With the financial support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the African Water Association (AfWA) has been implementing the program entitled "Strengthening the capacities of African sanitation operators on onsite sanitation and fecal sludge management through Peer-to-peer Learning Partnerships (RASOP-Africa)" since December 2015. The aim is to improve urban FSM and non-sewer sanitation service quality and coverage for at least one million people in the sub-Saharan Africa region.

Sequel to the baseline evaluation of the on-site sanitation and FSM situation in each of the 5 targeted cities and the audit of the mentee’s level of performance, a performance improvement plan (PIP) was developed. The time has come for AfWA to support the organization of strategic planning workshops to ensure that stakeholders’ key interests and contributions have been adequately considered in the PIP, and to agree on aspects to be included in the Strategic urban sanitation planning (SUSAP) document.

From November 16 to 17, 2017, key sanitation stakeholders in the city of Kampala (Uganda) met for two days at the International Resource Center – NWSC, to:

1. present the main findings of the RASOP-Africa program in Lusaka (baseline evaluation, audit and PIP);
2. prioritize through a participatory process, activities to be considered at each level of the on-site sanitation value chain to improve the situation; and
3. agree on the content of the strategic planning document in accordance with the vision and the mission of the direct recipient: the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) in charge of the sanitation component in the City.

At the end of these two days of exchanges and interactions, a feeling of satisfaction was noted on the side of participants as their concerns and suggestions were well taken into account in the PIP. That is why the Mayor of Kampala Central Division, his Worship Sserunjoji Charles Musoke Ssalongo, thanked all the participants for their generous contributions in terms of knowledge and ideas to improve the planning document.

In the forthcoming weeks, the same exercise will be held in Yamoussoukro (December 5th and 6th), then Lusaka (December 12th and 13th), Yaoundé (December 19th and 20th) in 2017 and finally in Bamako (January 16th and 17th, 2018). For each beneficiary city, the RASOP-Africa program is committed to support the production of a planning document focusing on on-site sanitation systems and faecal sludge management whose validation will follow the internal process according to the local / national procedures in force. In any case, AfWA will be at the beneficiaries’ side until the end of the process.

To learn more about RASOP Africa, kindly contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.