An overview of all the factsheets shows that important sanitation links (links that are of paramount importance for the sustainable sanitation management) are conspicuously missing. Key attributes that are important adjuncts of sanitation are safe water, hygiene (personal and community hygiene) and environmental health. For example, if water is not provided in adequate quantities, latrines cannot be kept clean. If safe water is not available, sanitation-related diseases will still occur. Same reasoning apply for hygiene and environmental health. There is no factsheet that reflects these important sanitation links.

I suggest that SuSanA secretariat should create a new WG, called “WG 12 - Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Environmental Health.” SaSanA should keep the deadlines open, for the time being.

F H Mughal

This is to address the need for more Core Group members from the South. This is a serious problem but one we can fix.

Professionals in the South have their hands full. Many are in the field working with communities and managing technical projects. Others are pursuing academic degrees that may be essential to their effective leadership in sustainable sanitation. But as a group we can support their involvement in the SuSanA core group.

I spent most of my career helping professional people in the developing world communicate effectively. If you pair me with someone, we can work together by skype or Google+ and this person's expertise would more quickly see the light of day.

Anyone who likes to write in the target language and learn new things can be effective. I could even pair people up if I had a list of people who want to write (or prepare power points or videos) and need help or can provide help. A small communications project within SuSanA could result in a disproportionate increase in productive international collaboration.

What do you think? Would this work? Please send ideas or just add your name to a list. If there is enough interest, I'll volunteer to get it started. I think I'd have to request some expenses, perhaps a travel grant to a SuSanA or other event where I could start working with one or more experts myself and help others pair up. (I could also work with the event secretariat, international meeting management being something I've done.)

In general, the best way to get good professionals from the South is to simply ask for their commitments and offer to support those commitments.

Please find attached the word files of factsheets of working group 9a,9b, 10 and 11

Please find attached the word files of factsheets of working group 6,7a,7b and 8

Please find attached the word files of factsheet of working group 1,2,3,4 and 5.

Note by moderator (Elisabeth): We from the SuSanA secretariat are providing the Word documents here because a couple of people asked for them, as they want to give us some feedback directly in the Word documents. It is easier for us to take comments on board when they are directly in the Word document, rather than general text. So, should you have a bit of extra time and wish to contribute, please download the Word documents here and send them back to us (either to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or post them here). By the way only Word files with the doc-ending and not with the docx-ending can be uploaded to the forum. (actually docx also works but you have to download and then change the extension manually)

***Congratulations and a VERY BIG THANK YOU to Elisabeth and ALL the team from the SuSanA secretariat for the great work they did!!!***

Here are my comments:

Layout:
- Even though word and powerpoint may not be the fanciest solutions I think we should keep a format that we can easily edit later
- the footer for Factsheet 1 is in a different format then for the other factsheets

Foreword:
Just a thought: why not asking the BMG foundation, resp. Bill and Melinda Gates (after all we prepared the docuemnt it in word and powerpoint – see also www.gatesfoundation.org/about/Pages/bill...da-gates-letter.aspx?

Preface:
- Still don't get it: british or US english grammar rules?
- In the first paragraphs: what about emphasizing that the final aim of the work on the different aspects of sanitation is to find more sustainability?

Content:
- It would be easier to read if Acknowledgments and Table of contents would be joined (even more as there was already a previous acknowledgment with the preface) and if page indications would be added to the table of content

Executive Summary
- "SuSanA contributes to the policy dialogue towards sustainable sanitation through a collection of resource materials related to policy and through a lively debate amongst the members via its online discussion forum." - the lively discussions not only take place in the forum, but also during meetings, in the working groups, bilaterally, in common projects, etc.etc.
- In general, I miss the point of "who should read this?"/"why should I read this?"
- Factsheet 1: can we talk about the examples and contact details here as well?
- Factsheet 4: I would argue that the knowledge of the wide range of sanitation options is not enough, but also how they fit together and interact with the water and nutrient cycle.
- Figure: I would suggest preparing a mix of the one suggested by Sunder in the draft compilation and the one from WG1 (see the post of EvM: forum.susana.org/forum/categories/69-rel...heet-compilation#745)

Hope this helps - cheers - Dorothee

Dear all,

I am excited to announce that the factsheet compilation is complete and published!! Just in time before Christmas!

Big thanks in particular to my team members Rahul Ingle, Leonie Kappauf and Carola Israel who worked very, very hard on this these last few weeks. All the other authors and contributors are listed in the pdf file - big thanks to all!

Here is the link to the factsheet compilation:
www.susana.org/lang-en/library/rm-susana...eitem&type=2&id=1229

I hope that 7 MB is still manageable for people (if not, let me know, then we will break it into smaller chunks). All the individual factsheets are also accesible here:
www.susana.org/lang-en/library/rm-susana-publications

This is not yet the end. Now the work starts in fine tuning the executive summary (thanks to Sunder Subramanian from India for writing the first draft!).
Also, some of the factsheets still had some minor open questions which we couldn't solve in time. So if you want to suggest any text changes, please still do. (we will also contact the lead authors again on these open points some time in January)

And now we need to look for someone important and famous to write the foreword (or two), suggestions for suitable persons which could be approached are welcome.

