Listening to users of the SuSanA Discussion Forum – survey amongst 4000 users in 150 countries

The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance is inviting all users of its discussion forum to a survey

Membership in the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) recently surpassed 4000 people residing in 150 countries. The vibrant SuSanA Discussion Forum as well as the continually improving website have contributed to a strong growth in membership since SuSanA’s founding nearly eight years ago. The following ten countries have at least 100 SuSanA members each: USA, India, Germany, UK, Kenya, South Africa, Netherlands, Bangladesh, Uganda, Nigeria.

The SuSanA secretariat and SuSanA partner Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) are now inviting all users of the SuSanA Discussion Forum to take part in a Forum User Survey. The aim is to find out opinions regarding possible improvements of the Forum. The survey and resulting Forum improvements are a component of the co-funding that was received by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the Discussion Forum via a grant to SEI. 

Everyone is warmly invited to participate, whether they are members of SuSanA or not – provided they have used the Discussion Forum in the past, be it for reading or for writing.

As a thank you for participating in the survey, all participants are eligible to win one of 150 prizes:

• a hardcopy of the Compendium of Sanitation Systems and Technologies by Eawag-Sandec,
• a hardcopy of the Violence, Gender & WASH: A Practitioner’s Toolkit by SHARE,
• a USB memory stick or various SuSanA and SEI publications.

Further co-funding for the SuSanA Discussion Forum

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided co-funding for the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) Discussion Forum for the past 1.5 years via a grant to Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). The Forum has catalyzed knowledge exchange amongst experts and engaged citizens within the sanitation, water and hygiene sector.

On the 3rd anniversary of the SuSanA Discussion Forum, SEI is pleased to announce that the Gates Foundation has provided a follow-up grant for “Extension of the SuSanA Discussion Forum”, supporting online knowledge management, dissemination and peer discussions of the Gates Foundation’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene projects. The size of the grant is 250,000 US$ and it will span a period of 18 months.

SEI-SuSanA Webinar videos online – Adding missing links in sanitation value chains

Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) has announced that five videos clips from the recent SEI-SuSanA Webinar 7 on 29 April 2014 are now online. The theme  – in their series of SEI-SuSanA webinars to examine the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sanitation projects – was “Adding missing links in sanitation value chains“.

• You can access the 5 video clips in this Youtube Playlist or below.

Contents:

Part 1 –Introduction by Arno Rosemarin and Nelson Ekane

 

Part 2 – Is a power auger “Excrevator” a suitable tool to empty pit latrines in South Africa and septic tanks in India? (includes presentation and questions) by Francis de los Reyes from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

29 April 2014 – SuSanA/SEI webinar on “Adding missing links in sanitation value chains” with BMGF grantees

The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) with assistance of a team led by Stockholm Environment Institute is inviting you to the 7th webinar with Gates Foundation sanitation grantees.

• Topic of the webinar is “Adding missing links in sanitation value chains”
• Date/Time: Tuesday 29 April 2014, 16:30 – 17:15 (CET – Central European Time; use this time converter to find your local time)
• Agenda: 16:00 Set-up of connections (you can start entering the virtual meeting room) – 16:30 recording starts – three presentations; each presentation is about 5 minutes long and is followed by around 10 minutes of questions – 17:15 end of webinar.
• The virtual meeting room can accommodate up to 100 participants. Attendance at this webinar is open to all.
• Once recorded, the webinar will be put online on the SuSanA Youtube channel in this Playlist together with previous webinars.

Three grantees of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will present their research results:

1 – Is a power auger “Excrevator” a suitable tool to empty pit latrines in South Africa and septic tanks in India? By Francis de los Reyes (North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA)
Previous discussion about this research on the forum

 

2 – A compact water recycling and energy harvesting system for off-grid public toilets in low-income urban areas: The NEWgenerator^TM anaerobic membrane bioreactor ready for field testing in India. By Daniel Yeh (University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA)
Previous discussion about this research on the forum.

