Dear Atul, what a nice story to share from Ludhiana! I read with interest what you managed to do there. Have you already written this up as a case study or video? I would be especially interested in how you managed to drive the behavior change process (as that is often more difficult than the toilet construction). What were the challenges and how did you overcome these in Ludhiana? What approaches worked well in the district and which approaches were perhaps less successful - and why? Many thanks for sharing this Atul. Best, Robin

Dear All,
Thank you for sharing your insights on this topic. My name is Prithvi Simha. I am a Doctoral Candidate working at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala. I have been active in academic research surrouding new sanitation systems and practices for the past 5 years.

Let me now add to this discussion thread. Firstly, many others working in the sanitation research sector and I believe that sanitation isn't simply about providing people access to a toilet. Provisioning, per se, does not end with user access to the interface. Irrespective of the system model in place, sanitation needs to extend beyond the toilet and be able to connect users to a service chain that provides adequate treatment.
Let me take the case of source-separating sanitation systems to highlight this. Here, two system user stakeholders are of particular importance:
a. Consumers – stakeholders that need to be motivated to use urine–diverting toilets and consume urine–fertilised food. Consumers are vital, since the initiation of a closed–loop sanitation cycle through source–separation begins in households.
b. Producers (Farmers) – stakeholders among whom interest, motivation and acceptance of source–separated human wastes as a fertiliser must be created, developed and sustained over time.

When replicating source-separation based sanitation systems, surprisingly, we dont have best practices on implementation figured out when it comes to the farmers. We have carried out research in South India that points to this fact:
See: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896971730044X
One important finding from our study shows that ‘trust’ could be a key variable that determines the proliferation potential of new sanitation practices. Farmers in our study region (Vellore) trust and value the opinions of people they know, people to whom they are related or people with whom they have been socialising and interacting over the years.
Hence, early dialogue, continuous interaction and integration of user stakeholders (both, farmers and consumers) is necessary when it comes to deciding what type of sanitation system should be adopted, what type of treatment chain that follows the sanitation system needs to be in place, and how the local sanitation loop can be closed adequatley and safely.

Thank you for the opportunity to share some thoughts on this!
Regards
Prithvi

Dear all.
Topic 3 : Notings on "What can we do to promote the use and replication of good sanitation lessons and practices "

Assessing the need and pl make a list of all sustained / probable practices on the 4 cases... as given below and
assess as to how these projects have performed in the last 3yrs. 1 yr..or longer than 5 yrs. a good feed back from the communities.

The 4 nos.concepts are as below:
- on site sanitation in rural / semi urban / decentralised mode
- In an OD site how sludges are safely disposed/ utilised upon safe co composting
- re use of waste water for secondary purposes
- apt community awareness and their reciprocal participation and eagerness in propagation in other communities.

When 4 of these concepts and their examples are collated then it show cases as a " good sanitation practice ".
All these are role models are ready to be used for awareness in communities and up scaled and site-adapted .

One can do a cost vs benefit assessment and carry out a regular sustainability audit at each site i.e capacity of plant vs annual cost.

=========

Pl include the notings on my behalf..
Thanks and regards

Prof. Ajit Seshadri.
Vels University. Chennai .

POSTING ON BEHALF OF ATUL BAKSHI, BHARTI FOUNDATION

1. I will try to articulate my thoughts on the very pertinent questions raised in the trailing e-mail. For better assimilation a few salient aspects of the Satya Bharti Abhiyan, the sanitation initiative of Bharti Foundation are listed below.
a. Mandate of “Satya Bharti Abhiyan” (What): Launched in August 2014, in response to the call of the Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi to the corporates for supporting government’s initiative of Swachh Bharat Mission. The Satya Bharti Abhiyan adopted the rural areas of the entire Ludhiana district with a mandate to:
• Provide a toilet to every “household” in rural Ludhiana district, not having a toilet.
• Provide a girl’s toilet to every Government school not having a separate girl’s toilet.
• Bring behaviour change to improve sanitation conditions.
• Implement the Abhiyan independently i.e. without taking any funds/ resources from the government or the beneficiary.

b. Implementation (How): The funds for the Abhiyan are provided by the Bharti group companies and outsourced partners are deployed for construction of toilets & for IEC. The work is monitored and supervised by the Foundation team. Implementation is done in collaboration and through empowerment of stakeholders e.g. Government ( DC’s office and DWSS, Gram Panchayats, Communities and Beneficiaries. Implementation through structured and well-designed processes involves and empowers all the stake holders.

c. Present status (Why): To improve the sanitation conditions in Ludhiana district, the Foundation has surveyed 1010 villages and constructed and handed over 17,628 toilets across rural Ludhiana district, directly benefiting more than 86000 beneficiaries. In addition, 14 Government schools, identified by Punjab Education Development Board, have been provided a separate toilet for girls. Abhiyan has worked and is working towards behaviour change – to promote good practices and to carry out awareness on importance of usage and regular maintenance of toilets. These efforts leveraged and augmented by the government enabled Ludhiana district (rural) to become the second self- declared open defecation free district of Punjab.

