Thanks for those points, Roumiana, well taken.

I am adding here another graph from the survey of Sphaera (note the relatively small sample size of only 100 responses, but still):

People were asked to react to this hypothesis:


I think this is an encouraging result for SuSanA as most people agreed with it (or were neutral)! I think this is something we should build on, and really focus on "What is our niche? What are we offering that others don't?".

Regards,
Elisabeth

If I could add on this point: in a forum is difficult to answer technical questions, usually people do not have time, or they would need more information to answer correctly. For this reason I would support the idea to improve the library in such a way, that it would be easier to be directed to the correct source of information. Or alternatively, to use links to relevant sources. I am not sure that SuSanA needs a specific "wiki", would prefer to improve the Wikipedia. But I would agree that the available sources in the library do not provide enough technical information.

And finally, I would like to support Diana's suggestion to use the forum and communicate technical issues to non-specialists in an appropriate and easy to understand language. On my point of view it is a very important role of the forum.

Best regards,
Roumiana

Dear all,

I wanted to give you some feedback about the results from this survey. 101 responses were received, which is 1% of our members (thank you to all those who participated!)

The consultants (Astrid and Cameron from Sphaera) used the survey results - as one tool of many - in their analysis of SuSanA, with a focus on SuSanA's organisational and governance structure. Their final report was recently posted here on the forum by Arno:
forum.susana.org/10-announcements-regard...dates?start=36#26304
(go to Page 4 of that thread if the link doesn't take you there directly, to Arno's post from 20 October).

In the Appendix of that report you also see some graphs from the survey results. I'll copy them below for your information and to get you interested to click on the full report (see Arno's post):





Here are another two pie charts to tell you more about who participated in the survey (which may or many not be representative of our 10,000 members as a whole):





I plan to post some more of the survey results in this thread next week.

Regards,
Elisabeth

P.S. Personally, I am very satisfied that the vast majority of those who responded said they felt welcome on the forum. This is important to me. 72% people said they felt welcome all the time or some of the time. (I hope we can make the other 28% feel more welcome in future as well.)

Arno:

Good news.

It is a reward and recognition to the hard work of all people of SuSanA.

best wishes

Scott

Dear SuSanA Members
As a follow up to the message by Simon Okoth from June 20, I can report that a consultancy called Sphaera from the US (www.sphaera.world) was engaged by BMGF to look into an accelerated organizational change for SuSanA. The report was released Oct 5, 2018.
Its recommendations are interesting such as changing SuSanA into a centralised cooperative organization with regional/national franchises and a streamlined governance structure.

The SuSanA Core Group saw a draft of the Sphaera report in August 2018 and did agree unanimously at the meetings in Stockholm that SuSanA is ready for both organizational and governance changes. The follow-up would require the setting up of an independent Task Force to carry out the 10-step process that was initiated by Sphaera. The first steps towards setting up such a Task Force are being taken now.

Best wishes

Hi Peter -- the Sphaera team will be sharing some recommendations on 'how to go about it' with the Core Team at its upcoming meeting on the 26th.

Your recommendations about strategic coordination with other processes and networks in international development has been echoed by others throughout our work, and you are correct to imagine this would have operational implications for SuSanA.

Kind regards,
Astrid

Given that I havn't participated since a long long time, please excuse me if my topic has already extensively been discussed in the past!
Without immediately having an answer to 'how to go about it', I recommend that also susana discusses and develops its role in the wider development context in full coherence and complementarity with all other resilient development processes.
Does that make sense?
What implications could this have for how susana operates? ~ thanks, Peter

Dear Roumiana -- thank you for your feedback on the survey, and for sharing your thoughts on regional chapters and the need to differentiate perhaps less by development status, and more by considerations of rural / urban divides and other factors that impact the sustainability of sanitation solutions.

Regarding your comment that

it is not clear what options for "shaping the future" are to be discussed. In addition, my replies regarding the financing and administration might not be very correct, because I do not have information and I am not interested.

, it might be helpful to point out that the survey is part of a larger data gathering effort by the Sphaera team. The answers will help us test a number of ideas and hypotheses that we have formed, and that we are bringing to the Core Group meeting in Stockholm on August 26.

Part of what we will be bringing to the Core Group is a recommendation for how to involve the SuSanA membership in any decisions about possible changes to the structure and operations.

