Hi, Everyone,

So much is happening!!! We need everyone's help to track developments. This is a call for input into Workgroup 9, both WG9a - Sanitation as a Business and WG9b - Sanitation Awareness. And let's share right here on the Susana Forum.

Thanks to the encouragement and support of Trevor Surridge (tmsinnovation) of SuSanA secretariat, Jack Sim and I will be working to update our Factsheet and posting a few key new items on the WG 9 page of the SuSanA website. www.susana.org/lang-en/working-groups/wg09 ,

Personally, I am fascinated by the exploding use of the social media in increasing awareness throughout the sanitation sector. I am sure that forum participants see all sorts of new things we miss. Please tell us the hot spots we need to watch. Let us know how you are using the social media. Also interested in campaign evaluation reports with analytics.

Look forward to hearing from you here. Or tweet links to @PortlandPHLUSH or to my handle @Baggywrinkles.

If you're celebrating Christmas, have a great one.

Carol

Thank you so much, Bismark, for your quick reply to my rather slow one. Factsheet wg9 has shaped up nicely.

Hello Carol and WG9,

Since this is my first time posting on this group forum I would like to briefly introduce myself. My name is Bismark Yeboah, an Intern at the GIZ "Sustainable Sanitation" programme and Secretariat of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance. Together with the secretarait team, we have been working to finish the Factsheet on Public Awareness and Sanitation marketing.

Response to Carol's post:

Thank you very much for the review and contributions to the Factsheet WG9b.
Majority of your comments have already been integrated in the final version of the factsheet that had been done in the meantime. The minor text corrections you made have been well integrated into the final version, which I have attached to this post. Specifically,

1. The links of the citations have been checked and improved to be sure they are working. We will do well to frequently check and update them.

2. It would be great to have the inscriptions in figure 2 to be legible as you suggested. It is a bit complicated to do this because we only use a .jpg (screenshot) as our reference material. The SaniShop logo has also been added (see figure 5)

3. Easy Latrine and SaniShop have been put together because both are examples of Sanitation Marketing from Cambodia.

The attached version of the Factsheet is the final output from all the hardwork that have been put by all authors, contributors and reviewers and I think its a beautiful piece of work. congratulations and thank you all for your effort.
In case there are any pressing concerning the document please get in touch with me.

Thank you.

Bismark
(This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

I've just now finished yet another review of the Factsheet for wg9b and attached it below. (Sorry for the email; I forgot we can post latest versions here on the Forum).

The fact sheet is much better every time. I only made minor changes. That is until I got to the citations at the end. Many links were broken. Links need to be checked frequently because organizations repost things to different places on their websites. Except for the docs in the SuSanA library that were all in place. For the non-functional links, found almost all of the the titles and inserted the new links. Someone should check my work now.

The last time I reviewed wg9b, I made a couple of suggestions not taken and wanted some feedback on them. What do you think

?

• How about getting rid of the tiny double illustrations? On the WASH United posters it would be nice if the text were big enough to read. How about adding the SaniShop franchise logo? Anything to make it more colorful.
• Why are SaniShop and Easy Latrine covered as one example? Are they partner projects? Or just both in Cambodia?
• Any other films besides World's Toilet Crisis?

All the other suggestions seem to be integrated. Nice coverage of Walk for Water and Sanitation. There is always new breaking stuff in this field. Comments welcome. What have we missed?


Carol

Hi Carol and WG 9

The revised introduction text for WG 9b can now be found here on the website: susana.org/lang-en/working-groups/wg09

If any one has comments, please post them here!

Hi Carol and WG9

I think that the introduction text that Carol has proposed above is concise and to the point, hence I like it.

Does anyone think that anything crucial is missing in the intro text?

@Carol, have you had any feedback directly about the intro text?

Changes to the WG intro texts will begin to be made during the next week or so, so there is still time to make suggestions!

Trevor Surridge has requested group leads and go-leads give a look at the text introducing each topic. Below is a quick preliminary rewrite of the current introduction to the focus of wg9b in order to meet an agreed deadline today. NOW I NEED TO HEAR FROM WG9B MEMBERS AND SECRETARIAT.

