Hi Chaiwe,

Thank you for your message. Whilst there has not been another Forum in the same format, there are a number of ongoing initiatives with and for sanitation workers. The blog area of the repository website includes some updates (including on research awards): sanitationworkers.susana.org/

There are also regular focused sessions at international conferences such as FSM, UNC Water and Health and the upcoming Systems Connect conference.

Best wishes,

Sally

Hello friends..
We as the Urban Management Centre have worked extensively on Sanitation Workers' safety and dignity issues in india .. supported the government of Odisha to launch a scheme called Garima . Which has systemic changes on wages, insurance, social safety nets, enumeration and visibaliasing workers, communication etc. Do write to us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for details. Lots of material is also available online.

Regards
Manvita

Hello Sally,

I have been trying to keep up with the discussions about Sanitation Workers since before the Sanitation Workers Knowledge Hub launch and the Sanitation Workers Forum event. I was hoping for quite some exciting regular engagements and some exciting projects, interventions, and activities. Are these in the planning/ have they happened?

Is there some kind of global network/ movement founded based on these initial discussions? Something similar to the PASA emptiers association here on the African continent.

Pardon the interrogations, I would appreciate some additional contacts of persons and institutions behind these activities. 

Kind Regards,
Chaiwe

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to share that you can now find all of the videos from the Sanitation Workers Forum on the Sanitation Workers Webpage under 'Resources': sanitationworkers.susana.org/resources

Thanks,

Sally

Hi Elisabeth,

Thanks for your message. Registered attendees can re-watch the recordings at any time over the next three months by signing up and into the Whova event platform.  Registration  will close two weeks after the event (16th December). However, we plan to post the recorded content onto the dedicated sanitation workers repository hosted by SuSanA, so watch this space! We are also planning a summary blog and conference proceedings. 

You can also find some useful summary blogs from each day of the event below. These include wonderful illustrations by fellow committee member Amita Bhakta. 

Day 1 Blog
Day 2 Blog
Day 3 Blog
Day 4 Blog

If anyone has further questions or suggestions, please reach out anytime! 

Best wishes,

Sally

Hi Sally,
Regarding your conference: for those people who missed the event where can they now watch the recordings or read through the presentations? 
I found only some background reading materials here: whova.com/web/swfft_202111/

People might not want to download the Whova app so it would be good if it was available on a "normal" website, and perhaps the SuSanA library as well? This way, it would also be findable with Google searches.

Key themes and issues from the conference were (see in the "SWF Slide Deck Closing Remarks"  here ):
● Representation and self-organisation
● Role of international organisations
● Intersectionality of caste, gender and marginality
● Historical roots, colonialism and post-colonial
influences
● Challenges and opportunities from COVID-19
● Contextual differences
● Health and safety
● Sensitive use of imagery
● Knowledge gaps and building a research agenda
● Labour rights
● Learnings from other sectors

Regards,
Elisabeth

P.S. Myself, I missed the live event unfortunately, I was busy moving back from Australia to Germany in that week.

Hi Elisabeth,

Thanks for your support! We have actually just launched the conference platform to attendees! The full agenda, speakers, registration link and information on how to access the platform (Whova) can be found on this webpage .

This event is led by a voluntary committee of Masters, PhD students, early career researchers and professionals passionate about the topic of sanitation work. We have support from all core organisations involved in the  Initiative for Sanitation Workers . This includes WaterAid (who are providing some budgetary support for the event), ILO, World Bank, SNV & WHO. Colleagues from these organisations will be leading and/or joining different sessions at the forum. 

The premise was to create a free, open event to encourage greater interest and discussion on the topic, and generate knowledge and cross-disciplinary, cross-country learning. We plan to record the majority of sessions so that attendees can re-watch them, and to create / support a repository of knowledge for future research, policy, practice and engagement on sanitation work. 

As for my own research over the last few years, this was funded by the UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund. Colleagues from WaterAid and local partner organisations/NGOs were involved in project design and supporting delivery in Bangladesh and India. I am currently writing up findings, but you can find my FSM6 talk and blogs with key takeaways below.

WASH Matters Blog

FSM6 Talk

FemLab Blog  

Hope that helps, and hope to see you at the forum! We have 240 registrants already!

Best wishes,

Sally  

Hi Sally,

Thanks for alerting us to this very interesting event. I am glad to see that you were able to make it for free for participants. Who is sponsoring the costs to prepare and run this event in the background?
You mentioned in your profile:
"Over the last two years, I have been leading a GCRF project on gender, caste and sanitation work alongside WaterAid and local partners in India and Bangladesh."
--> could you please post more information about this project, like a website link? Also, where will the recordings and presentations from the event be made available afterwards?

Kind regards,
Elisabeth

Dear SuSanA colleagues, 

We are pleased to announce that registration for the virtual 'Sanitation Workers Forum: Linking Research, Policy and Practice' (29th Nov to 2nd Dec) is now OPEN. You can register  here  (it's free and open to all...150 registrants and counting).

Format: The forum will be taking place over four days on the online platform  Whova . Once you register, you will receive a confirmation email including a link to sign up to Whova. You need to register and sign up to Whova to access the platform (we will make this live 1-2 weeks prior to the event). You can access Whova on your desktop/laptop computer and/or via downloading the mobile app. Please note that each participant needs to register with an individual email address, and use the same email when signing up/into Whova (a group email will not work). We will send further details on how to access the platform, prior to the event.

Agenda: We have an excellent line up of keynote speakers, workshops, networking opportunities and thematic sessions (see attached) including sanitation workers and their representatives, students, researchers, practitioners, policy advocates and activists. The final agenda will be visible to all registered attendees once the platform goes live 1-2 weeks prior. Though online, we want to make the forum as interactive as we possibly can. If you have any questions or suggestions for the event (including, for example, any pre-recorded resources you would like to share/permit us to upload onto Whova), please email:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.   

We would be grateful if you could share the registration widely in your networks and retweet @SanWorkersForum, to build momentum around the forum, and raise the profile of sanitation work globally!

See you there!

SWF Organising Committee
Sally Cawood, Jen Barr, Amita Bhakta, Maisie-Rose Byrne, Purva Dewoolkar, Alix Lerebours, Reychel Sanchez Martinez and Mariam Zaqout