Dear Arno,

Congratulations! Please let me know how can I help you?

Infor on SDG 6.3 data trends in Asia? Countries with special needs?
Policies?

Best regards,
Aida


Aida N. Karazhanova (Ms., PhD) | Economic Affairs Officer
Sustainable Urban Development Section
Environment and Development Division
UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
UN Building, Radjadamnoenok Ave., 10200, Bangkok, Thailand
Tel: +66-2-2881450; GSM: +66-81-3443651; Fax: +66-2-288 1048
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; URL: www.unescap.org

Dear Elisabeth,

I am very thankful and grateful seeing such a great message but the bad part of it is that its note based is South Sudan and would love to be part of it. All in all i will be trying my best when the right time comes.

Thanks

Dear Arno,

This is awesome news!

How can we participate in theimplementation of the grant project activities?

Anthony Akpan
President
Pan African Vision for the Environment (PAVE)
2nd Floor, Rear Flat,
59, Palm Avenue, Mushin
P.O.BOX 494 , Ijanikin, Lagos, Nigeria
Tel: 07068329371, 08035423750
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website: www.paveafrica.org

Hi Chris

You wrote:

I made some suggestions in my Featured User interview on how to make the Forum more interactive and attractive to different kinds of users:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/145-fe...ifornia-ecuador#8674

I am adding these comments you made in May 20, 2014 here:

If you could change something about the forum, what would it be?
It would be great to recruit more microbiologists, epidemiologists, psychologists, and other specialists to answer our key questions and to have a look at the systems we develop. Maybe we could somehow offer them something in exchange (e.g., proofreading or translation of texts).
Could the computer somehow be programmed to send unanswered questions on the Forum to one of the most indicated Forum members or outside experts? To some extent, moderators and other members already do this, but it would be excellent for no questions to be missed, especially now that we have so many members and so many messages.

I suggest we add more options for quick feedback than just liking a post or adding or subtracting karma points. These could include:
• Please give more support for the ideas expressed.
• I would like to put this into practice myself.
• This would be an excellent thesis topic.
• This is a great option for the billions who have no toilet.
• This is excellent for elegant applications.
• This is very environmentally sustainable.
• This seems to have an excessive environmental impact.

If we do this, members could then search for these items. Also, some of our thousands of members may prefer to only see posts that others have ticked with one or more of these items … or to receive all the posts ordered according to these items (with a delay of several days to allow standard members to tick these). This may be especially important now that the Forum has grown so much and the list of posts is sometimes very long. This would make it easier for the “silent majority” of members to give feedback, even if just ticking these items … and some privilege, such as searching, could hinge on ticking.

Sometimes when we log in we are taken to some starting page, or one’s own profile page, and it is hard to navigate back to the thread that we were looking at and wanting to contribute to. This could please be fixed.

It would be good to know the dates of the different posts when we do a search.

I'll make sure these are added to our list of suggestions for improvement.

I am available to help with translation if there is interest in reaching out more to Spanish speakers.

One little idea to liven up the Forum is to add emoticons for feces, urine, bad odors, good odors, agricultural reuse, urban agriculture, biogas, fish farming, etc.

Regarding translation into Spanish, this would be great when there turns up a specific or explanatory text that the moderators would like to target in a different language. We have relied on the Google translation function found on the Forum bottom banner at the end of every page. How good/bad are those translations do you think? I find they have improved immensely over the past few years - but still not absolutely perfect. *

Great idea with the emoticons. Will add those to the list as well. I agree KUNENA's WYSIWIG editor has some limitations re emoticons.

An improvements period will take place following the UX study next year.

Best wishes

--Arno


* More about the language translator tool is available here: forum.susana.org/component/kunena/276-la...s-other-than-english
(added by moderator)

Hi Krischan

You wrote:

Will this include an update to the ageing forum software this board is using? Would be also nice to see a self-hosted video-meeting software (other than the Adobe Connect) that works better on non-windows devices without special apps.

Last but not least, are there plans to update (maybe "how is it now 5 years later" kind of updated) and make new case studies? I mean these: www.susana.org/en/resources/case-studies

The KUNENA software will be updated with the latest version. We have modified the original software significantly and this means it will take a major effort to redo that work on the updated base plus add new improvements. We also want to be able to keep the old database of discussions alive and not freeze them into an archive. Part of the project is to do a User Experience (UX) study in order to find out what improvements are necessary.

What did you have in mind regarding "self-hosted video-meeting software (other than Adobe Connect)"?

Updating the case studies is an interesting exercise. This isn't part of this particular grant. To expedite this would require returning to project sites by the original investigators.
--Arno

Hi Arno,

This is excellent news.

I made some suggestions in my Featured User interview on how to make the Forum more interactive and atractive to different kinds of users:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/145-fe...ifornia-ecuador#8674

I am available to help with translation if there is interest in reaching out more to Spanish speakers.