1. Does this reflect the focus of wg9b? How should the focus be stated?
2. Am I correct that we are interested in what works in raising awareness of the big picture in countries worldwide. And also that we look at awareness raising in local communities that leads to adoption of sustainable sanitation systems?
3. And do we need to worry about obvious overlap with other working groups, for example wg7a?

Working Group 9b group tracks sound practices that raise awareness of sustainable sanitation options and illustrates ways various options have been made accessible and affordable in local and global markets, especially for the poor.

The severity of the on-going sanitation crisis in developing countries and countries in transition is still poorly understood. Discussions of sanitation have until recently involved only professionals. The need to reach the general public and policy makers worldwide is the current challenge.

Decision makers and affluent classes tend to pay little attention to situation of those who struggle daily with inadequate sanitation. Western media that regularly cover topics such as climate change and water scarcity are reluctant to cover the “taboo topic” of sanitation in any depth.

Working group 9b also considers awareness raising activities at the local level. People who stand to benefit the most from improved sanitation often have little knowledge of the options for suitable sustainable sanitation systems and the costs involved. This working group looks at successful approaches to involving communities in decision making about appropriate ways to meet their sanitation needs and for engaging local entrepreneurs in product development and service delivery.

This might work very well. Should you develop a model for any one of the groups, post the URL and encourage discussion across working groups. As you are aware, most of us are technophobc to one degree or another so we appreciate your tone, invitations and committment to getting feedback.

A quick idea that comes to mind, is to create a Dashboard style page for the working group 9. When I say dashboard I envisage having a sub-menu item when you enter the working group page on SuSanA that says WG Dashboard, so that initially you would not change to much of what already exists there, which the WG page users are accustomed to.

The dashboard would have
1. current tasks / aims / goals for the year for the WG (to be updated annually)
2. a status box where current discussion topic titles taking place in WG 9 on the discussion forum would be displayed with a single sentence teaser from the latest post to that discussion topic perhaps
3. perhaps also a box where links to opportunities for young entrepreneurs could be posted

Please add your thoughts and suggestions.
Kind regards
Trevor

The CCS approach seems to cover all areas; training, awareness, marketing and support / creation of micro-entrepreneurs. Which is good.

My question is with reference to the following sentence out of the case study:
"By 2010, CCS was succeeding as a social enterprise, improving urban sanitation and creating income opportunities for under-employed youth, but the organization was not meeting financial objectives and could not be considered a viable business investment."

What financial objectives were not being met?
What is considered a viable business investment? ROI of what percentage?

Can you supply some numbers or insight into this statement?

Look forward to your reply.
Kind regards
Trevor

A recently posted case study of some work by SC Johnson and local partners in Nairobi. Would be interested in input, opinion, reaction. CCS is now an independent hybrid so we are still improving the business model but also looking for non-profit funding to support training, sanitation marketing, and mentorship.

Full disclosure: I am involved now as co-founder, no longer as part of my role at SCJ.

www.wbcsd.org/Pages/EDocument/EDocumentD...earchContextKey=true

Best,
Justin

Dear Carol,
Great that you have replied on the email to the working group. I have moved your postings to this new topic to make clear that it is about ideas and vision of the working group and not anymore about the factsheet.

I think it is good to broaden our perspective to all aspects of sustainable sanitation including closing the loop as one possible but not exclusive approach. When you read the current factsheet you will notice that a lot of examples are related to ecosan which so far have not yet created the envisaged business opportunities. Closing the entire loop is not easy and sometimes even unrealistic. So I would pledge for a wider reflection on the ballance of (1) sanitation businesses that target profitable segments from the sanitation chain and (2) government support that complement and close the gaps in order to achieve a complete and safe sanitation system. From the user up to disposal or reuse.

I am looking forward to hearing more thoughts and ideas. Let me remind you also of the opportunity to restructure the working group homepage to be more useful for group activities. Any ideas are welcome! susana.org/lang-en/working-groups/wg09

Best regards,
Christian