Why focus on Public awareness, advocacy and civil society engagement?

Decision makers and affluent classes pay little attention to the situation of those who struggle daily with inadequate sanitation. The media cover topics such as climate change and water scarcity but consider talking about toilets taboo.  To meet Sustainable Development Goal 6.2, we need to mobilize public opinion, the press, and policy makers worldwide.

Objectives

The purpose of Working Group 9 is to put toilets centre-stage with the media, the public, and government decision-makers and to position sanitation products and services as attractive lifestyle choices. We seek to engage communities and local governments on the scope and scale of the challenges. In the global south, 4.5 billion people lack access to sustainable toilet systems. In cities of the global north, residents are vulnerable to the failure of inadequately maintained sewer infrastructure.

Ways to get involved:

• Sign up for free SuSanA membership and join Working Group 9. Introduce yourself on the Forum or in an email to WG co-leads.
• Recognize World Toilet Day on November 19 and use it to promote awareness of the issues. The campaign theme for 2018 is ‘When nature calls’ and it focusses on the sanitation solutions we can find in nature. Download free posters, logos, stories, videos, fact sheets and information in many languages on the World Toilet Day website
• Join the Honor Our Cleaners campaign of the World Toilet Organization http://worldtoilet.org/ by taking a photo with your favourite toilet cleaners to thank them for keeping us healthy and comfortable all 365 days of the year.
• Access tools and information that support advocacy efforts of civil society and community-based organizations through the SuSanA Library.
• Tell about your experiences raising awareness and engaging people to advocate for sustainable sanitation in your community, your nation or the world. Talk about what works and what doesn’t.
• Share strong sanitation messages, images and videos that motivate communities and serve as tools for effective advocacy.
• Use the Forum, Twitter, Facebook or other social media to invite people everywhere to support your awareness campaigns.
• Invite journalists cover sanitation problems and solutions. Write press releases for World Toilet Day events. Provide reporters ideas on stories to write. Introduce them to the SuSanA library and put them in touch with experts through the SuSanA network.
• Everyone uses Wikipedia. If you see a sanitation article on Wikipedia that needs to be improved, help us make it better.
• Promote sustainable sanitation products and services in your country. Show their use in local and global markets, especially for the poor.

Working Group Lead