Hej Elisabeth,

great that you are curious!

There are several projects that took the jump to become start-ups and maintain their business running.
Not all of them are working within the sanitation context.
MDML in the United States;
the Consulting Services of ESF in Pune, India that concentrate on DEWATS;
and Prana - Sustainable Water (financing mechanisms for water treatment and reuse)
are good examples of successful start-ups in the sanitation sector.

You can find more info on these and other start-ups here: www.cewas.org/start-up/cewas-start-ups

Certainly, cewas still needs to work on the gender-balance within the think tank, whereas in the cewas/seecon office itself the ladies are in the majority

Hope I could answer your questions at least partially! Otherwise the start-ups themselves are surely happy to tell you more about the experiences they went through.

Have a great day,
Naomi

Dear Naomi,

Now that cewas has been going for 2-3 years (?), I am curious to hear if you have any success stories, i.e. sanitation businesses that have survived beyond their start-up phase and are maybe even flourishing now? Do you have any of them that you could share with us (or they could even post here)?

By the way, your "Think Tank" is a bit male dominated.
www.cewas.org/think-tank
13 men versus 1 woman!

Regards,
Elisabeth

Being a newbie to the SuSanA forum, I’d like to introduce myself. As a recent graduate as Master Sc. in Sustainable Development I am now involved as a trainee at seecon. With an economic background I have focussed my studies on environmental issues especially with regard to energy and climate change. From a thematic point of you I am focussing on aspects of sustainable water and sanitation management. I especially keep myself busy with assisting at maintaining and enhancing the SSWM Toolbox (www.sswm.info) and any other SSWM-related projects.

Training Programme for Start-Ups in the Water Sector!

cewas is the international Training Centre for start-ups in the water, sanitation and resource management based in Willisau (Switzerland). The Start-Up programme addresses entrepreneurs-to-be with an interest in SSWM and that want to start their business in the emerging water sector. The 1-year training programme includes: business coaching for the water sector and consulting by international experts and an extensive international network. Start-Ups are supported by a core group of international experts (the cewas Think-Tank).
The next batch is from September 2013 to August 2014.
Applications are now open (deadline: 21st of June 2013).
Learn more on: www.cewas.org and the programme flyer (attached)