Kind regards,
Astrid

Dear participants in this discussion,

I find the survey not very useful, it is not clear what options for "shaping the future" are to be discussed. In addition, my replies regarding the financing and administration might not be very correct, because I do not have information and I am not interested. Regarding the "regional chapters", I would support this idea, because sanitation solutions are very site specific and depend on the locality (climate, geography, etc) and the level of urban/rural environment.

Regarding the content of the discussion topics and information provided, I strongly feel that the stress is on developing societies. Please note that I do not mean countries, because a country may have many different levels of urban/rural development. In fact, sustainable sanitation solutions are valid for developed, as well for areas with medium or no development at all. English is not my mother tongue, but I am on the impression that the term "sustainable sanitation for all" is applied to denominate solutions for the poor communities, which have limited or no access to water.

Considering the above mentioned, may be, some restructuring might be necessary, in order to streamline the discussion topics addressing the whole spectre of the sanitation systems including the functioning ones in developed areas. May be then the regional or national context might not be so important. Considering my experience as water and environmental engineer, I would like to underline the strong link between urban/rural development status and the sanitation system or the sanitation solutions to be implemented. So this could be a good background to make differentiation between the different local conditions and the corresponding solutions, or discussions to be held, and the visualization of problems to be solved.

Another important aspect of the SuSanA's platform is its role as a place for education and bringing together people from different backgrounds and specializations. It is important that we all speak the same "language" irrespective of our professional background as engineers, social workers, administrators, etc.

Best regards,
Roumiana Hranova

Yes I agree Cameron, technology of networking cannot be the purpose of networking. Even in development work, sometimes fancy technology can dis empower people from being involved in an issue, relying too much on a technology to understand its implications.

Therefore it is important to have deeper discussions on thematic topics, not just sharing information on events, on new publications, new tools, etc.

Dear Mr Burgess thank you for the opportunity to express my views regarding the subject.
What I meant by community content as against academic content is explained as follows:

I am a retired environmental health practitioner with over thirty years of experience gained through employment in the City of Johannesburg. I worked as senior manager in the health department as well as in waste management. I worked in the Central Business District, inner city areas, townships in Soweto, informal settlements and squatter camps and have gained enormous experience of what is going on on the ground - unsanitary conditions (waste water, garbage, open defecation, overcrowding,, squalor, lack of sanitation at schools etc.).We still have people in the rural or semi-rural areas who are getting their water supply 500 + meters away from where they live - the water which is unwholesome and unfit for consumption. The list is endless.We have stories of children falling into pit latrines at school, people attacked by big rats that hide and feast on faeces from unsanitary and latrines at squatter camps.
All these issues are either ignored or not given adequate attention because nobody cares and follows them up.These are the issues I was referring to as being of practical content as they affect communities on the ground.

We need a voice to highlight these issues and SanSun could play a meaningful and positive role in this regard. How? A Sun San representative or a regional chapter could act as a "watch dog" highlighting these issues through structures on the ground through which information could be collated. The representative could engage with authorities at municipal or Provincial level bringing up and discussing these issues; influencing policy through advocacy, outreach events or campaigns making people aware of their basic rights concerning basic services and their duty in accounting to those services.

SanSun would be on the ground communicating on face to face with the grass root masses. This what is lacking especially in Africa. I think this could be the best contribution to communities at large and the Forum would be more people orientated and gaining credibility as a transformed Forum.

The suggested program could run for two or three years in a region and this would have made a dent and positive contribution to humanity

THIS IS WHAT I REFER TO AS PRACTICAL CONTENT!!
Thank you
Lucas Kunene
Public Health PhD student - University of Cape town
Talking about a toilet in South Africa is taboo. People only react when there is an article or bulletin in the news (TV or local newspaper),

Hi Lucas,
Thanks for your feedback.
I'd like to hear more about your thoughts on this:

... not only be academic information but also sharing current but relevant day to day news on a regional basis (where possible) for instance, news about children falling into pit latrines, children on protest due to lack of or unsanitary toilet facilities, or any topic that affects us as members on a daily basis etc. This could usher in a new dimension on the forum.

I'm curious about the distinction between academic content and community content, and how to provide more impetus towards sharing of the latter.