From October 30th to November 1st, at the initiative of the African Water Association (AfWA) as part of the RASOP-Africa program funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the period 2016-2018, a delegation of about twenty sanitation stakeholders from the Yaounde Urban council (Cameroon), National Office of Sanitation and Drainage (ONAD) and the Municipality of Yamoussoukro (Ivory Coast) and National Agency for the Management of Wastewater Treatment Plants (ANGESEM- Mali) made a Benchmarking visit to the Water and Sanitation Unit of the Municipality of eThekwini in Durban, South Africa

This mission is part of the peer learning process to share good practices in the field of urban sanitation and in particular, the onsite sanitation and of faecal sludge management. To this regard, the expertise and performance of the Metropolitan Municipality of eThekwini have been proven successful and have resulted in effective improvement of sanitary conditions for the relevant populations, reason why AfWA has integrated it as a mentor in the RASOP-Africa project

During this mission, presentations and field visits allowed the participants to learn among others, the national and local sanitation policies, the local incentive framework for improving poor people's access to sanitation, the financing of the sector, the technological innovations in the field of sanitation, the involvement of research institutions as well as the private sector in finding solutions to sanitation problems. In the end, 3 full days of learning from which participants said they were fully satisfied and ready to share or even implement some of the achievements of this visit once returned to their respective countries.

This is the occasion for the African Water Association to once again thank the municipality of eThekwini for their hospitality and willingness to share their experiences which, after all, translates the spirit of south-south cooperation into action.

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