Representatives from Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) met with the African Water Association (AfWA) on August 14, 2017 at AfWA’s headquarters to discuss synergy between the two organizations and potential opportunities for collaboration. Baghi Bahirathan, WSUP’s Director of Finance, and Yaver Abidi, the Managing Director of WSUP Advisory, discussed WSUP’s model and shared their experience with focusing on working partnerships with service providers to build fit-for-purpose models that adapt to their context.

WSUP has extensive sector experience in household drinking water connections or shared water supplies, and non-sewered sanitation. They also shared their organization’s biggest learning that utilities that work the best are those that work well for the rich and the poor at the same time.

AfWA representatives described the knowledge sharing components of their active programs including the AfriCap program, which focuses on building the capacity of AfWA and the African WASH sector, and the RASOP program, which aims to build the capacity of African sanitation operators on non-sewer and fecal sludge management through peer-to-peer partnerships. AfWA’s master class offerings, advocacy efforts and membership activities were also discussed.