WSSCC has almost two decades' experience in networking and knowledge management. It provides a neutral space in which its members and other individuals and organizations concerned with water, sanitation, and hygiene for poor communities can communicate and share ideas.

• National Networking

In over 35 countries around the world, WSSCC enables sector professionals to come together in formal or informal groupings to debate topics of interest and to press for change. In most of these countries, WSSCC members form groups that are known as National WASH Coalitions, in recognition of the strong image of WSSCC's WASH advocacy concept. Each such group is facilitated by a National Coordinator, who is typically a senior sector manager in the government, an NGO or multilateral agency. Each National WASH Coalition decides its own work priorities. These typically include professional education, advocacy and awareness-raising, hygiene and sanitation promotion, policy development, monitoring progress, applied research and development of improved water and sanitation approaches. So the coalitions in different countries may have different memberships and activities but all share the WSSCC's common belief system. During 2008-2011 WSSCC will encourage professionals in many more countries to form National WASH Coalitions. Top priorities are those countries with the most people lacking sanitation and water.

• Global Networking

WSSCC's status as a partnership programme of WHO has entitled it to join UN-Water, which is the coordinating mechanism for all UN agencies with an interest in water. WSSCC's main contribution to UN-Water is to communicate between the UN and non-UN agencies. It is well placed to do this because its membership and work are almost entirely outside the UN system while its host is within it. UN-Water has a number of subgroups known as Task Forces and WSSCC is especially active as a member of the Task Force on Sanitation. During 2008-2011 WSSCC will do its utmost to strengthen UN-Water through its active participation.

• Thematic Networking

For many years WSSCC has convened groups of its members from around the world to work together on topics of common interest. WSSCC's thematic networking improves sector performance by stimulating knowledge sharing and exchange and by contributing to new knowledge development in areas where gaps have been identified.

• Knowledge Management

WSSCC does not normally carry out original research or generate new knowledge itself, but learns, analyses and disseminates knowledge generated by others. This knowledge comes from the individual work of WSSCC's members, from the national, thematic and global networking, and from the work funded through the Global Sanitation Fund. WSSCC disseminates this knowledge through publications, web-based resources, its own meetings, sessions at other organizations' meetings and personal interactions. It encourages its members to carry out the same sort of activities at national level.

For more information please visit the Networking & Knowledge Management pages.

WSSCC has been very active in advocacy and communications in recent years, notably through the national and global WASH campaigns. The size, reputation and independence of WSSCC’s programme have established it as a major advocacy agency in the sector.

"WASH has helped to place the issues of clean water, basic sanitation and good hygiene firmly in the public consciousness and on the political agenda." Kofi Annan, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, on the occasion of WSSCC’s Global WASH Forum, Dakar, Senegal 2004.

• National Advocacy

At the national level, WSSCC's advocacy is led by its National WASH Coalitions. For most of them, advocacy is their main activity and is carried out through national WASH campaigns. These campaigns typically emphasize the importance of safe water supply, adequate sanitation and hygiene interventions to reduce child mortality rates, improve dignity and privacy particularly of women and girls, lessen the economic burden of disease, promote development and reduce poverty.

During 2008-2011 the National WASH Coalitions will continue this leadership role. Their national WASH campaigns will be augmented by campaigns relating to the International Year of Sanitation in 2008. The aim of all these activities will remain as before: to raise the attention and funding given to the water and sanitation sector in-country, to influence other organizations to follow WSSCC's principles in their work, and hence to increase support and services to communities unserved with water or sanitation.

• Global Advocacy

WSSCC's global advocacy is managed by the Secretariat. During 2008-2011, the global advocacy work will concentrate mainly on sanitation and hygiene. The designation of 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation (IYS) provides a rare opportunity to bring sanitation to the attention of global leaders and decision-makers, and so WSSCC is committing considerable energy to it. The IYS-related work, carried out under the coordination of the UN-Water Task Force on Sanitation, will include advocacy materials, media campaigns, regional conferences and other forms of professional interaction, all on the subject of sanitation and hygiene. WSSCC will also continue other advocacy initiatives including the WASH Media Awards, the Women Leaders for WASH initiative, and Sanitation and Hygiene Week each year from 15 to 21 March, preceding World Water Day.

WSSCC hosts or co-hosts regional and global advocacy meetings as appropriate: examples include the four regional sanitation conferences planned as part of IYS. It also attends meetings hosted by others in order to promulgate its advocacy messages: examples of these include World Water Week in Stockholm, the World Bank Water Week, and the World Water Forum.

• Communications

WSSCC's communications target different audiences such as its members, National Coordinators, partner organizations, other sector professionals, the media (both in developing and developed countries), and the audiences targeted by the global and national WASH advocacy initiatives such as policy makers and communities. WSSCC will prioritize the exchange of knowledge, information and advocacy tools among its target audiences as well as support these groups in their specific communications needs.

WSSCC's communications work targets journalists and media networks in the developing and developed world. The media are considered both as a target audience and as a means to transmit the messages. During 2008-2011 WSSCC will increase efforts to reach and maintain good contact with the media through regular media releases, contact with journalists, press conferences, via internet-based communication channels, radio and TV messages. In addition, WSSCC produces materials to support accurate reporting of WASH issues and encourages coverage of water supply and sanitation in developing countries. WSSCC's principal media-related project is the WASH Media Award, organized on a biennial basis (2007-2008 edition, 2009-2010 edition, and so on). The overall objective is to increase knowledge and awareness on water and sanitation by encouraging media to publish or broadcast about those issues. The initiative also gives an opportunity to build up a solid database of water and sanitation-related journalists and media networks worldwide.

For more information please visit the Advocacy & Communications pages.

The programme will allocate funds to work in specific countries selected according to the following criteria:

• Large number of people and proportion of population without basic sanitation
• High incidence of disease related to poor water, sanitation and improper hygiene
• Low economic and social development indicators
• A national sanitation policy or strategy, which is not already being fully funded from other sources
• Existing active National WASH Coalition or other WSSCC partners that request Global Sanitation Fund funding for that country
• Governmental agreement and welcome that the Global Sanitation Fund can support work in the country.

In each country, WSSCC will select an Executing Agency whose role will be to receive the funds from the Global Sanitation Fund. Each Executing Agency will disburse funds to Sub-Grantees to implement sanitation and hygiene work that falls within the scope defined by WSSCC. This scope is likely to cover hygiene promotion and education, handwashing, social marketing, sanitation marketing, sanitation entrepreneurship, demand creation, microcredit, targeted subsidies, etc – in other words, the range of people-centred approaches to sanitation that WSSCC's experience has shown to be successful.

The Sub-Grantees will then implement their sanitation and hygiene programmes using the funds granted by the Executing Agency. At the same time, WSSCC's National WASH Coalition will be implementing networking and advocacy work. So the various groups will coordinate their work closely to ensure consistency of messages and philosophies while scrupulously avoiding conflicts of interest or unclear financial management. WSSCC will monitor and audit all the work using thorough and appropriate mechanisms that ensure separation of roles between the various agencies involved in-country.

For more information please visit the Global Sanitation Fund pages.