The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) is a network formed by organisations active in the field of sustainable sanitation. Its formation in early 2007 was motivated by the UN's decision to declare 2008 as International Year of Sanitation (IYS). The goal was to have a joint label for the planned activities, and to be able to align with other potential initiatives.
A joint road map of sustainable sanitation related activities for the IYS was developed in the first two meetings of the alliance by participants from more than 30 multi- and bilateral organisations, NGOs and research institutions. The roadmap consists mainly of a series of thematic working groups that will jointly elaborate a range of publications on sustainable sanitation issues, will organise or contribute to international events and will contribute to develop new funding instruments as well as sustainable sanitation capacity building and program initiatives.
SuSanA is not a new organisation, but rather a loose network of organisations working along the same lines, and open to others who want to join and be active in the promotion of sustainable sanitation systems. The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance invites other international, regional and local organisations to join the network, contribute ideas, and to become active members in the thematic working groups. Feedback for the advancement of the joint road map is certainly appreciated, as it is work in progress that will be continuously up-dated, and will include all joint activities leading towards an increased implementation of sustainable sanitation systems.
Objectives
The overall goal of the SuSanA is to contribute to the achievement of the MDGs by promoting sanitation systems which are taking into consideration all aspects of sustainability (health, environment & natural resources, technology & operation, financial & economic issues, socio-cultural & institutional aspects). The MDGs and the UN's "International Year of Sanitation 2008" are highly appreciated by the "Sustainable Sanitation Alliance" as they help push sanitation high up in the political agenda. The main focus of the work of the SuSanA will be to promote the implementation of sustainable sanitation systems in large scale water and sanitation programmes, in line with the strategies proposed e.g. by WHO, UNDP-PEP, UNSGAB, and UNESCO.
General objectives of the SuSanA are therefore:
to raise awareness around the globe of what sustainable sanitation approaches are and to promote them massively;
to highlight how important sustainable sanitation systems are as a precondition to achieve a whole series of MDGs (e.g. to reduce child mortality, to promote gender equity and empower women, to ensure environmental sustainability, to improve livelihood, and to reduce poverty);
to show that sanitation projects must be planned with participation of all stakeholders at an early stage, must respond to the initiative and preferences of the users, and that these need to go hand in hand with hygiene promotion and capacity building activities for sustainable water and wastewater management.
Specific activities of the SuSanA are:
to collect and compile information which will assist decision makers (including the civil society) to assess different sanitation systems and technologies with regard to the full range of sustainability criteria so that informed decisions can be taken;
to demonstrate that sanitation systems can contribute to reaching the MDGs beyond sanitation, and consequently present a change of paradigm from purely disposal oriented to rather reuse oriented sanitation;
to give examples of "smart (and less smart) practice" in sanitation for the "International Year of Sanitation 2008" and beyond;
to identify and describe the mechanism to up-scale implementation of these examples and develop new financing instruments for pro-poor sanitation provision;
to develop global and regional visions of how sustainable approaches can be used to promptly reach the sanitation MDG and to promote them in the IYS 2008 and beyond.
Meetings
Meetings held so far:
29 to 30 January 2007: Kick-off Meeting for the promotion of sustainable sanitation / ecosan within the IYS in Eschborn, Germany. Hosted by gtz.
16 to 17 April 2007: 2nd steering group meeting of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance for the promotion of sustainable sanitation within the IYS 2008 in Dübendorf, Switzerland. Hosted by Eawag/Sandec.
11 to 12 August 2007: 3rd meeting of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance in Stockholm, Sweden, just before the Stockholm Water Week. Hosted by SEI.
3 to 4 November 2007: 4th meeting of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance in Delhi, India, just after the World Toilet Summit. Hosted by IWWA and Sulabh.
16 to 17 February 2008: 5th meeting of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance in Durban, South Africa, attached to the World Bank-WSP AfricaSan conference. Hosted by the Water and Research Commission, South Africa.
5 to 7 May 2008: 6th meeting of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance in New York, USA, in proximity to the 16th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development. Hosted by Ashoka.
22 to 24 August 2008: 7th meeting of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance in Stockholm, Sweden, within the frame of the Stockholm World Water Week 2008 (17–23 August).
2 to 4 November 2008: 8th meeting at the World Toilet Summit in Macao, China.
16 to 17 May 2009: 9th meeting of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in proximity to the "Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: Sustainable Development and Multisectoral Approaches" (18–22 May 2009).
22 to 23 August 2009: 10th meeting of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance in Stockholm, Sweden, within the frame of the Stockholm World Water Week 2009 (17–23 August).
Partners
AEE INTEC – Institute for Sustainable Technologies (Austria)
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Section on Applied Geography of the Tropics and Subtropics, Freiburg i. Br. (Germany)