3 – Community-scale facility to process faeces and faecal sludge into safe biochar by pyrolysis – field testing this year with Sanergy in Nairobi. By Brian von Herzen and Laura Talsma (Climate Foundation, California, USA)
Previous discussion about this research on the forum.

Videos of exhibits at Reinvent the Toilet Fair India (21-22 March 2014) provided by SEI & SuSanA now available

Videos of exhibits at Reinvent the Toilet Fair India (21-22 March 2014) provided by SEI & SuSanA now available

Stockholm Environment Institute has announced that videos with grantees about their exhibits that were taken at the Reinvent the Toilet Fair in Delhi, India are now available online. 

You find them all in this one convenient location, which is a Playlist in the SuSanA Youtube channel. 

The videos include short 5-minute interviews with randomly selected grantees as well as “demo tours” of their innovative toilets/processing exhibits which were on display at the fair.

The first video in this Playlist is a thank you note from Melinda Gates who is thanking all the participants at the fair and is stressing that this kind of work is being valued in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation at the highest level of leadership.

The second video in the Playlist gives just a visual overview of the exhibits (without sound).

12 March – SuSanA​​–WASHtech webinar on Technology Applicability Framework (TAF)

12 March -16h00 : SuSanA​​–WASHtech webinar on Technology Applicability Framework (TAF)

SuSanA secretariat and WASHtech invites you to participate in a webinar that will present and discuss the Technology Applicability Framework (TAF) developed during the WASHtech project: www.washtechnologies.net

When: 16h00 CET on 12th March 2014 (Time converter: www.worldtimebuddy.com/)

Webinar outline:

15h30-	Webinar room open
16h00-	Welcome by Trevor Surridge (SuSanA secretariat)
16h05-	Introduction to TAF by André Olschewski (Skat Foundation)
16h15-	Questions on André’s presentation
16h20-	Experiences using TAF in Ghana by Benedict Tuffuor (TREND)
16h30-	Questions on Benedict’s presentation
16h35-	WaterAid’s experience adapting and applying the TAF to a pour-flush toilet option in the Nicaraguan Caribbean by Joshua Briemberg (WaterAid)
16h45-	Questions on Joshua presentation leading into an open Q&A session
16h59-	Closing and wrap-up from Trevor
17h00-	End of Webinar

Webinar Chair: Trevor Surridge (SuSanA secretariat)
Moderation Support: Sean Furey (Skat Foundation)

To participate you need to register:
To register send an email to ruralwater@skat.ch and clearly state “TAF webinar” in the subject and you will be sent an invitation link to the Webinar.

Technical requirements:
For the technical requirements for WebEx:

• For using WebEx you must have Java installed in your browser and the WebEx plug-in.
• Here you can check and update your java version: java.com/en/download/help/testvm.xml
• Here you can install the WebEx plug-in by joining the testmeeting: www.webex.com/test-meeting.html

If you have any questions about the webinar post them in reply to this post or email them to info@susana.org.

Aug. 31, 2013 – 17th Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) Meeting!!!

Celebration of the past and present, while strategising for the future of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) on 31 August

Be part of one of the most vibrant Alliances in the sanitation sector and participate in the 17th SuSanA meeting being held in Stockholm on the Saturday before the World Water Week 2013. 

The 17th SuSanA meeting is open to all who believe in sustainable sanitation solutions and the systems approach to sanitation. This year’s SuSanA meeting in Stockholm will be a celebration of achievements of SuSanA and its members and partner organisations, in particular of this year’s Stockholm Water Prize Laureate, Dr Peter Morgan, who will be attending the meeting for a few hours.

Another achievement to be celebrated is the recognition by the UN of the World Toilet day, started by the WTO in 2001, which is one of the founding organisations of SuSanA. With respect to the future, we will be having stimulating yet maybe controversial discussions about future initiatives, opportunity areas and ways in which SuSanA can be used effectively by its members to support their work in the sanitation sector.

• Register now to take part in the 17th SuSanA meeting on 31st August which is being hosted by the Stockholm Environment Institute and the SuSanA secretariat.
•  Please see the latest agenda and registration form. Registration is free, as are all the resources  on the SuSanA platform.