715 stakeholders from the 5 beneficiary countries (Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Uganda, Cameroon and Zambia) trained on non-sewer sanitation and faecal sludge management, 75 sanitation stakeholders received by mentors (Office National de l'Assainissement du Sénégal (ONAS) and Ethekwini Municipality of Durban - South Africa) to learn best practices during the various benchmarking missions in Dakar and Durban; 05 strategic urban sanitation plans focused on non-sewer sanitation systems, which set out the vision and actions to be implemented within 3 to 4 years to improve the state of non-sewer sanitation developed, and in which identified bankable projects have been spelled out, 01 Mayor's forum dedicated to sanitation organized during AfWA’s 19th Congress in Bamako, dozens of emptiers from 19 African countries mobilized to create a pan-African association of emptiers, a favourable environment with government services as well as private emptying operators aware of the complementarity of their actions.

These are some of the positive outcomes presented during the final evaluation workshop of the RASOP-Africa project (Reinforcing capacity of sanitation operators through peer to peer learning partnerships), funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), which took place on 15 and 16 February 2019 in Cape Town, South Africa, prior to the joint FSM5/Africasan 5 Conference. More than forty participants, implementation stakeholders and current and potential partners took part in this workshop to assess the project implementation process and learn from it. During 2 days, they reviewed, through a so-called "market" poster session, a panel session and groups’ works, the results obtained, including the challenges faced and lessons learned since the beginning of the project in 2015 till its end in 2018. They also identified the factors that may or may not contribute to the achievement of results, proposed fundraising strategies to implement strategic urban sanitation plans in mentee cities, and discussed policies focusing on service delivery to vulnerable groups and involving women in sanitation, as well as the selection criteria for new mentor and mentees cities for the new AfWA -BMGF investment.

On behalf of all project participants, the Deputy Mayor of Yamoussoukro (Côte d'Ivoire), Mr Yaoura Konan, thanked AfWA and BMGF for the implementation of the RASOP-Africa project, acknowledged the positive outcomes and noted with satisfaction, the commitment of all stakeholders towards inclusive sanitation, with the participation of the private sector, women, authorities and the communities. He also stressed the "need to review the institutional framework, a pro-poor policy in sanitation and the involvement of women".

For Dr Kenfack, AfWA’s Director of Programmes, the Association has benefited greatly from the implementation of the RASOP-Africa project, particularly in terms of the improvement of its governance and visibility in the sanitation sector, reinforcing its position as strategic partner for the development of CWIS in the continent. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation representative, Danielle Pedi, who attended the workshop, was pleased with the results achieved. She congratulated AfWA for all the work done and for the professionalism shown in the implementation of the RASOP-Africa project. She expressed satisfaction with the real results achieved and the significant impact in cities. She then invited the beneficiaries to share their experiences in other countries, before announcing: "our Foundation has taken the decision to reinvest again in the African Water Association, to continue the sanitation work".