Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council
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_(Small).jpg){kind=logo} WSSCC Logo |
The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) is an international organization whose secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland is hosted by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS). WSSCC is a global multi-stakeholder partnership organisation that works to improve the lives of poor people by enhancing collaboration among sector agencies and professionals around sanitation and water supply. Through this work it contributes to the broader goals of poverty eradication, health and environmental improvement, gender equality and long-term social and economic development.
The activities undertaken by WSSCC were recognized in the United Nations General Assembly resolution A/RES/45/181 of 21 December 1990. WSSCC's operational work is divided into Networking & Knowledge Management, Advocacy & Communications and the Global Sanitation Fund.
WSSCC’s mission is to achieve sustainable water supply and sanitation for all people. In order to achieve its mission, WSSCC follows these core principles:
1) WSSCC only exists to serve poor people. 2) WSSCC puts the people themselves at the centre of planning and action for achieving sustainable water and sanitation. 3) WSSCC works by enhancing collaboration among sector agencies and professionals rather than by implementing its own projects. 4) WSSCC recognises that water and sanitation are essential for social and economic development. 5) WSSCC aims to be at the forefront of global knowledge, debate and influence in its field. 6) The number of people without sanitation is much greater than the number without water, while the agencies working in sanitation are fewer; therefore WSSCC dedicates most of its effort to sanitation and hygiene.
[edit] Programmes and Activities
To achieve its mission, WSSCC divides its activities into three programme areas: Networking & Knowledge Management, Advocacy & Communications, and the Global Sanitation Fund. The activities of these three programmes complement each other so that the effectiveness and impact of the whole is greater than the sum of its three parts.
Through Networking & Knowledge Management, WSSCC provides a space in which individuals and organisations concerned with water, sanitation and hygiene for poor people in developing countries can network and share ideas. WSSCC currently has National Coordinators and National WASH Coalitions in 36 countries. They act as the focal point for country-level activities, including the facilitation of National WASH Coalitions to support coordination and networking. WSSCC’s thematic networking focuses on themes directly related to the sustainable delivery of water supply and sanitation services and sustainable hygiene behaviour change.
The organisation previously organised global fora where sector professionals from developing and developed countries may meet and exchange information. The first such global forum took place in Oslo, in 1991. Since then, there have been five meetings, the most recent one in Dakar, in 2004.
WSSCC promotes global and national advocacy efforts by members and partners to raise awareness of the humiliating and harmful social environment of the unserved poor. WSSCC carries out advocacy campaigns at both the community level and at the national, or government, level. This is done with the dual aim of building grassroots support for improved water, sanitation and hygiene schemes, and of convincing policy leaders to take up the challenge of providing water and sanitation for all people. The main advocacy initiative is the Global WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Campaign.
WSSCC created the Global Sanitation Fund (GSF) in 2008 to support national efforts to help larger numbers of poor people to attain sustainable access to basic sanitation and to adopt good hygiene practices. Implementation is beginning in 2009.
The Executive Director is Jon Lane, OBE, a United Kingdom national.