2. With reference to the discussion - Perhaps we can break this discussion down along 4 few sub-questions and statements:
a. Can you share an example of a sanitation case or lesson from one district, village or State that has been successfully replicated in another district, village or State in India? If so, what were the success factors? Some examples and reasons for their working are :-
i. We adopted the entire rural Ludhiana District comprising of 1010 villages. We worked in villages and replicated our successful methodology in next villages.
ii. We engaged and empowered all stake holders as under:
1. Beneficiaries - Payments for construction of toilet were released to vendor after certification of handing taking over on the Handing Taking Over Certificate.
2. Community : - They could influence that actual beneficiary got a toilet, as a poster showing names of beneficiaries was displayed in the village, with contact numbers.
3. Panchayat :- Social Audit and certification from Sarpanch / Panchayat was mandatory for release of payment of toilet constructed.
4. DC’s Office and DWSS : Lists of toilets constructed was shared with them which were uploaded on Swachh Bharat Mission website.
5. Religious Leaders : Announcements were made in Gurudwaras / religious places and their support was taken for IEC.
iii. Deployment of school children as change agents, supported the structured IEC to bring about behavior change.
iv. Transparency and convergence of our and Govt’s efforts lead to Ludhiana becoming the second self-declared ODF district status.

b. When cases are organized in priority areas or topics, we may better understand which gaps there are in our collective knowledge and learning on sanitation. This can allow for ‘mapping and gapping’. How could this work in practice? This is absolutely correct and organised in priority area or topics will make these cases / practices easier to search and more effective.
i. Organising in topics : Any organisation which is doing IEC for promoting a design of seage treatment - say twin leach pit technology will not want to know about all the other aspects / facets ( like hand washing etc) OR a organisation constructing toilets will not want to know about other IEC best practices.
ii. In practice the case studies and practices can be clubbed under Heads ( say Construction / Sewage Treatment / IEC etc) ; Subheads ( Construction – Conventional / Prefabricated / Concrete / PUF Panel etc Sewage disposal as onsite / offsite / bio-digester / Leach pit etc and IEC to promote leach pit Technology or / Bio-digester Technology or promote Hand wash habit etc )

c. The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has launched Swachh Sangraha which contains a growing number of cases and lessons. There are many cases worth a look, for example this story from Bijnor . How could this portal be used in your view to support replication? This portal and also other portals can be either be used as a link/s from the site or the contents of their portal can be shown on the site or vice versa. There may be other ways also to form synergies and reduce duplication of effort or leverage each one’s strengths.
d. Who should be responsible for replication? This question is not very clear.

Regards
Atul

Dear All,
I think every best practice is created to replicate but what we create is not the solution potent enough to solve the problem.There are several diseases every disease is treated differently.Viruses replicate and not the antibiotics.So if we create viruses we think of replication,if we create real solutions we will never talk of replication as real solutions are picked up by masses as there is inherent strength in them.
Best regards,
Abhishek Mendiratta

INTERIM SUMMARY

Dear all,

I am posting the interim summary to this topic:

Robin, the moderator of this topic, posted the question: What can we do to promote the use and replication of good sanitation cases, lessons and practices? There is so much knowledge of what works on sanitation and what not that they need to be validated and the lessons used for replication. He asked for examples, how they can be organized and used for replication, and finally, who should be responsible for replicatio.

Rashid said case studies document work done to share the lessons with others. Case studies can be about good and bad experiences. He posed the question: How can trusts, foundations, multi- and bilateral agencies be galvanised to share reports of their projects that contain a wealth of information. Positing that the India Sanitation Coalition could arrange a competition of such organisations to get the best, this would ensure participation and bring to the fore smaller organisations in sanitation.

The Bijnor example, Robin said, is an example of a case study documenting a success. It is available at the MDWS website: Bijnor case study

I provided the example of the Swami Vivekanand Youth Movement, an NGO working on health issues in Karnataka, that had a successful WASH in Schools programme in Mysore's HD Kote taluk. After successfully covering all the schools in the taluk it replicated programme to the schools of Raichur taluk in Raichur district. SVYM had a person-centric approach that takes time but yields long-term dividends. For 'gap analysis', it would be useful to have a framework in which case studies can be fitted. For dissemination, there are several sites and mailing lists. ISC, MDWS, Hindi Water Portal are some. Any organization working on sanitation should be responsible for replication. NGOs, donors, the government and companies.

Atul gave the example of the Satya Bharti Abhiyan, the sanitation initiative of Bharti Foundation. It mandate is to work on sanitation in rural Ludhiana district and provide a toilet to every household, ensure a girl's toilet in all government schools, behaviour change to improve sanitation conditions and implement the Abhiyan without taking any funds/ resources from the government or the beneficiary. It is funded by the Bharti group of companies. So far, 17628 toilets have been made benefiting 86000 people. He gave details of the process of stakeholder engagement adopted by the Foundation. Cases could be organised into priority areas to better understand the gaps. He agreed the MDWS website merited a close look to assess what could be replicated.

