1. WASH Nutrition Forum 2015 - Documentation on the SuSanA platform now available
2. SuSanA Partners celebrate World Toilet Day 2015
3. SuSanA @ UNC Water and Health conference
4. SuSanA @ the International Water Week in Amsterdam
5. SuSanA launches the working group wiki
6. SuSanA sets up a regional chapter for India
7. SuSanA Forum hosted three more thematic discussions
8. Webinar: Linking community initiatives for sanitation and health
9. New SuSanA featured user: Hanns-André Pitot
10. SuSanA welcomes seven new partners
11. SuSanA Discussion Forum Digest: what has been discussed?
12. Sharing knowledge: Recently uploaded publications in the SuSanA library
13. Upcoming partner events and training courses

1. WASH Nutrition Forum 2015 - Documentation on the SuSanA platform now available

Group picture of the WASH Nutrition Forum in Bonn, Germany

Contributing to this year’s World Toilet Day theme “Sanitation and Nutrition”, the WASH Nutrition Forum, organised by the German WASH Network, was held in Bonn, Germany on 11 and 12 November 2015.

The WASH Nutrition Forum was kick-started by a SuSanA Working Group 12 (WASH and Nutrition) meeting on the eve of the conference. During the meeting participants of both sectors shared their ideas of what sector integration could mean in practical terms and agreed to jointly further develop the SuSanA Factsheet of the Working Group.

Dialogue between both sectors continued during the conference, which was chaired by Uschi Eid (Chair of the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, UNSGAB) and Thilo Panzerbieter (Speaker of the German WASH Network).  Over 120 participants met in Bonn to discuss gaps and windows of opportunity in the collaboration between the sectors and additional 420 participants from around the globe watched the livestream on the SuSanA platform. The SuSanA booth in the exhibition area informed participants about ways to engage in the World Toilet Day campaign and SuSanA’s knowledge management services.

 “Mirror sessions” on Global Monitoring, Global Partnerships, Global Humanitarian Clusters, country cases from South Sudan and Burkina Faso, Global Civil Society Coalitions and Donors, in which experts from both sectors engaged in a dialogue on possible learnings and better interlinkages, were the heart of the conference. Arne Panesar, head of the SuSanA Secretariat, introduced SuSanA as a knowledge management platform and possible entry point for nutrition experts.

Aiming at public health and a safe environment from the household to the global level, the conference’s participants called for aligned targets and indicators, joint financing, improved institutional communication and the integration of the other sector in publications and events to flank the pathway into the future.

Being the online host for the WASH Nutrition Forum, the SuSanA platform now offers a full documentation of the conference including the video material and presentations of the speakers and the minutes of the SuSanA WG 12 meeting.

If you want to give your feedback to the WASH Nutrition Forum and follow-up the conference, please join the discussion on the SuSanA Discussion Forum.

To get engaged in the revision of the SuSanA WG 12 factsheet on WASH and nutrition, join in here.

More information about the German WASH Network can be found here: http://www.washnet.de/

back to top of page

2. SuSanA Partners celebrate World Toilet Day 2015

Each year on 19 November, the World Toilet Day creates awareness about the 2.4 billion people who lack access to improved sanitation and calls on the international community to address the global sanitation crisis.

This year’s theme “Sanitation and nutrition” drew the world´s attention to the importance of improved sanitation in supporting better nutrition and health and thousands took part in this day all over the globe - among them many SuSanA members and partner organisations.

The SuSanA partner World Toilet Organization organised a 5km urgent run in Singapore to engage local communities with toilet and sanitation conditions. During the Bonn WASH Nutrition Forum 2015, the participants showed their support to the World Toilet Day by giving a thought about the 2.4 billion not using basic toilets. The German Toilet Organisation, organised a flashmob to highlight the connection between WASH and nutrition in Berlin.

Jean Lapegue, from SuSanA partner Action Contre la Faim (ACF), was invited to the official celebrations during the UN High Level Water and Sanitation days in New York, where he presented the WASH in Nutrition strategy from a field practitioner perspective and proposed key recommendations to improve WASH in Nutrition in programmes. Those operational recommendations were done in coherence with research recommendations outlined by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS).

More information about the World Toiled Day celebrations in New York can be found here.

