NETSSAF - a multidisciplinary collaboration towards more sustainable sanitation in West Africa: main results

The MDG sanitation target is, at current progress, unlikely to be met in SubSaharan African countries. One of the most important reasons is the lack of capacities of the various stakeholders, active in the sanitation field. To contribute in bridging the gap and in enhancing NorthSouth and SouthSouth cooperation, NETSSAF, a project funded by the European Commission, with its consortium of 19 partners has set up objectives aiming at creating synergies from different sectors to support the largescale implementation of sustainable sanitation systems in periurban and rural areas in West Africa. Several valuable results have been obtained, which aim is to propose feasible solutions for the achievement of MDGs. The consortium has worked hard and believes on the potentialities of the use of such results – Dissemination and capacity development materials, systematization and characterization of sanitation systems, Sanitation Yellow Pages, Participatory Planning Approach, to boost progress in sanitation coverage in Africa. Therefore, current discussions are on how to continue working together in implementation and capacity building projects, as well as in the improvement of the materials developed in NETSSAF (translation to French and local languages) and their further dissemination, that will lead on the real implementation of the Sustainable Sanitation solutions.