I am working on the synthesis document. If you have additional comments on this discussion, please post them here so I can include them in the final document.

Regards
Nitya Jacob

Dear Nitya,

Inspiring example - it reminded me of the school triggerings I attended and that made a lasting impression!

Nice idea also for 'gap analysis' to use the project life cycle. It would be interesting to see for example what in the SVYM example how the planning phase was done, what steps were taken (so this is easier to replicate). Similar for the execution to understand HOW activities were undertaken, in what order and what was particularly important to make these steps work. Thanks!

Hi Robin,

I'll attempt an answer to your questions:
1. The Swami Vivekanand Youth Movement, an NGO working on health issues in Karnataka, had a successful WASH in Schools programme in Mysore's HD Kote taluk. Over several years, it covered all the schools in the taluk with high quality WASH facilities and behaviour change. So much so, their project's impacts are visible years after it has ended. Behaviour change and setting up local institutions, creating a demand for sanitation and hygiene and advocacy with the authorities was their strategy. They built relationships, set up school cabinets, conducted behaviour change sessions, set up monitoring systems, developed linkages with the surrounding community and reviewed impacts. This person-centric approach takes time but yields long-term dividends. They took this programme to the schools of Raichur taluk in Raichur district.
2. For 'gap analysis', it would be useful to have a framework in which case studies can be fitted. We could use a sanitation project's life-cycle - planning, execution and sustainability - as a template. Once case studies have been assigned their place, it would be easy to see the gaps and fill them depending on their importance.
3. For dissemination, there are several sites and mailing lists. ISC, MDWS, Hindi Water Portal are some. Depending on who you want to reach, you could pick one of more media. Mass media are always useful to reach a general audience, though hard to sell sanitation stories to.
4. Any organization working on sanitation should be responsible for replication. NGOs, donors, the government, companies... The list is long.

The SVYM's presentation is attached.

Regards
Nitya

Dear Rashid,

Many thanks. Indeed development organizations can play a useful role and perhaps can do more. Your suggestions and ideas are well noted 'to get the best out'.

But would you say at least some of that 'best' 'is already out there'? What did you think for example of the Bijnor example I shared? Isn't that already out there and now accessible through the Ministry portal? What do you think?

Any other thoughts on the 4 questions raised?

Warmly, Robin

Dear all,

Regarding case studies, they are written up to document the work done, with the objective of sharing the learnings for others to benefit from. This should apply to both the benefits and the pitfalls, so others replicating the same, gain. Be it in sanitation or any other field, projects are by & large implemented by organisations that work on the ground, and are funded by a donor(s). Donors normally insist on reports during the project and on completion. They also do their own due diligence to ensure that the projects are working to the pre-approved plan by them. Given this large donors would have a wealth of knowledge in different fields.

Trusts, Foundations, multi and bilaterals work for the betterment of society. How can we galvanise them to shares these reports? To convert the numerous reports on a similar subject to a case study which they could put up on their web sites for anyone interested to learn from.

Perhaps the India Sanitation Coalition could arrange a competition of such organisations to get the best out. Also to ensure participation to mention the organisations that participated, mentioning that there a host of others who did not, and that hopefully they would in the subsequent competition as it is in the interest of all in the field. By ensuring this, we could have a number of smaller organisations in sanitation benefiting and thus achieving the sanitation objectives of the larger organisations which are by and large the same.

Regards
Rashid Kidwai

Thanks for the opportunity to interact! My name is Robin van Kippersluis. I have worked for 20 years in international development for different agencies, such as UNICEF, SNV Netherlands Development Organization and (currently) The World Bank. I have specialized in knowledge management, change facilitation and capacity strengthening, including in the sanitation sector.

The SuSanA discussion is important I feel: Nitya Jacob and Girija Bharat first challenged us all to think about the scope and boundaries of case studies on sanitation and the responses were nicely summarized. Aprajita Singh then asked us how these cases should be collected, validated and disseminated, providing various insights from her PSI experience. This last discussion we are now starting builds further on these rich discussions around the central question: What can we do to promote the use and replication of good sanitation cases, lessons and practices?

The thought behind this is simple: there is so much knowledge of what works on sanitation and what not - whether they are case studies, in depth research papers or more operational lessons and practices –how can these (validated) cases and lessons be used for replication across villages, districts and states to achieve universal sanitation in India?

Perhaps we can break this discussion down along 4 few sub-questions and statements:
1. Can you share an example of a sanitation case or lesson from one district, village or State that has been successfully replicated in another district, village or State in India? If so, what were the success factors?

2. When cases are organized in priority areas or topics, we may better understand which gaps there are in our collective knowledge and learning on sanitation. This can allow for ‘mapping and gapping’. How could this work in practice?

3. The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has launched Swachh Sangraha which contains a growing number of cases and lessons. There are many cases worth a look, for example this story from Bijnor . How could this portal be used in your view to support replication?

4. Who should be responsible for replication?

I look forward to your thoughts! Robin