Dear Ossai,
many thanks for your reply and for your understanding.

I think your initiative is great and the Secretariat is happy to assist you with using the platform and connecting with other members and partners of the region.

As mentioned before, a first starting point is the list of SuSanA partner organisations active in Nigeria: www.susana.org/en/partner?vbl_2%5B%5D=&vbl_20%5B505%5D=505
A list of publications focusing on Nigeria is available here: www.susana.org/en/resources/library?vbl_...&vbl_20%5B505%5D=505
Projects based in Nigeria can be found here: www.susana.org/en/resources/projects?vbl...&vbl_20%5B505%5D=505

Due to our data privacy policy, we can’t forward you the contact details of SuSanA members from Nigeria. If you would like to inform them about the discussion on the Forum and the outcomes of the meeting and further activities, please draft an Email which we could send out to SuSanA members from Nigeria. Further discussion could then take place on the Forum.

I very much appreciate your motivation and passion to improve sanitation in Nigeria. A first step towards contributing to better sanitation and better connecting people on the ground could be an outreach to partners, members and projects as mentioned above.

Another activity could be a discussion on this Forum about WASH in Schools in Nigeria, where you could discuss the challenges and opportunities for Nigeria with the international SuSanA community. You could also start a discussion about any other relevant topic for NIgeria.

I hope this is helpful.

Best regards,
Anne (on behalf of the SuSanA Secretariat)

Dear Anne,

It was a delight pouring through your response to our report.

Thank you.


Per your point on finance and institutional support, let it be clear that we were not seeking for financial support from SuSanA rather we were hoping that the SuSanA secretariat can recommend us with project partners of SuSanA that are planning programs activity in Nigeria for ease of collaboration. It is however equally noted that Secretariat will not provide institutional support but will avail us the resources on the platform. Much Appreciated.

With regards to approving a Regional Chapter for Nigeria! While your concerns are well noted, it is instructive to point out that the need to have a Regional Chapter for Nigeria is in consideration of the enormous contribution the chapter can make to SuSanA in terms of size and solutions as a result of the enormous challenges and opportunities in the country (my philosophy is where there is big task, there is big result). Therefore, we will be willing to work together to identify and engage with potential Strong Regional Partner in Nigeria. To this end, we will request that you provide us (if available/possible) the criteria for selecting a regional partners as well as possible list of such organizations that might exist in Nigeria to your knowledge.

Once again, thank you and regards to the team at the Secretariat.

Dear Ossai,

I am very happy to read about the successful meeting in Nigeria and that you were able to connect with a range of SuSanA members to discuss the needs and requirements for improving WASH in Nigeria. That’s excellent!

Please let me explain what the SuSanA Secretariat can and what we can’t offer:

As you might know, SuSanA is not an organisational entity. This means that we do not offer any kind of financial or institutional support directly and do not realise projects ourselves. What we do is to provide a platform (www.SuSanA.org) for the various stakeholders that are involved or interested in sustainable sanitation to interact, share knowledge and begin conversations among each other.

The Discussion Forum is one example where professionals and people interested in sanitation interact to share information and mobilize the SuSanA community. The Forum can be further used to inform the SuSanA community about your ideas and activities, the progress on WASH in Nigeria and the challenges you face. By using the SuSanA Forum you will be in touch with other professionals from the sector and can start a fruitful exchange.

Apart from that you are invited to engage in the SuSanA WGs, to use the online resources the platform offers (e.g. the SuSanA library) and to network with other SuSanA partners active in Nigeria (and beyond). Please find a list of all SuSanA partners in Nigeria which you can connect with here: www.susana.org/en/partner?vbl_2%5B%5D=&vbl_20%5B505%5D=505


However, at the current moment, we are unable to launch a Regional Chapter for Nigeria. This would require a strong regional partner in Nigeria who provides funding and manpower for the chapter and additional human resources in the SuSanA Secretariat which we currently don’t have.

Furthermore, the SuSanA Core Group needs to approve any set up of a SuSanA Regional Chapter.

This shouldn’t prevent you, however, from networking with SuSanA partners and members in Nigeria and to further work towards improving WASH in Nigeria. You are cordially invited to make further use of the resources of the SuSanA platform and the SuSanA network.

