Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (Su San A) - Objectives

Objectives

The overall goal of the SuSanA is to contribute to the achievement of the MDGs by promoting sanitation systems which are taking into consideration all aspects of sustainability (health, environment & natural resources, technology & operation, financial & economic issues, socio-cultural & institutional aspects). The MDGs and the UN's "International Year of Sanitation 2008" are highly appreciated by the "Sustainable Sanitation Alliance" as they help push sanitation high up in the political agenda. The main focus of the work of the SuSanA will be to promote the implementation of sustainable sanitation systems in large scale water and sanitation programmes, in line with the strategies proposed e.g. by WHO, UNDP-PEP, UNSGAB, and UNESCO.

General objectives of the SuSanA are therefore:

• to raise awareness around the globe of what sustainable sanitation approaches are and to promote them massively;
• to highlight how important sustainable sanitation systems are as a precondition to achieve a whole series of MDGs (e.g. to reduce child mortality, to promote gender equity and empower women, to ensure environmental sustainability, to improve livelihood, and to reduce poverty);
• to show that sanitation projects must be planned with participation of all stakeholders at an early stage, must respond to the initiative and preferences of the users, and that these need to go hand in hand with hygiene promotion and capacity building activities for sustainable water and wastewater management.

Specific activities of the SuSanA are:

• to collect and compile information which will assist decision makers (including the civil society) to assess different sanitation systems and technologies with regard to the full range of sustainability criteria so that informed decisions can be taken;
• to demonstrate that sanitation systems can contribute to reaching the MDGs beyond sanitation, and consequently present a change of paradigm from purely disposal oriented to rather reuse oriented sanitation;
• to give examples of "smart (and less smart) practice" in sanitation for the "International Year of Sanitation 2008" and beyond;
• to identify and describe the mechanism to up-scale implementation of these examples and develop new financing instruments for pro-poor sanitation provision;
• to develop global and regional visions of how sustainable approaches can be used to promptly reach the sanitation MDG and to promote them in the IYS 2008 and beyond.