Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA)
Encyclopedia
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.
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:
Specific activities of the SuSanA are:
Sustainable sanitation
- Background for the sanitation dilemma :The urgency for action in the sanitation sector is obvious, considering the 2.6 billion people world-wide who remain without access to any kind of improved sanitation, and the 2.2 million annual deaths caused mainly by sanitation-related diseases and poor...
. 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 sanitationSanitation
Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
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
Who
Who may refer to:* Who , an English-language pronoun* who , a Unix command* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism- Art and entertainment :* Who? , a 1958 novel by Algis Budrys...
, UNDP-PEP, UNSGAB, and UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
.
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 sustainabilitySustainabilitySustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
, 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 hygieneHygieneHygiene refers to the set of practices perceived by a community to be associated with the preservation of health and healthy living. While in modern medical sciences there is a set of standards of hygiene recommended for different situations, what is considered hygienic or not can vary between...
promotion and capacity buildingCapacity buildingCapacity building also referred to as capacity development is a conceptual approach to development that focuses on understanding the obstacles that inhibit people, governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations from realizing their developmental goals while enhancing...
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 MeetingKickoff meetingThe Kickoff Meeting is the first meeting with the project team and the client of the project. This meeting would follow definition of the base elements for the project and other project planning activities. This meeting introduces the members of the project team and the client and provides the...
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)
- Alter-Eco – Corporación Alternativas Ecológicas, Cali, Colombia
- Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany
- BEWOF, Better World Foundation, Cameroon
- BGR – Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (Germany)
- BOKUBokuBoku may refer to:*The Cuban name for the Ashiko, a type of drum*Boku , a juice carton drink.*Bōku, a board game.*BOKU, the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, in Austria....
– University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Science, Vienna (Austria) - Cap-Net – Capacity Building for Integrated Water Resources ManagementCapacity Building Network (Cap-Net)The Cap-Net is a non profit international capacity building network for Integrated Water Resource Management initiated by UNDP. Its formation in 2003 was initiated by the UNDP's decision to declare Cap-Net as International Network for Capacity Building for IWRM...
- EawagEawagThe Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology or Eawag is a Swiss research institution for aquatic research. As part of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology domain it is an institution of the Swiss federation...
-Sandec – Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology – Department of Water Supply and Sanitation in Developing Countries - EcoSan Club Austria
- Ecosanlac – Ecological Sanitation in Latin America and the Caribbean
- EcoSanRes Programme – Ecological Sanitation Research Programme (Sweden)
- GTO – German Toilet Organization
- GTZ – German Development Cooperation Agency (Germany)
- IEES – International Ecological Engineering Society
- IRC – International Water and Sanitation Centre (Netherlands)
- IRIDRA- Constructed wetlands and Sustainable Integrated Water Management – Engineering, R&D (Italy)
- ITAS – Institute for Technology Assessment and System Analysis (Germany)
- IWA-SG – International Water Association – Specialist Group on Resources Oriented Sanitation (EcoSan)
- IWWA Indian Water Works Association
- Meda-Water – Euro-Mediterranean Regional Water Programme for Local Water Management
- Stockholm Environmental Institute
- Swedish International Development Cooperation AgencySwedish International Development Cooperation AgencyThe Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency is a government agency of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Sida is responsible for organization of the bulk of Sweden's official development assistance to developing countries....
- NHN – Nature Healing Nature
- TU-Delft – Technical University of Delft
- TTZ – Technology Transfer Centre Bremerhaven (Germany)
- UEssex – University of Essex
- Norwegian University for Life Science
- United Nations Development ProgrammeUnited Nations Development ProgrammeThe United Nations Development Programme is the United Nations' global development network. It advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP operates in 177 countries, working with nations on their own solutions to...
- UNESCO-IHEUNESCO-IHEThe UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education is an international institute for water education that was created in 2003 from the previous IHE. This in turn grew out of the International Course in Hydraulic Engineering , whose name was changed in 1976 to International Institute for Hydraulic and...
– United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation – Institute for Water Education - UN-Habitat – United Nations Human Settlements ProgrammeUnited Nations Human Settlements ProgrammeThe United Nations Human Settlements Programme is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It was established in 1978 and has its headquarters at the United Nations Office at Nairobi, Kenya...
- Waste – Advisers on Urban Environment and Development (Netherlands)
- WB-WSP – Worldbank – Water and Sanitation Programme
- WECF – Women in Europe for a Common Future
- Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative CouncilWater Supply and Sanitation Collaborative CouncilThe Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council is an international organization whose secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland is hosted by the United Nations Office for Project Services...
- WTC – World Toilet College
- Wherever the Need
- World Toilet Organization (Singapore)
- Xavier UniversityXavier University (Cagayan de Oro)Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan is a private, Roman Catholic university run by the Society of Jesus in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines.It was founded on June 7, 1933 as the Ateneo de Cagayan by an American Jesuit missionary, Fr. James T.G. Hayes, S.J., who later became the first Archbishop of...
, Periurban Vegetable Project (PUVeP), Cagayan de Oro (Philippines)
See also
- SanitationSanitationSanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
- Ecological sanitationEcological sanitationEcological sanitation, also known as ecosan or eco-san, are terms coined to describe a form of sanitation that usually involves urine diversion and the recycling of water and nutrients contained within human wastes back into the local environment....
- Sustainable sanitationSustainable sanitation- Background for the sanitation dilemma :The urgency for action in the sanitation sector is obvious, considering the 2.6 billion people world-wide who remain without access to any kind of improved sanitation, and the 2.2 million annual deaths caused mainly by sanitation-related diseases and poor...
- Sewage treatmentSewage treatmentSewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff and domestic. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants...
- United Nations