Final report from a consultancy assignment for Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) program, Euforic Services, Oxford, UK
- ^ a b "Join the SuSanA Sanitation Wikipedia project". Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). 10 October 2017. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
- ^ "SuSanA seeks volunteers to upgrade Wikipedia sanitation pages". Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). 9 March 2017. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
- ^ "Glossary and Wikipedia". Sustainable Sanitation Alliance. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
- ^ a b c d SuSanA (2019). A standard set of Powerpoint slides to explain SuSanA. SuSanA Secretariat, located at GIZ, Eschborn, Germany
- ^ Elisabeth von Muench, Dorothee Spuhler, Trevor Surridge, Nelson Ekane, Kim Andersson, Emine Goekce Fidan, Arno Rosemarin (2013) Sustainable Sanitation Alliance members take a closer look at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's sanitation grants, Sustainable Sanitation Practice Journal, Issue 17, pp. 4–10
- ^ "Sustainable Sanitation Alliance: Grant of $2.7 million to supercharge sustainable sanitation knowledge platform". Sanitation Updates. 4 November 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
- ^ "WSSCC announce merger of "Community of Practice" platform with SuSanA". WSSCC - News. 8 January 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
- ^ Gates, Bill&Melinda (15 June 2022). "Water, sanitation & Hygiene". Bill&Melinda Journal.
- ^ ISSN 0302-3427.
- ^ "Overview of the working groups". Sustainable Sanitation Alliance. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
- ^ a b c d Saffer, Adam (2014). "Sustainable Relationships within the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance: SuSanA Network Analysis Report". University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, USA.
- ^ "SuSanA's milestones and impacts during 2007–2017 (by SuSanA members and Thilo Panzerbieter)". Video of a presentation at the 10th SuSanA anniversary in Eschborn, Germany on 17 January 2017 (youtube video). Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2017.