Have you seen this discussion thread about the Nigeria Water and Education for Schools Programme yet : forum.susana.org/239-looking-for-funding...ommunities-programme ?

And here is another thread about WASH in Schools in Nigeria: forum.susana.org/27-schools-sanitation-a...n-schools-in-nigeria


Best regards,
Anne (on behalf of the SuSanA Secretariat)

Dear Elisabeth,
Thank you for your response, much appreciated.
It is unexpected that you does not have the phone contact of the members on the platform, as par Nigeria member institutions. However, we will appreciate if you can avail us the email addresses of these Nigeria member institutions/individuals on the SuSanA Forum to enable us engage with them via email at a frequency and scope that will derive our expected attention and result rather than depending and distracting the Secretariat from their task schedules.

Per your question, what PE means in PEWASH; it is Partnership for Expanded - Water and Sanitation Hygiene. A government policy to mobilize private and public intervention in the sector as a result of the agelong neglect of the WASH sector. The Ministry of Water Resources is the implementing organ of government. But, we are of the opinion that leaving it for them to monitor and evaluate will amount to unproductive venture as history does not give a good memory of government in our clime actually monitoring their projects. Most importantly, we want to ensure that we hold the feet of government to the fire by having adequate and accessible data as to the progress in the WASH sector been implemented by public and private institutions.

I have also noted your suggestion to consider starting a thread on the PEWASH implementation here, i will forward this recommendation to the SuSanA Nigeria Coalition leadership for consideration and consequent action.

Thank you

Dear Ossai,
Let me keep up my crisp and candid correspondence then.

I have added my answers in italics below:

1. Data of Nigeria members of the forum as we discovered from the meeting that many of Nigeria members are not email persons and as result could not follow up meaning that we will need to be connect them through phone.

I'm afraid we only have people's e-mail addresses and their organizations but not any phone numbers. So I am not sure how to help you on that one.

2. Any available resources / guide on implementing UNICEF WASH Call to Action as it is our next phase of action.

Here I don't know anything more than what is availabale online. There could be something in the SuSanA library: www.susana.org/en/resources/library or else do a Google search or a site search of the UNICEF website? Or you could also start a new forum thread on this and ask others for advice. If you put "call to action" into the search bar above, you'll also find some posts and publications that could be useful.

3. Link to SuSanA project portal to enable take a look if it can serve our purpose of having a menu on the SuSanA project portal for our PEWASH Policy and WASH status monitoring and Data Management across Nigeria.

What did you mean exactly? The project database is accessible for everyone here: www.susana.org/en/resources/projects But this probably doesn't help you for PEWASH Policy monitoring. What does PE in PEWASH stand for, by the way? Which is the government institution implementing or monitoring it? Again, perhaps a separate discussion thread on that would be useful?

Regards,
Elisabeth

The SusanA memeber meet- up in Nigeria was indeed a great success and I personally commend each and every one of us that attended the meeting. Our deliberations and discussions was quite impressive and superb. There is indeed a lot of work to be done here in Nigeria. I see enthusiasm and determination from all of us - the members that were available that particular day to give in our best. I will encourage us to continue with this spirit so as to ensure that SusanA Nigeria Coalition is a success.

I salute the secretariat - Elizabeth and her Team for the support given to us so far and urge them to further do all that is necessary to stand us as a strong Coalition.

I salute all.

Dear Elisabeth,
Thank you for your candid and crisp correspondence.
While we wait for the Secretariat to respond to the report submitted we would like to make a request of you as our mentor.
1. Data of Nigeria members of the forum as we discovered from the meeting that many of Nigeria members are not email persons and as result could not follow up meaning that we will need to be connect them through phone.
2. Any available resources / guide on implementing UNICEF WASH Call to Action as it is our next phase of action.
3. Link to SuSanA project portal to enable take a look if it can serve our purpose of having a menu on the SuSanA project portal for our PEWASH Policy and WASH status monitoring and Data Management across Nigeria.

Thank you,

Ossai Ilome,
Convener,
SuSanA Nigeria Coalition

Dear Elisabeth,

Many thanks for your support and encouragement for the SUSANA Nigeria Coalition.

Your suggestions and the list of identified SUSANA partners in Nigeria will be very useful to keep the momentum as we work towards institutionalisation.