Find the video of Generation Nutrition about the link between WASH and Nutrition here (in French only, English version available soon) 

We are looking forward to reading your experiences and feedback about the World Toilet Day on the SuSanA discussion forum.

back to top of page

3. SuSanA @ UNC Water and Health conference

To advocate on the importance of institutional WASH or WASH away from the home, IRC and Simavi, in collaboration with the SuSanA secretariat, have organised an Espresso café at the UNC Water and Health conference in Chapel Hill, in October 2015.

During the Espresso café four guest speakers pitched on WASH in schools, WASH in prisons, WASH in health care facilities and WASH in the work place. Subsequently participants focused on the development of indicators to monitor institutional WASH.

The session “Primary Research Around Public Finance for WASH: Ways Forward” invited researcher and research-inspired practitioners to explore ways in which the research community might contribute to supporting domestic finance mobilisation. The session convenors, WSUP, IRC and Trémolet Consulting, thereby referred to the expertise shared within the SuSanA thematic discussion “Urban sanitation finance – from macro to micro level” which took place on the SuSanA Forum in June/July 2015.

The SFD (so called Shit Flow Diagrams) Promotion Initiative hold a poster presentation on the SFD approach developed for analysing and visualising excreta flows on the city level. The case study of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania was presented. The SFD report for Dar es Salam was the first of a series of reports to be published on the SFD portal. The knowledge management of this joint initiative composed by SuSanA partners is done under the umbrella of the SuSanA.

back to top of page

4. SuSanA @ the International Water Week in Amsterdam

In early November, SuSanA together with Aqua for All, organised a workshop with the nominees for the Sarphati Sanitation Awards for Young Entrepreneurs at the International Water Week in Amsterdam.

Arno Rosemarin (SEI), one of the co-founders of SuSanA, moderated the workshop in which all nominees of the Sarphati Awards – SafiSana, ZanaAfrica, FINISH Society and Samagra - pitched their business models that are related to the production of biogas and organic fertiliser, menstrual hygiene management, financing solutions for the construction of toilets and the operation of toilet blocks.

In the run-up to the workshop, the SuSanA Secretariat organised an online discussion with the nominees of this award in which the innovative business approaches of the four entrepreneurs were discussed. 

The online discussion and the documentation of the workshop are available on the SuSanA Discussion Forum.

We congratulate the winner of the 2015 Sarphati Sanitation Awards for Young Entrepreneurs: Our SuSanA partner Safisana.

back to top of page

5. SuSanA launches the working group wiki

The SuSanA working group wiki an open platform designed for collective generation and compilation of knowledge - is now ready to use for all SuSanA members and working groups.

Wikis are great tools for knowledge management and collective collaboration, allowing every registered user to access all content and to add, read and edit it at all times. The SuSanA wiki has a portal for every working group, which contains a summary of all working group factsheets and synthesis documents of SuSanA thematic discussions that can now be edited and further developed by SuSanA members.

To get started, the SuSanA secretariat created a quick start guide, summarising the steps and instructions needed to log into the wiki. Complementary, a more interactive guide in the form of a video tutorial, has also been uploaded to the SuSanA YouTube channel, which summarises the quick start guide.

Moreover, a new section in the SuSanA forum has been created, compiling useful information and FAQs about the wiki section here: SuSanA wiki help section. Please feel free to add any questions or comments you may have about the wiki in this forum section.

For any further inquiries regarding the SuSanA wiki, please do not hesitate to contact the SuSanA secretariat at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

back to top of page

6. SuSanA sets up a regional chapter for India

In light of the recent increased political and civil efforts to accelerate sanitation provision in India, SuSanA has set up its first regional chapter for India. The SuSanA Indian chapter shall contribute to the Indian Government’s Clean India Campaign “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” by strengthening discussion on sanitation and by linking the Indian and the global discourse on sustainable sanitation.

The SuSanA Indian chapter is an open and inclusive contribution to activities in India towards more sustainable and accelerated sanitation provision aiming to stimulate knowledge exchange, networking and cooperation within the region. Successfully proven SuSanA tools, such as the SuSanA library, SuSanA thematic discussion series and the SuSanA Discussion Forum as well as the SuSanA publications and factsheets are offered for use in the Indian context.

The SuSanA Indian Chapter Website comprises a first overview of activities and contributions to the SuSanA Indian chapter and will continuously grow in the future. In setting up and further developing the SuSanA Indian chapter, the SuSanA Secretariat is closely working together with our SuSanA Partner the India Sanitation Coalition.

