Almost 2 years after the first workshop held in Durban, South Africa, to review the Fecal Sludge Management toolbox, AfWA has organized a training workshop in Grand Bassam, Côte d'Ivoire, from 12 to 14 June 2019 to familiarize stakeholders involved in the RASOP Africa Project (Capacity building Project of sanitation operators through peer to peer learning partnerships) with the use of the improved version of this tool.

The thirty participants from South Africa, Zambia, Uganda, Mali, Senegal, Cameroon and Côte d'Ivoire were mainly sanitation operators, municipal technical staff, RASOP Africa consultants and some of the African academic experts. During 3 days, they were trained on the functionalities of the new fecal sludge management toolbox, this digital platform designed for decision-makers to support them in diagnosing the state of sanitation, better plan sanitation infrastructures and monitor progress made.

According to the trainer, Mrs. Deepa Karthykeyan, Director of Athena Infonomics, promoter of this platform, the sanitation problems are similar in all parts of the world. The Fecal Sludge Management Toolbox has the advantage of addressing all the concerns of the sanitation chain and enabling decision-makers to make informed decisions to improve the state of sanitation in their cities.

For the participants, this workshop was really important as one of the major challenges in Africa remains the lack of reliable and simple tools to diagnose and manage sanitation. Thus, the use of the sludge management toolbox will enable them to better guide their decisions and thus their actions to improve the living conditions of the populations in their countries.

The Fecal sludge management toolbox was first developed by the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT, Bangkok) and then later improved by Athena Infonomics, all with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.