ISSUE Programme
The programme is now in its final year and several concrete projects have been implemented by local organisations, among which partners of WASTE. ISSUE is active in 5 regions West Africa, Eastern Africa, Indian Subcontinent, Central America & The Caribbean and South East Asia & The Pacific Islands.
The programme aims at setting up Municipal Sanitation Plans in the participating cities, enabling not only sewarage sanitation but focussing on possibilities for ecological sanitation or socalle EcoSan.
EcoSan stands for waterless or water-poor management of excreta, in such a way that the nutrients are captured and recovered for agriculture or horticulture and scarce water can be saved.
The programme has several components. Next to assistance in technological aspects of ecosan, there is also a component Waste Ventures. It
focuses on demand-driven support to the micro-, small, and medium-sized private sector and civil society organisations functioning in a business context in the areas of ecological sanitation, urban waste management, street sweeping and urban cleansing, recycling, and related activities.
Another component is knowledge sharing, which focuses on consolidation of knowledge and expertise products and tools to serve regional practitioners' networks of individuals, businesses, NGOs, CBOs, and local experts who work on urban sanitation, waste management, recycling, and urban agriculture, and urban greening.
Approach:
The ISSUE programme is realised by a consortium approach. Various stakeholders have been approached in the regions and signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) forming a consortium working together towards realisation of the goals of ISSUE in their region. Each consortium has its own composition, although all have one or two municipalities in the consortium en strive to have a financial counterpart in the group as well.
Activities:
- Research and analysis are being done on topics that come up during ISSUE in relation to sanitation
- Pilot projects on ecological sanitation
- Creating financing options for small enterprises active in sanitation and waste management
- Setting up training modules for trainers on sanitation
