HOW WE WORK

NFSSM Alliance has established key thematic areas as the focus of the collaborative to drive forward sector outcomes by informing policies, generating knowledge, enabling cross-learning, and building key narratives to further the Inclusive Sanitation Agenda. The Alliance operates and fosters collaborative action towards safe and inclusive sanitation through its 4 Taskforces, Steering Committee and the Secretariat.

The Secretariat

The Secretariat of the NFSSM Alliance executes the foundational role of supporting and guiding the growth of the Alliance and provides support to achieve sectoral goals. Dasra holds accountability for and responsibility of the Secretariat by carrying out the following functions:

1) Strengthening the Alliance’s institutional structures and operations through financial
management, establishing guidelines and protocols, management and codification of knowledge

2) Enabling collaboration amongst Alliance partners by driving consensus towards collective
sectoral vision of safe and inclusive sanitation, narrative building, knowledge creation and
dissemination amongst relevant stakeholders and building the brand of the Alliance

3) Provides strategic direction in identifying and influencing relevant government policies,
facilitating development of policy recommendations, and building momentum towards sectoral priorities by enabling collaborative action through its Taskforces and members.

Steering Committee

The Alliance is governed by the Steering Committee, which is a body of 7 elected representatives from the Alliance that provides strategic direction to the Alliance priorities and vision.

The Steering Committee supports the operationalizing of the Alliance by providing guidance on the functioning and governance, gives strategic direction to the Taskforces, and advises on the alignment and implementation of the Alliance priorities with sectoral goals. The Steering Committee brings their expertise and experience to guide the Alliance towards achieving its vision of safely managed inclusive sanitation.

Sakshi Gudwani

Senior Program Officer, WSH

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Srikanth Viswanathan

CEO

Jangraaha Centre for Citizenship

Kavita Wankhade

Senior Lead- Practice

Indian Institute of Human Settlements

Malini Reddy

Director WASH - South Asia

Athena Infonomics

Meera Mehta

Professor Emeritus, Joint Director

Centre for Water and Sanitation, CEPT

Sasanka Velidandla

WASH Institute

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-Chair: 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-Chair: 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.