HOW WE WORK

Secretariat

The Secretariat is the backbone of the NFSSM Alliance and carries out its administrative functions. The Alliance Secretariat is currently represented by Dasra that supports the overall functioning of the Alliance by playing a crucial role in fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders within the Alliance.

The NFSSM Alliance works through its four taskforces guided by the strategic direction of the Steering Committee…

Steering Committee

The Alliance is a voluntary collaborative of organizations and individuals coming together with a shared vision. Therefore, decisions and actions are made through a democratic and decentralized process that involves consideration of all viewpoints and respects diverse opinions. The Steering Committee is a body of elected representatives from the Alliance to represent it. While the Alliance is the primary decision-maker for achieving its objectives, the Steering Committee acts as a facilitator and provides strategic direction to the larger Alliance. In other words, the Steering Committee performs the core strategic functions and recommends actions for approval on behalf of the Alliance.

Arumugam Kalimuthu

Program Director

WASH Institute

Bhawna Prakash

Director

Ernst and Young

Kavita Wankhade

Senior Lead- Practice

Indian Institute of Human Settlements

Madhu Krishna

Deputy Director

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Meera Mehta

Professor Emeritus, Joint Director

Centre for Water and Sanitation, CEPT

Sasanka Velidandla

Independent Consultant

Srinivas Chary

Director

Administrative Staff College of India

Taskforces

Even though India has made major strides in the field of water and sanitation, several challenges still exist when it comes to sustaining the impact of these interventions and reaching the last mile to ensure sanitation for all. The nature of India’s urban sanitation challenges is not only complex but is also quickly evolving with every passing day. This calls for multidisciplinary action from a diverse set of stakeholders working across various thematic areas and geographies. As a community of practice, the NFSSM Alliance has leveraged the strength of its collective network of partners into four critical areas- Inclusivity, Urban Local Body Strengthening, Innovations and Technology, and Communications through four dedicated Taskforces.

These Taskforces bring together partners with thematic expertise to deliberate on and identify solutions and levers to close the gaps in these four areas. Through its four taskforces, the NFSSM Alliance

encourages partnerships and promotes the exchange of ideas and best practices,

highlights and shares different models to build efficiencies in service delivery,

develops a unified message for greater influence at the sector level, and

collectively advocates for FSSM as a viable solution to waste management.

Inclusivity Taskforce

The Inclusivity Taskforce serves as a platform that works together to build evidence and influence policy to ensure that the sanitation needs of women, the urban poor, persons with disability and other socially and economically marginalized groups are met across the sanitation service delivery chain.

The Inclusivity Taskforce seeks to address these issues to ensure no one is left behind by first identifying existing gaps and barriers to inclusion in urban sanitation and using this evidence to make a case for prioritizing inclusion through advocacy with the government. Additionally the taskforce is also committed to amplifying the voices of the vulnerable by understanding their challenges and proposing solutions based on robust research.

Co-Chair: Bhawna Prakash, Anju Dwivedi

Innovation and Technology Taskforce

The Innovation and Technology Taskforce builds research and garners support by consolidating siloed efforts towards a technological transformation across the sanitation value chain and its operations.

This taskforce focuses on exploring newer technologies modeled around the principles of human centric design and innovation, understanding its applicability on Indian sanitation context. Additionally, the Taskforce works towards creating an enabling environment for improving the uptake of innovative technologies for faecal sludge and septage management. It supports efforts to scale best practices in the area of innovation by building a robust body of evidence and leads strategic advocacy with key stakeholders in the public and private space.

Co-Chairs: Srinivas Chary, Sasanka Velidandla

Urban Local Bodies Strengthening Taskforce

The Urban Local Bodies Strengthening (ULB-S) Taskforce serves as an advisory body to address issues emanating from limited resources and inadequate institutional capacities of urban local bodies that impede the delivery of sanitation services that are equitable and inclusive in cities and towns. This taskforce provides targeted recommendations, capability building support and guidance to city governments so that they can provide high quality and sustainable sanitation services based on research to identify existing gaps in city service delivery, financial allocation and functionary capacities.

In this regard, the ULB-S Taskforce works to improve municipal financing for sustained sanitation operations, municipal administration and build capacities of local governments with a focus on service delivery.

Co-Chairs: Meera Mehta, Sakshi Gudwani

Communications Taskforce

The primary objective of the Communications Taskforce (CTF) is to raise the decibel level for faecal sludge and septage management as a long-term priority among the government, media, the private sector and the general public. To this end the taskforce works on developing tools and consolidating best practices for strategic behavioral change communications that is rooted in research and evidence.

The Communications Taskforce focuses on identifying communication gaps, increasing collaboration, collating research, advocating for resources, amplifying a collective voice and disseminating results to stakeholders across the sanitation value chain. The basic motive is to develop a single language for India’s sanitation ecosystem by guiding not only the Alliance members but also the complete sanitation value chain to a sustainable approach for effective and efficient communication on FSSM.