Dear All,

We have collected some more stories from SuSanA members about how the SuSanA Discussion Forum has helped them in their work.

The four SuSanA members below took part in our user survey and were randomly selected and awarded for their participation with a feature on the WSSCC website. Congratulations! 

Here is what they had to say about the SuSanA discussion forum (and also, see links to their detailed interviews on the WSSCC website):  

Musa Jimohis the co-founder of Hyphen Tech-bridge

The SuSanAdiscussion forum isn’t just a platform for discussion on sanitation and hygiene related matters, it’s a learning hub where ideas are shared, where latest trends in sanitation and hygiene field are learnt and where leadership and guidance are laid bare by senior colleagues/experts in the field to guide emerging WASH advocates. The platform has really helped me to improve on the areas of designing, planning and executing sustainable sanitation and hygiene projects.

www.wsscc.org/media/news-stories/musa-ji...r-hyphen-tech-bridge  

Depinder Kapur works for the National Institute of Urban Affairs in India

The discussion forum allows us (the National Institute of Urban Affairs):

• to connect, learn and share
• to contribute and grow professionally
• to lead or be part of a thematic working group.

I am part of the change management task force for SuSanA as well as a capacity development working group. In these groups we have been looking at how SuSanA might evolve, and SuSanA can learn from WSSCC’s experiences of what did – and didn’t – work.

www.wsscc.org/media/news-stories/depinde...titute-urban-affairs  

Mohammed Mzahem, civil engineer in Yemen

I’ve been a member of the SuSanA Forum for almost five years. The exchange of ideas and experiences has been most useful. For example, the information about the urine diversion dehydration toilets in Yemen or the faecal management and urban sanitation knowledge that I’ve applied to my work at UNICEF.  I hope that SuSanA continues to share more learning from different countries and different communities.

www.wsscc.org/media/news-stories/mohamme...civil-engineer-yemen  

Wurie Mamadu Tamba Barrie, chief country coordinator, Network AID

We (Network AID) first heard of SuSanA through WSSCC when the Community of Practice merged with the discussion forum. We joined the discussion forum to continue expanding our knowledge and learning on WASH. The discussion forum has provided additional knowledge for us. The sharing of toolkits, reports, organizing online events and frank discussions are most useful. These have helped me to better understand sanitation and hygiene issues from hardware to software and even the use of technologies.

www.wsscc.org/media/news-stories/wurie-m...rdinator-network-aid  

Thank You to the four Forum members once more for their helpful and positive feedback about their experience. It would be such a pleasure to hear what others perceive as their benefit of the Forum.

The SuSanA moderation team would like to once again appreciate all users who took part in the  SuSanA Members Survey  that run from 22nd July to 16thSeptember 2020. The survey aimed at capturing the Forum user experience. The survey had exactly 538 responses and among them, the four users mentioned above were randomly selected of those participants who had expressed interest to be contacted and to further share in-depth about what they felt was the benefit of the forum. 

Regards,
Chaiwe

I have 100% satisfaction rate with SuSanA - a great place for crowdsourcing answers to complex sanitation questions!

In a previous role, I asked about how different countries/ cities get households to connect to the sewerage network. It led to an insightful discussion on the modes of coercing/ nudging households to connect in different countries. See forum.susana.org/conventional-sewers-sim...r-networks#21665here for more information.

In my current role, I asked the SuSanA forum for a mentor for a young sanitation professional, and found an excellent mentor for her within days.

Thank you SuSanA¨!

I myself follow Susan forum and Eawag and Sandec programs seriously ,Susan gradually becomes general reporter forum which discuss general sanitation concern as text or webinar rather than conductor or trainer in spite of the role of Susan for brings of Sanitation concerns as the topic but , personally I found Sandec and Eawag more pragmatic for training and education Traing Mooc and PDF form training works of literature in water and wastewater even waste management and sanitation.


With best regards;

Mohammad

Dear Mara

In August last year, the sustainable sanitation GIZ sector programme (SV NaSa) prepared several case stories aiming at highlighting the impact of SuSanA on sanitation projects around the world. The UBSUP project in Kenya (see description here ) implemented by the Water Sector Trust Fund with the technical support of GIZ, was selected to showcase the contribution of SuSanA at a project level in terms of concept design, testing and implementation. I have attached the last version of the Kenyan case story which has been sent to me in November last year, you might want to contact the SuSanA secretariat to get the rest of the case stories.

I wish you all the best in your research, and hope you can get more testimonies on the forum

At my work and studies, SuSanA is like my dictionary. I find all the information i need always, sometimes just amazed by the creative heads on the Forum.
I hardly spend a day without checking on the updates, new posts, opportunities for partnership, grants.

Hello SuSanA community,

As far as I am concerned the impact of SuSanA are the following:
- daily learning opportunities through the forum especially about 3 things :
1) policy and approach (all the discussions about the sanitation ladder, WASH and Nut etc.)
2) large scale approach (vs point of view based on village or district level) and
3) research (through the presentation of the Bill & Melinda Gates research grants).
Without the forum I would not be acquainted to these topics. SuSanA keeps me updated in the currents debates and latest research topics.