One little idea to liven up the Forum is to add emoticons for feces, urine, bad odors, good odors, agricultural reuse, urban agriculture, biogas, fish farming, etc.

Best wishes,
Chris Canaday

Sounds great.

Will this include an update to the ageing forum software this board is using? Would be also nice to see a self-hosted video-meeting software (other than the Adobe Connect) that works better on non-windows devices without special apps.

Last but not least, are there plans to update (maybe "how is it now 5 years later" kind of updated) and make new case studies? I mean these: www.susana.org/en/resources/case-studies

Information about previous phases of this grant is available here: forum.susana.org/component/kunena/139-in...action-within-susana

+++++++++++++++

Grant of $2.7 million to supercharge sustainable sanitation knowledge platform

The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) through the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) has received a US $2.7 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the continued growth and development of SuSanA’s online knowledge-management and collaboration services.

“With this generous grant we will be able to enrich SuSanA’s services with the needs not only of our current active users but also potentially huge new user groups in the Global South and in the private sector as well – stakeholders who can play a pivotal role in scaling up sustainable sanitation access,” says Arno Rosemarin (SEI), project leader of this grant.

The project will be led by Stockholm Environment Institute and implemented by a consortium that includes Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), WaterAid and Oxfam, as well as specialized additional consultants.

Founded in 2007, SuSanA is an open international alliance, with a network of over 7300 individual members and 282 partners. Since its beginning, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development is supporting the SuSanA Secretariat that is hosted by GIZ. SuSanA’s mission is to promote innovation and best practices in sanitation policy, programming, implementation and scaling up, by linking on-the-ground experience with an engaged community of practitioners, policy-makers, researchers and academics. In particular, SuSanA promotes a systems approach to sanitation that takes into account all related aspects of sustainability across the sanitation value chain.

SuSanA has been supported by the Gates Foundation with two smaller grants since 2012. This new three-year grant will cover a third phase of development, highlighting the foundation’s continuing prioritization of knowledge management in the WASH sector

The project will have three key outcomes: 1) Improved use of SuSanA Platform by identified target groups, through a clear communications plan and platform improvements; 2) Demonstrable improvements in the impact that use of the SuSanA Platform has on members’ work in sanitation; 3) Strengthened governance and institutional sustainability of SuSanA as reflected in an operational plan that includes a plan for funding the budget needed to assure the future of SuSanA.

Central to the project will be three studies, the results of which will inform decisions about improved planning and implementation of SuSanA.

One study will look at how online user experiences can be enhanced for SuSanA’s online knowledge-management resource (www.susana.org) and already lively discussion forum (www.forum.susana.org). The second study will be a marketing study to better understand the knowledge and networking needs of the global WASH community, particularly those parts of the community that could play a bigger role in SuSanA. One key outcome of this study will be the development of a major new communications strategy and implementation plan for SuSanA. The third study will look at how to ensure SuSanA’s long-term organizational sustainability.

For more information contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Quick facts

The grant
Donor: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Value of the grant: USD $2,735,000
Official grant title: “Supporting SuSanA and the broader Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Community of Practice through an online platform”
Dates: 3 years from 3 October 2016

Consortium: Stockholm Environment Institute, WaterAid, Oxfam and GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH, the German International Development Cooperation Agency, which hosts the SuSanA Secretariat), consultants: Ostella, Kellogg and Dotwerkstatt plus additional consultants to be tendered.

SuSanA
Current membership: 7300 individual network members and 282 partner organizations Local NGOs, International NGOs, Private sector, Education / Research, Governmental / State-owned organisations, Multilateral organisations, Networks / Associations.
Mission: to promote innovation and best practices in sanitation policy, programming, implementation and scaling up, by linking on-the-ground experience with an engaged community of practitioners, policy-makers, researchers and academics.

Key current SuSanA services which will be strengthened by the project:
1. SuSanA discussion forum: forum.susana.org/
2. Excreta Flow Diagrams portal where information and resources at a city level can be found: sfd.susana.org/
3. A project database providing details for sanitation projects worldwide: www.susana.org/en/resources/projects
4. The SuSanA library, containing over 2000 publications: www.susana.org/en/resources/library
5. SuSanA working groups: www.susana.org/en/working-groups/overview
6. Updates to Wikipedia articles dealing with sanitation topics; for example en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_defecation
7. Regular webinars run by the SuSanA Secretariat. SuSanA also offers a platform for Thematic Discussion Series: www.susana.org/en/resources/thematic-discussion-series
8. SuSanA Working Group Wikis which offer a platform for collaborative efforts to create website pages relevant to sustainable sanitation topics using “Wiki technology”: www.susana.org/en/susana-wiki?site=Swg1:Capacity_development

To learn more about this project and SuSanA, visit www.susana.org or contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

You can also ask questions about the new grant here in this thread.