Sammaan Toolkit Brainstorming

Project Sammaan will lead to two things: 1) the reduction of open-defecation and improvement of health amongst urban poor, and 2) the creation of a “toolkit” for successful sanitation interventions that can be replicated throughout South Asia.

The second point served as the impetus for a recent Quicksand field visit to Bhubaneswar to meet with project partners for a review of activities, milestones, learnings, frustrations, and other pertinent developments. It’s hard to believe, but the project has been underway for over 6 months now and the team felt it was a perfect time to get all the partners together.

Incorporating these conversations into the toolkit is certainly a daunting task considering the number of partners involved and the complexity of their individual workstreams. However, these concerns are part of the challenge that got us excited about this grant and they continue to motivate us.

With the toolkit, we are creating a learning platform that enables other organizations looking to work in this sector. Its sections will allow users to extract insight and information about specific aspects of a project like this (e.g., land tenders) or help guide an organization every step of the way to creating a Project Sammaan of their own, right down to the architectural drawings.

A web presence will complement the toolkit and allow for greater interactivity. Users will be able to mine the toolkit for information on specific elements of the project, and array the data in different streams based on their needs.

The meetings in Bhubaneswar were extremely positive. As we are based out of Gurgaon, our visits to Bhubaneswar are not nearly as frequent as we would like. The partners in the field (J-PAL, Feedback Foundation, CFAR, CTRAN) are fantastic to work with and have accomplished a great deal thus far.

Feedback Foundation is the main project manager for on-field activities, starting from land surveying to demand generation, and tendering and managing construction of the toilet facilities themselves.

CTRAN is tasked with creating a Project Management Office (PMO) within the government and act as a one-point contact for interfacing with various government agencies.

CFAR is actively involved in social mapping, facilitating community interactions during design and construction phases, and training communities to manage toilets. They are an integral link to the communities.

Anagram Architects is responsible for the architectural design of the facilities. Based in Delhi, they also have a field team surveying the sites in the pilot cities.

Collectively they’ve been diligently mapping out all of the slums we are working with while analyzing key aspects of each (e.g., proximity to drinking water sources, accessibility of utilities, connectivity to existing sewerage systems, spatial constraints, etc.) to determine their viability within the project’s scope.

The site selection process was detailed in a previous post, and its importance and complexity cannot be underscored. There will be a total of 119 facilities built and each needs to conform to a rigorous set of demands predetermined by Quicksand and J-PAL. Considerations such as land-ownership, accessibility to utilities, proximity to community water points, and a whole host of others need to be taken into account before a site can be approved for inclusion in the project.

In less than half a year, the team has been able to finalize nearly three-quarters of the sites. This is a momentous achievement. The level of excitement and pride that our partners took in recapping the trials and tribulations to us was inspiring. It was also incredibly insightful as they shared a library of information with us for inclusion in the toolkit.

A challenge in an undertaking of this magnitude is always managing the efforts of others and maintaining open lines of honest communication. After our meetings, the collective feeling amongst partners is that this exercise requires brutal self-analysis and absolute transparency, every step of the way.

We cannot merely present what we’ve done, but need to provide context for the decisions we are making. This requires a level of honesty that can be daunting. A critical component of the toolkit as we imagine it is to incorporate an understanding of the limitations and hurdles in projects of this complexity.

Presenting this human side within the learnings of the toolkit will be a substantial thrust for us. After all, sharing false-starts or even mistakes is a tall order; not many enjoy broadcasting shortcomings and challenges, whether real or simply perceived, on such a large scale.

The fact that everyone working on the project is not only aware of this, but committed to it is the first, and most critical step in the toolkit’s development. The task at hand now is to consolidate everyone’s anecdotes, research, ideas, and experiences into a framework that allows for easy consumption.

In the coming weeks, we will conduct a workshop with the project partners to present the initial version of the toolkit. This will be a brainstorming session in which all participants in the project weigh in on the design, content and implementation strategy.