SuSanA partners interested to contribute to the SuSanA Indian chapter are welcome to contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

back to top of page

7. SuSanA Forum hosted three more thematic discussions

Since our last News Mail in October, SuSanA has hosted three more thematic discussions.

 “Sanitation and hygiene behavior change programming for scale and sustainability: habit formation, slippage, and the need for long-term programming”,which took place in September and October investigated how behaviour change can be better understood and improved to ensure health and WASH outcomes are sustained.  The thematic discussion was organised by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council Community of Practice on Sanitation and Hygiene in Developing Countries (WSSCC CoP) and took place concurrently on the SuSanA Discussion Forum and the WSSCC CoP.

IRC organised a two-week discussion on“Sustainable urban sanitation- moving forward”, in mid-October. The SuSanA community was asked to discuss why there is a lack of attention to the whole sanitation chain and why there is a lack of leadership for change around sanitation.

Subsequently WSSCC’s second thematic discussion on “Private sector engagement in sanitation and hygiene - Exploring roles across the sanitation chain ”  took place. From the end of October till mid-November, the SuSanA community and members of the WSSCC CoP discussed how and under what circumstances local private sector engagement can ensure sustained health and WASH outcomes.

The thematic discussions are a great opportunity to engage actors from interconnected areas of expertise in discussions and we are looking forward to more discussions in 2016. Watch out for the thematic discussion on WASH and Nutrition which will be hosted in February 2016.

If you are interested in organising a thematic discussion, you are most welcome to contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.to discuss the format and timeline.

back to top of page

8. Webinar: Linking community initiatives for sanitation and health

On Thursday, 14 January 2016, 11-12 am CET, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and the SuSanA secretariat will offer a webinar on “Linking community initiatives for sanitation and health”. During one hour a panel of three excellent experts and the webinar participants will be able to discuss about the linkages between sanitation interventions and health outcomes at a community level. Juliet Waterkeyn (Africa Ahead) will speak about community hygiene and health clubs for improving family health at scale; Charles Yaw Okyere (ZEF, University of Bonn) will explain the water, sanitation and hygiene nexus and improved health in Ghana while Sangita Vyas (r.i.c.e. Institute) will bring up the negative impacts of open defecation in India.

The webinar is part of a grant to SEI funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Register for this free webinar here

Find more information about the webinar on the SuSanA discussion forum

back to top of page

9. New SuSanA featured user: Hanns-André Pitot

As technical advisor on water and sanitation, citizen of the world and passionate about the recycling of wastes, Hanns-André has inter alia lived in Mauritius, New York, Gouda, Delhi and Uganda gathering a vast working experience that ranges from the design of municipal waste composting facilities to the irrigation of his backyard with greywater. Starting with his studies in mining engineering, he found his pathway with his Master´s degree on Environmental Pollution control at Pennsylvania State University (USA) where he developed a huge interest in low cost sanitation technologies and resource recovery. With his professional experience of more than 20 years, Hanns-André highlights that despite a lot of research activities in the field of sanitation he still misses the interlinkages between ecological sanitation and organic farming concepts

Enjoy reading about a sludge treatment facility in flames, how you will never get lost when climbing Mauritius peaks and - of course - Hanns-André's inspiring thoughts on sanitation in the Featured User section of the SuSanA Discussion forum.

Congratulations Hanns-André for being selected as the Featured User of the month December and looking forward to hearing more from you in the coming months and years!

back to top of page

10. SuSanA welcomes seven new partners

We welcome the following new partners who have recently joined SuSanA, bringing the total number to 259 partners. SuSanA members can apply online to have their organisation become a partner here (see also our selection criteria).

India Sanitation Coalition has been established to bring organisations and individuals together on a common platform to find sustainable solutions for sanitation through dissemination of best practices, partnerships and collaboration and advocacy. It aims at being an aggregator of knowledge and networks with nationwide outreach, focusing on models for achieving sustainable sanitation in alignment with the Swachh Bharat Mission and its goals.

GFA Consulting Group has a sound track record of providing effective solutions to the challenges in the global consulting market. Based in Hamburg, the company has implemented complex studies and projects in over 130 countries since 1982. Leading development agencies, ministries and public clients have entrusted GFA with helping them to manage projects financed through bilateral and multilateral funds. Working in cooperation with stakeholders in government, the private sector, NGOs and citizens groups, GFA balances innovation and reliability to meet local needs.

