Dear Dorothee et al,

For sure, the component of capacity building of local communities in WASH is very critical right from the onset (planning) to the operationalisation of the water point (borehole).
For instance in Zambia, a number of boreholes in rural areas are absolate because the community have lack capacity to maintain them or they think that it is the responsibility of Government to come and repair them. In addition, low participation and involvement by the local communities in WASH reduces their sense of ownership of such facilities. The above problems have been compounded by the lack of understanding of the inter-relationship between safe water, sanitation, personal hygiene and health.
Therefore, the aspect of capacity building in WASH should be enshrined in the upcoming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Dear Stephen and all

Many thanks for your feedback – Please go ahead to suggest a rewording of the previous version of the statement!

Given the timing, I would like to motivate ourselves to post this or other statements this week:
For #1 (WASH):
Week 3 : WASH and Governance: People, Power and Politics (28 Jan. – 4 Feb.)
For #3 (Wastewater management and water quality):
Week 3: Wastewater reuse-development, innovation (28 Jan.-3 Feb.)

Dorothee

Dorothee:
I offer the following changes to the last two sections of the draft statement.
The Susana platform in general and the Working Group 1 on Capacity Development in particular aims to contribute to this need by:
- further developing the global network to strategically accelerate and influence the capacity development process in the sanitation sector.
- further collecting, combining and sharing available resources from within the network
- continue supporting curricula development and other initiatives aimeding at enhancing the ability of academics and professionals across disciplines to contribute to the mainstreaming and up-scaling of sustainable sanitation
- keep oncontinue functioning as a focal point and networking opportunity for anyone or any organisation which seeks to become active in capacity development for sustainable sanitation
- further using open-source approaches for sharing of course materials and other reources and optimising the use of the opportunities offered nowadays by the internet for capacity development.

The Working Group wants to stress on the post 2015 agenda the following:
1 – to adopt to sanitation a multi-disciplinary and trans-sectrooral approach with attention to the various social, political and institutional, environmental, technical and financial dimensions.
2 1 - to introduce at all levels with all key stakeholders the need for gathering information, in the concept of Life Long Learning - never stop informing yourselfstaying informed. Once there is a need, the discussion with the information suppliers (researchers, practitioners and others bound in learning alliances such as Susana) will follow.
3 – When looking into new technologies or different applications of existing ones, talking to knowledge networks can give any company, organisation and government looking for a sanitation solution a substantial head start. This should therefore be strongly encouraged, and the existence of the networks should be widely promoted so that people know where to turn to. IWA could play a strong role as intermediary.
4 to keep focusing on sanitation provision as a chain, not on a sanitation interface solely – from the user interface, collection, treatment, reuse and safe disposal of sanitation products.. Closely related to that is the strong recommendation to focus on waste as a resource.
5 to remain focused on multiple approaches to scale-up and capacity building including those that simultaneously enhance rural development by empowering local entrepreneurs to effect proven sustainable sanitation technologies at the community level.
..Steve

Thank you Steve!
I then suggest to post this statement tomorrow 3. Feb into the 2 posts:
For #1 (WASH):
Week 3 : WASH and Governance: People, Power and Politics (28 Jan. – 4 Feb.)
For #3 (Wastewater management and water quality):
Week 3: Wastewater reuse-development, innovation (28 Jan.-3 Feb.)

********
The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) is a network of organisations that share a common vision on sustainable sanitation. Since 2007, SuSanA has served as a platform for exchange, coordination and policy dialogue and a catalyst for sustainable sanitation. Working Group 1 concentrates on capacity development, which has been widely recognised as a prerequisite for the achievement of the MDGs.
For the post 2015 agenda this Working Groups want to stress the importance of further capacity building at all levels.
Sanitation protects and promotes human health by maintaining a clean environment and breaking the cycle of disease. Sustainable sanitation is far more than toilet availability. Toilets are part of a system that should be economically viable, socially acceptable, and technically and institutionally appropriate. Moreover, sustainable sanitation should also protect the environment and natural resources. This definition results in five key criteria for sustainable sanitation (SuSanA, 2008): a) protection of human health; b) protection of the environment and natural resources (including water resources, ecosystems, fuel wood etc.); c) viable technologies and operations; d) financial and economic sustainability; and e) socio-cultural acceptability and institutional appropriateness.
In the field of sustainable sanitation, capacity development is particularly important due to system complexity and the various sectors and authority levels involved: Governments and decision makers need to be aware of the importance of sanitation and the benefits of sustainable sanitation in order to show leadership and allocate the resources necessary. Leadership involves coordinating different governmental and non-governmental institutions to create an enabling environment across sectors - health, infrastructure, water, environment, agriculture, and education. Institutions and organisations, local governments, planners and the private sector need technical and managerial capacities in order to implement sustainable sanitation within allocated resources. At the same time, the civil society needs to show a demand for sustainable sanitation to ensure that sanitation is put on the local political agenda and to activate the private sector to respond to this demand.

The Susana platform in general and the Working Group 1 on Capacity Development in particular aims to contribute to this need by:

• further developing the global network to strategically accelerate and influence the capacity development process in the sanitation sector.
• further collecting, combining and sharing available resources from within the network
• continue supporting curricula development and other initiatives aimed at enhancing the ability of academics and professionals across disciplines to contribute to the mainstreaming and up-scaling of sustainable sanitation
• continue functioning as a focal point and networking opportunity for anyone or any organisation which seeks to become active in capacity development for sustainable sanitation
• further using open-source approaches for sharing course materials and other reources and optimising the use of the opportunities offered nowadays by the internet for capacity development.

The Working Group wants to stress on the post 2015 agenda the following:

• 1 – to adopt to sanitation a multi-disciplinary and trans-sectoral approach with attention to the various social, political and institutional, environmental, technical and financial dimensions.
• 2 - to introduce at all levels with all key stakeholders the need for staying informed. Once there is a need, the discussion with the information suppliers (researchers, practitioners and others bound in learning alliances such as Susana) will follow.
• 3 – When looking into new technologies or different applications of existing ones, talking to knowledge networks can give any company, organisation and government looking for a sanitation solution a substantial head start. This should therefore be strongly encouraged, and the existence of the networks should be widely promoted so that people know where to turn to. IWA could play a strong role as intermediary.
• 4 – to keep focusing on sanitation provision as a chain,– from the user interface, collection, treatment, reuse and safe disposal of sanitation products.. Closely related to that is the strong recommendation to focus on waste as a resource.
• 5 – to remain focused on multiple approaches to scale-up and capacity building including those that simultaneously enhance rural development by empowering local entrepreneurs to effect proven sustainable sanitation technologies at the community level.

Dear all
I have now posted this statement on behalf of the Working Group 1:
www.worldwewant2015.org/node/303872
www.worldwewant2015.org/node/303884

Best regards
Dorothee