The full set of recommendations will be available shortly, in the meantime the below text gives you a flavour of the themes and recommendations discussed in the workshop.

While the workshop specifically focused on women and gender issues, it is clear that in order to improve and address the position of women as decision-makers, stakeholders and beneficiaries in sanitation programmes, there are some more general hurdles to cross. These pertain for instance to the roles and positions of NGOs and CBOs in the water and sanitation sector. Therefore, more general recommendations were developed regarding improved and increased collaboration and cooperation by central, state and local governments with NGOs and CBOs. Specifically, this cooperation could build on the strength and experience of NGOs and CBOs in community development processes and women empowerment, as well as innovative financing and implementation mechanisms, and monitoring impact.

Another set of recommendations focused on the requirements necessary to ensure replication and scaling up of successful programmes, and the fact that the same programme can be successful in one community, but unsuccessful in the next. This phenomenon occurred in the Midnapur Sanitation Project, as described in the attached case study. As shows, many of the differences in success level between communities had to do with the level of involvement of women.

Lastly, a striking recommendation stated that low cost should not be the prime driver when designing sanitation technologies for the poor market. Instead, programmes should aim to analyse market need to come up with the product that optimally responds to the needs and demands expressed, and is cost efficient.