Sistema de Agua y Saneamiento para el Desarrollo (Water and Sanitation Systems for Development) is a cooperation group of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain. Its main objective is to contribute to the sustainable development goals through research in sanitation and water innovative technical solutions.

The Association for Sanitation and Health Activities (ASHA) is a NGO based in New Delhi. It works at a grassroot level to reach out to the most vulnerable and marginalised communities to empower them for their self reliance and contribute towards their social and economic upliftment. Since its inception, ASHA has been working mainly with communities in the remotest and backward regions of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

World Toilet Association is an international organisation dedicated to protecting lives through the improvement of sanitation via toilets. The World Toilet Association (WTA) considers toilets to be essential to the proper disposal of waste and water management. Considered a taboo topic in everyday parlance, toilets are typically alluded to, rather than referred to directly. By emphasizing the central and crucial role toilets play in daily life, proper sanitation, and hygiene, the WTA seeks to propel topic of toilets to the forefront.

Water-éCoquette (WéCo) creates ecological and designed public toilets for high income urban areas with the latest technology but most importantly innovate in order to create a product which takes care of the environment as well as create an urban shelter, which serves as the showroom of its location.

Coolcenter Forssa produces freezing toilets for different brands (Biolan, PikkuVihreä, Separett). Freezing toilet is a waterless, hygenic and odourless toilet solution. It needs only electricity for working, and hence it doesn't need chemicals or installations for working, so it is extremely easy to use.

back to top of page

11. SuSanA Discussion Forum Digest: what has been discussed?

PhD project ​– Resource-oriented systems for small Italian communities (601 views, 15 replies)

How should we call the excreta-derived product of a composting toilet or a UDDT? Do we need a new term? (4444 view, 65 replies)

Hazards from urine collected from UDDTs - new research paper from eThekwini (973 views, 16 replies)

Local Leadership to Drive Change in Sanitation (973 views, 16 replies)

The role of the private sector in transport, treatment and disposal / reuse (405 views, 6 replies)

Influence of bad institutional sanitation on wider community (70 views, 3 replies)

back to top of page

12. Sharing knowledge: Recently uploaded publications in the SuSanA library

Several new publications have been added to SuSanA library summing to 1994 entries till date. We would like to highlight the following publications to you (click here for the complete library):

• SFD Promotion Initiative (2015). Manual for SFD Production (Draft)
• Furlong, C., Mensah, A. (2015). SFD Report - Kumasi, Ghana - SFD Promotion Initiative. Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC), Reino Unido
• Auerbach, D., Holm, R., Kasulo, V., Wanda, E., Omona, C. (2015). Sustainable Sanitation Practice - Financing Sanitation. EcoSan Club, Vienna, Austria, Sustainable Sanitation Practice (SSP) Issue 24, October 2015
• WASH ePaper, Issue N. 4 - Building and operating sanitary facilities in refugee accommodation in Germany (2015). German Toilet Organization (GTO) in collaboration with the German WASH Network and the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA)
• WHO, UNICEF & USAID (2015). Improving Nutrition Outcomes with Better Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: Practical Solutions for Policies and Programmes. World Health Organization (WHO).
• Various authors (2015). Integrated sanitation investment planning tool - Various documents on results from research grant. Center for Study of Science, Technology & Policy (CSTEP), Bangalore, India
• Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India (2015). Technological Options for Solid and Liquid Waste Management in Rural Areas - Swachh Bharat Mission (GRAMIN). Government of India
• INTI (2015). Sistemas de saneamiento seco con separación de orina (Baño seco) (In Spanish) - Factsheet. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial (INTI)
• JMP (2015). WASH Post-2015 - Proposed indicators for drinking water, sanitation and hygiene. UNICEF and World Heatlh Organization Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP), New York, Geneva

back to top of page

13. Upcoming partner events and training courses

Have a look at the highlights on upcoming conferences, sanitation events and courses in this section.

MOOC Municipal Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries
22.02.2016 - 29.03.2016  (Online)

BushProof Technical Training in Water & Sanitation Infrastructure
07.03.2016 - 12.03.2016 (Antananarivo, Madagascar)

back to top of page

Arne Panesar, Trevor Surridge, Annkathrin Tempel, Jasmin Friedrich and Evelyn Herrera
on behalf of the SuSanA secretariat
Website: www.susana.org
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Skype: susana.secretariat
Follow us on facebook: www.facebook.com/susana.org
Twitter: @susana_org
Discussion forum: www.forum.susana.org