Best wishes

Ahmed

Dear Ossai,

I am really impressed with how you pulled this off - well done! You are setting a good example for others to follow in their own countries or cities (the secretariat can help by sending an e-mail to the respective country SuSanA member list).

I read your final report. I copy here a photo from the attendees of your meeting, as SuSanA is all about people and about sharing:



Thank you all for coming to this meeting!

I noted this part of your report:

6. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SUSANA GLOBAL / DISCUSSION ON WAYS MOVING FORWARD
a. That SuSanA Global officially inaugurate the SusanA Nigeria coalition, and the WESA region chapter. The coalition seeks the collaboration of SuSanA and SuSanA partners to scale-up successful sustainable sanitation technologies and projects in other regions in Nigeria.
b. Provide a portal for data management for SuSanA Nigeria coalition to track PEWASH implementation as well as general data management across the states of Nigeria.
c. Technical support to domesticate the UNICEF WASH Call to action
Actions:
- Convener, SuSanA Nigeria Coalition to submit report to SuSanA Global and follow-up with Elizabeth Muench

I actually don't belong to the SuSanA secretariat but work very closely with the team at GIZ who makes up the secretariat. My funding comes from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to SEI which pays for my work as a Discussion Forum Community Moderator amongst other things (see link in my forum signature for more information about this grant).

The secretariat is actually quite small and it is not easy for them to jump into setting up a SuSanA Nigeria chapter right away. They did involve themselves in a SuSanA India and MENA chapter (www.susana.org/en/regional-chapters/overview) but in both cases there was a strong institutional partner who had some funding for the activities.

Who could such an institutional partner be in Nigeria? I had a look at SuSanA partners in Nigeria and found these 29 partners:
www.susana.org/en/partner?vbl_2%5B13%5D=13&vbl_20%5B505%5D=505 by filtering by country here:
www.susana.org/en/partner

However, out of those 29 most of them are large organizations that operate internationally and also do a bit in Nigeria. We need more Nigerian-focused and Nigera-based ones, though. Perhaps as a first small step: how about getting the employers of the attendees from your meeting to join SuSanA as official SuSanA partners? (it's free of charge)

When I e-mail people about joining as a partner, I usually send them this text:

++++++++

About SuSanA (Sustainable Sanitation Alliance):

SuSanA is a community of around 300 partner organisations and 8000 individual members committed to achieving Sustainable Development Goal Number 6: “Water and sanitation for all”. SuSanA facilitates knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Partner organisations get a dedicated webpage on the SuSanA platform, the so-called “partner profile page”. Partners can edit their page to upload publications and marketing materials and
highlight news or events. As the world’s largest online platform for sustainable sanitation, SuSanA gives partners an opportunity to self-market!
To become a partner organisation, click here: www.susana.org/en/partner-application (there is no fee involved)

- See here who is already a partner: www.susana.org/partners
- For an example of one partner organisations' dedicated webpage within SuSanA, see here: www.susana.org/en/partner/details/152
- SuSanA’s website: www.susana.org
- Our discussion forum: www.forum.susana.org
- And what does Wikipedia say about SuSanA? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Sanitation_Alliance

++++++++++++

Hope this helps a little bit to keep the momentum going. I am also looking forward to reading a reaction from the SuSanA secretariat in this thread (but a few of them are at a GIZ in-house conference this week so there could be some delays).

Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear All,

Attention: Secretariat / Elisabeth

It is my sincere pleasure to bring to your notice the conclusion of the meeting of SuSanA Nigeria Coalition held in Abuja on the 29th of June, 2017.

We wish to sincerely thank the secretariat for their leadership and support as well as Elisabeth for his unflinching cooperation.

You may wish to find the necessary documents attached for your attention, especially the FINAL REPORT that requires the secretariat action.

Kind regards,

Ossai Ilome,
Convener,
SuSanA Nigeria Coalition

Dear All,
our attention has been drawn to the unavailability of refreshment on the agenda.
we wish to announce that there would be refreshment.

Thank you,

Ossai Ilome

Dear All,
As we look forward to tomorrows meeting, i want to use this opportunity to wish participants travelling from various destination a safe and successful journey.

Our agenda has evolved. Kindly find it attached for your information.

We would like the Moderators to confirm availability for skype goodwill message presentation.

Thank you,

Ossai Ilome,
Convener,
SuSanA Nigeria Coalition.