Hello, and welcome to this module on faecal sludge management planning. If you're in charge of putting in place a faecal sludge management system in a city like this, what should you do? Where do you start? In this module, we will see how to start and how the different activities fit together. In the two next modules, we will then look at the assessment of the initial situation and how to analyze and engage the stakeholders in the planning process. Later, the institutional, financial and management aspects will be reviewed in more depth. You may know me from our MOOC on sanitation planning. My name is Philippe Reymond and I'm working at Sandec-Eawag on the planning side of sanitation, looking at which systems are best appropriate for which context and the necessary conditions for successful sanitation projects and programs. In this module, I will explain what is an integrated planning approach why you should follow a participatory process and how it can fit in the whole planning. And finally, how the different activities can be molded into a coherent planning process. Cities in low- and middle-income countries are often highly heterogeneous. Roughly, we can distinguish between middle- and high-income settlements. informal settlements and the peri-urban interface. We can add to these three categories the newly-planned urban areas. Sometimes, the different contexts are clearly separated in large neighborhoods. But sometimes, they are also more scattered, like some pockets. Each context may require different sanitation solutions. Often, when you arrive in a city, the city center is served by a sewer network. The main question is then what to do with the area surrounding the city center? Shall we try to connect them to the sewer network? Or shall we keep on-site sanitation systems and plan for proper faecal sludge management? Or maybe you would prefer alternatives, such as decentralized sewer systems. So, what's an integrated planning approach? First of all, it means planning for the whole sanitation supply chain. as demonstrated behind me from the latrine to end use or disposal. Too many projects have failed because they only considered one component, typically latrines. You may recognize on this drawing the colors representing the functional groups of the compendium. If you want to learn more about this system approach sanitation, I would recommend you to have a look at this book, or follow our MOOC on sanitation planning. An integrated planning approach means also to have a holistic view where technology is just one component, as shown in this figure. A view that takes into account the different socioeconomic context, people's aspirations or the available financial resources, skills and management capacities. We need to understand each area of a city with its specificities and then see how all can fit together under one roof. All the elements I just mentioned build what we call the enabling environment. The enabling environment is a set of conditions that make your scheme work. As you can see, you need support from the government, the proper legal and regulatory framework. You need institutional arrangements, you need to check the available skills and capacities, define financial arrangements, and see if your proposal is socially and culturally accepted. This is a kind of checklist for you to identify the gaps and see how they can be filled. How would a situation look like in your city? Let's start to plan. You know the project cycle. First, you may have an exploratory study, which we could also call the process ignition. Then, you have the preliminary or pre-feasibility studies where the detailed assessment of the initial situation takes place. After that, we have the feasibility study, where the main tasks are the identification of service options. And once the options are selected, you move to the detailed project development, which finally opens the way to implementation. So now the question is where do we fit all the necessary activities? Clearly, every context is different, and where you start off will vary from place to place. In the faecal sludge management book and in your course materials, you will find this figure called "FSM from A to Z". There, we listed all the activities to be carried out from the quantification and characterization of sludge, to the involvement of stakeholders, and fit them into each planning step. These activities often take place in parallel. What is important is that at the end of each phase, you have all the information you need and that you have the stakeholders on board. Let's take a closer look. On the left side, as you can see, you have the standard project phases. In the middle, we detail the activities. to be done in each phase, as well as the main outcomes. Each activity is linked to the respective chapters in the book. On the right side, we show how these different activities fit into two of the main participatory planning frameworks. Clues, which is the planning guideline for community and neighborhood level. And Sanitation 21, which is the planning framework at city level, endorsed by the International Water Association, IWA. The key participatory activities in the process are highlighted, as you can see here with initial launching workshop. All these activities can be embedded in any planning framework or terms of reference. Experience shows that participation of the stakeholders is crucial for the success of sanitation projects and programs. In order to be able to lead a successful planning process, you often need to create a city sanitation task force. That is a way to have all the main stakeholders on board and to avoid blockages during the process. You will learn more in the modules on stakeholder analysis and engagement. and institutional arrangements. For now, please try to identify the activities related to participation in the "FSM from A to Z" synthesis. Remember that the main goal of the exercise is to reach, together, a city sanitation plan or an action plan that can be funded and that can be implemented without problems. For that, you need to engage the stakeholders to understand their needs and constraints and, in the end, to be able to define a design clear roles and responsibilities, with a clear commitment from them. In this module, you were introduced to the importance of adopting an integrated planning approach which includes considering the entire sanitation supply chain, then taking into account all the elements of the enabling environment. We saw a proposal of how to translate this approach into the planning process. The FSM planning from A to Z, which I really recommend you to have a closer look at. Finally, we underlined importance to adopt a participatory approach. In the next module, I will describe in more detail how to conduct an assessment of the initial situation. See you then.
