The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA), the Faecal Sludge Management Alliance (FSMA), the WASH in Schools Network (WinS), the Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) and the Sustainable Sanitation and Water Management (SSWM) have come together to work towards the following aims:
- Let us fight for a sector, that speaks with one voice! As that voice will have more impact.
- Let us harmonise our actions – and identify synergies among the different networks!
- Let us overcome fragmentation in the sector through good exchange and cooperation!
Background
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene are essential for life, human dignity, and the health of people and planet. The human right to water and sanitation is foundational to the realization and enjoyment of all other human rights. In September 2016, United Nations Member States committed themselves to ensuring access to safe drinking water and to sanitation in Goal 6 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG 6). In order to achieve the SDGs several networks have been formed. These are usually formal or informal networks of partner organizations or individuals who work together towards the same goals, whether it be from the humanitarian sector, the development sector or universities and research institutions.
As there are several networks dedicated to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) as well as several of its sub-categories, the Sanitation Network Circle has been formed in 2022. It currently consists of the These networks are key capacity-building platforms, that are leading the fight for the acquisition, improvement, and sharing of knowledge in water supply, sanitation management and hygiene. SuSanA supports these platforms’ vision as a collaborative, responsive, and collective platform that advocates for knowledge management growth and hopes to support this vision from a global collaboration point of view along with other key global sector players. While different networks focus on different dimensions of sustainable sanitation, there are many cross-cutting topics that are addressed, and which can be jointly tackled.
How does this work in practice?
- Coordinated activities to avoid redundancy
- The overall sector appears more coordinated, synergistic, and cohesive
- Better knowledge and understanding of the sector
- Economy of scale through shared platforms/tools/website features etc.
- Distribution of tasks for an increased efficiency
- Joint strategies
- More weight in advocacy work
- More attractive for donors
Advantages of Cooperation in the Network Circle
- Knowledge Exchange between key actors for sustainable sanitation
- Cooperation in events, webinars, advocacy and piloting measures
- Increase of scope and outreach
- More engagement for better quality knowledge products and activities
- Members of the Network Circle currently organise regular virtual or f2f meetings to agree on key messages and strategies, as we believe that coordinated messaging and related knowledge management across networks and platforms can help to further bring up sanitation on the political agenda.
- We exchange on each other’s priorities and key activities to contribute to matchmaking as well as to avoid doubling activities.
- Every network brings in its own assets, such as knowledge, experience, creativity, and energy of membership.
Join us, so that we are stronger together, and to bring WASH the attention and visibility it deserves. Contact the SuSanA-Secretariat for further information at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