Regards and merry Christmas to all,

Elisabeth

Dear all,

As you have noticed, we have had a slight slippage in the deadline for the factsheet compilation book. Under the pressure of a deadline, a few of the working groups have now had quite some energy to update and improve their factsheets and we didn't want to cut off this important process. For me, the most important part of these factsheets is actually the process whereby different authors from different organisations share, argue and discuss, to come up with a final 8 pages that everyone is happy with. These factsheets are multi-authored and multi-organisational which is what makes them special. (See also my other post in the topic of why we are doing this factsheet compilation: forum.susana.org/forum/categories/69-rel...-input-still-welcome)

Anyhow, so our new deadline for having it online is actually by Christmas.

Thus, we from the secretariat are right now very busy getting them all into a uniform shape and taking into account any last minute change requests (see discussion in the WG sections of this forum, plus a lot is taking place via e-mail in the mailing lists for each WG (make sure you are on these mailing lists if this is not yet the case)).

We are working on a "summary of summaries" (based on the summary of each factsheet), and Sunder from India has kindly volunteered to do the first draft of this. My idea is that later, this 2-page executive summary could be converted into a nice stand-alone flyer which could be written in the language of decision makers and policy makers. That would be the next step in 2012. (the factsheets and the factsheet compilation will be too long to be of interest to a decision maker)

For this summary, I think it would be good to have something graphic which shows interrelationships between the 11 working groups. Because really most of them are related with each other.
I have been with SuSanA for a while now but I can't remember any previous attempt to show this relationship of working groups? Does it exist?
I only found this one which was created by Katharina Kurianowski and Jack Sim for WG 9 for a presentation in May 2011, which might be a good start (but it is not complete, some of the WGs are not shown here):



Does anyone feel inspired to come up with a better or improved visualisation?

And please also still comment on the proposed front and back cover design, see post from Leonie above. Better to comment now than later on complain that the photo selection is not balanced enough. Thanks.

Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear all,

Now that we are getting closer to complete the revision of the compilation of 13 thematic factsheets we have treated the layout of the cover and back page of the factsheet book to a makeover.







Please check the attached PDF file and let us know whether you like the new layout and the photo selection and if you have any suggestions for improvements.

Many people have volunteered a lot of their precious time to contribute to the content of the factsheets and we really want to make this an attractive document for future readers.

Please also note that we are still looking for helpers with writing an executive summary for the compilation of factsheets. If you are willing to volunteer your time for this summary please contact the SuSanA secretariat: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I am looking forward to your feedback

Best regards

Leonie

Dear all,

You might have seen the postings of some of the working groups, where the leads are moderating a process whereby the existing factsheets of some of the working groups are undergoing a major revision (applies e.g. to the working groups and facthsheets WG 1, 2, 5, 7b, 8, 9a, 9b). The driver for this is the compilation of factsheets which we from the SuSanA secretariat initiated and which we are trying to complete by mid November (if there is still a lot of energy and activities, the dealine could be shifted back a little).

An earlier draft version of the factsheet compilation book from August is available here - but please note that several of the factsheets have already had a major revision since then (just to give you an idea):
www.susana.org/lang-en/library?view=ccbktypeitem&type=2&id=1229

With this posting, I want to encourage anyone who has expertise in the area of one of the working groups, and who is not yet involved in the process, to please volunteer your time and make comments (see the posts of the individual working groups on this discussion forum). It is late but not yet too late to enter the process! Everyone who gives substantial input in the writing process will be named as an author of the respective factsheet, and everyone who gives some relevant input will be named in the acknowledgement sections. So there is no money but a chance to get better known, that's all we can offer (and a chance to network and learn)!

A further idea which occurred to me today: When we have compiled the 13 factsheets, we could take their key points and make a sort of summary out of all the factsheets (you could also call this a "meta document of the factsheets"). I am envisaging 1-2 pages. Nobody has time to read fat documents these days, but 1-2 pages is always possible... This could also serve to dispell the "myth" that SuSanA = ecosan = reuse, or that SuSanA is just "the old ecosan gang in disguise"...! Nothing could be further from the truth. SuSanA is about sustainability in all aspects. If reuse helps in some cases to make a sanitation system more sustainable then so be it. In many other cases, an exaggerated focus on reuse will make the system less sustainable. It is probably no coincidence that the largest UDDT project (in Durban with 75,000 UDDTs) is also a project with no reuse. Also many schools would struggle with reuse and the focus should much rather be on good O&M procedures.

So I think SuSanA does have a small bias towards reuse-orientated systems (and this also helps to set us apart from other players), but reuse is not dominating our minds and work. This should come out clearly when we write the summary of the 13 SuSanA factsheets.

If anyone wans to volunteer their time to help edit and refine this planned "summary of summaries", then please do let us know.

Regards,
Elisabeth