- the platform as a whole : forum, library, newsletters and newsmails in particular and also webinars and thematic discussion series.
Each time I am working in a project as a consultant I am screening through SuSanA's platform and I find really interesting documents. Last month I was working on a document related to sanitation in Mali and I found specific case studies, surveys, and reports.

Newsletters and newsmail are brilliant because they keep us updated with all ongoing projects. This allows to have a broader view and plenty of ideas when working of projects. NeThis is always the case with each assignment.

The latest discussion on Wash and Nut was really rich in my view. I really appreciated the participation of different experts and the links they shared towards videos, factsheets, reports from surveys of excellent quality. As far as I am concerned this was a real learning experience.

Last but not least, I really appreciate the effort of SuSanA to bridge the language barrier by providing some of the documents in French and in Spanish. This is also done in some MOOCs in sanitation. This contributes to improve experience sharing between latin and south America, different countries in Africa and Asia.

Thanks SuSanA !

Over the past 3 years I've helped write and shepherd Recode's Composting Toilet and Urine Diversion code into the Uniform Plumbing Code's Green Supplement (2015 or 2016, as yet unpublished) and now THe IAPMO/ANSI WE Stand (Water Efficiency Code).
www.recodenow.org/portfolio/recode-draft...e-diversion-toilets/

SuSanA's library of examples of urine diversion and composting toilet systems was crucial in resolving key issues in the code, such as the recommended slope for urine piping. Without the SuSana Library we would have to rely mostly on US-based system examples, where urine diversion and practices such as outdoor compost 'finishing' are rare. SuSaNa's links to resources on urine hygienization were also valuable.

thanks for all the great work compiling resources!

Of all the ways that SuSanA has enriched my life, the best is this: I don't need to know the answers.

I'm a generalist across whose desk come excellent sanitation questions for which I do not know the answers. Usually I go on line, find the information and a couple of good resource documents and get back to the inquirer right away. Other times, I refer people to SuSanA, assuring them that should they not find what they need in the Library, they should join the Forum. And should they not get adequate answers to their post, they can community directly with an expert.

SuSanA has impact because it's a living community supported by an extensive and well-designed online ecosystem.

When I went to Senegal for the SuSanA conference that preceded AfricaSan I met Chuck Henry, inventor of the Earth Augur, and then Dana Ward of PSI, who lives in Ghana. Both have been excellent resources and sounding boards for all things sanitation. I then got Chuck connected to a village Chief in a seaside farming community in Ghana where I've been sending students for summer internships in organic farming. Dana helped manage the shipping, and Chuck followed soon after to do a training program in the village on how to construct the toilets. The Chief couldn't be happier with his private toilet, as seen in the photo taken last week. Notice that the Chief is wearing a T-Shirt from The Urgent Run. Chuck's fund-raising project on World Toilet Day in 2017 will be dedicated to providing toilets to the village school. It all traces back to SuSanA.

SuSanA online is also an excellent resource for networking, as I found when I went to Nairobi. I made a few phone calls and soon was meeting people from Nairobi whom I'd seen post on SuSanA. Professional contacts turn into friends, and I find myself looking for ways to help people with their projects.....like Chuck Henry helped with mine. More thanks to SuSanA.

Hi all,

I had similar experiences as Dorothee - SuSanA is a great platform in order to exchange ideas, learn about who is doing what, about new developments, etc.

As for the more practical things, I competed twice in calls which had been published on the SuSanA site - unfortunately with no immediate success.

Kind regards,

H-A

Hi Sarah

Even though your want to look at this from a qualitative point of view - it might be interesting to set up a quick surveymonkey on the point you mentioned in your email:

• New partnerships with other organizations in the WASH sector or beyond
• Grant opportunities discovered
• New directions for your work
• Important critiques or insights
• A new audience for sharing your work
• Discovery of new job opportunities
• Expansion of your personal network
• Learning opportunities, e.g. by following discussions on the forum
• Ability to quickly download or access documents, photos, videos, presentations, posters etc.
• Virtual participation at meetings via Live Streaming
• Other examples??

For my side, I can say that SuSanA so far has impacted my work mainly as a network to share and discuss my ideas (sounding board / dissemination) and a important source of knowledge and information.
Moreover I can say that SuSanA fulfills for me the roles that we have set ourselves for the roadmap 2013 to 2018 (see also forum.susana.org/forum/categories?func=v...4888&limit=1000#5418):

• Coordination and discussion platform
• Knowledge exchange and learning platform
• Sounding board
• Contribute to Policy Dialogue
• Promotion
• Working platform

The roadmap was a result of an extensive review of past SuSanA activities since its foundation as well as such a surveymonkey combined with open collection of feedback from members and partners: forum.susana.org/forum/categories/10-by-...xt-5-years-of-susana

Cheers, Dorothee

Nancy from PATH has written in another forum post (see here ):

I’m a fan of the SuSanA forum and the supportive online community it fosters.

Thanks.