Yes, Elisabeth, I agree. WG9 doesn't need to go into the "What" of various technologies. Our work is the "How" of making citizens and government officials aware and getting both to take action.

We need to revisit the WG9 purpose statement after hearing from members. In the meantime, perhaps that sentence could be simplified to this:

"We seek to engage communities and local governments from the Global South and the Global North on the scope and scale of sustainable sanitation, particularly the needs of our 2.5 billion fellow humans without adequate toilets."

Thank you, Nagedra abd Addise for your feedback.

Yes, as Addise points out, sustainable sanitation depends on public awareness and understanding and this comes about with the involvement of civil society organizations at the grass roots level. CSO facilitation and making available appropriate tools that foster awareness and action need to be part of our WG9 work.

Among all the advocacy materials in the SuSanA library, Elisabeth has highlighted some in a top of the page sticky post here. forum.susana.org/forum/categories/242-ad...category-on-advocacy

Please have a look and comment. And let's see what we find useful for engaging CSOs in our communities.

I hope to meet you again here.

Carol

Dear Carol,
Thanks for your email. It is exciting effort. I have read and feel great for awareness and advocacy program.

Thank you Elisabeth, and colleagues


1.What do want or expect from WG9?

Sharing and learning of practices and experiences; Capacity development of members

2.Within SuSanA's overall goals, what is the importance of public awareness, advocacy, and civil society engagement?

Sustainable sanitation is largely related to public awareness for behavior change; policy improvements and the involvement of CSOs at the grass root levels. From my perspective sanitation is being partly challenged due to lack of these elements.

3.Can you give examples of
1) public awareness
-> example: sanitation education, campaigns, training,

2) advocacy
-> example: demand for change and resources where sanitation profile is low and weak such as in Ethiopia.

3) civil society engagement with the world of sustainable sanitation?
--> Obviously facilitating more CSO to focus and include sanitation activities in their engagements.


Addise Amado

Coordinator, EGST Projects and Community Services This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
+251 911 866128
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Elisabeth and All,

Appreciate your comments on the purpose statement for WG9.

Last summer, after the WG9 focus changed to "Public Awareness, Advocacy, Civil Society Engagement", we were asked by the SuSanA Secretariat to define focus and scope. They wanted it quick, perhaps for World Water Week. I drafted in great haste, sent it WG9's Jack Sim and his staff at the World Toilet Organization and it was posted.

The Forum users in this thread have thought a lot about WG9. I hope they will send comments and suggestions, including on the vocabulary differences. (I did advocacy (le plaidoyer) training in French and know if it very different.)

1. What do want or expect from WG9?
2. Within SuSanA's overall goals, what is the importance of public awareness, advocacy, and civil society engagement?
3. Can you give examples of 1) public awareness 2) advocacy, and 3) civil society engagement with the world of sustainable sanitation?

Thanks

Carol


Note by moderator (EvM): See also a general discussion about the objectives of SuSanA's working groups here: forum.susana.org/forum/categories/69-rel...susana-working-group

Hi Carol and all of Working Group 9,

Regarding the description of Working Group 9 (www.susana.org/en/working-groups/sanitat...ess-public-awareness) which you pointed out here , I like it a lot but have one concern. You wrote:

We seek to engage communities and local governments from the Global South and the Global North on the scope and scale of the challenges, from the 2.5 billion without toilets to the vulnerability of those served by large, inadequately maintained sewer infrastructure.

I don't really understand the part that I highlighed in bold. I vaguely know what you're probably getting at but the way it is written, it seems to me like "the usual slant of the ecosan community" against "large" wastewater treatment plants... This is not something that we at SuSanA usually try to do. I mean, yes, there are problems with sewers and treatment plants but there are problems also with everything else, and there are horses for courses. SuSanA does not have a blanket condemnation against large sewage infrastructure (even though yes, we often point out that they can be overly expensive, use a lot of water and can be costly to maintain).

And anyhow, what is the definition of "large"? Even smaller sewage treatment plants can fail and be inadequate. When maintenance is neglected, everything fails anyway, whether it's a wastewater treatment plant, pit latrine, UDDT, composting toilet, waterless urinal...

So I am wondering if this sentence could be modified to make it clearer what you really mean?

Regards,
Elisabeth