IRC provides technical services to the Indonesian Sanitation Sector Development Program

IRC is one of the international partners providing technical services to the Indonesian Sanitation Sector Development Program (ISSDP). This programme is working to improve pro-poor sanitation services in Indonesia through strategic planning at the local and national level. ISSDP is giving assistance to six cities to develop local level sanitation strategies that are responsive to demand and emerging public health issues, while also developing national sanitation awareness and hygiene promotion campaigns.

ISSDP is a sub-programme of the Water and Sanitation Program (WASAP) Trust Fund and co-funded by the Goverment of the Netherlands. ISSDP is implemented by the Government of Indonesia together with the Water and Sanitation Program - East Asia and the Pacific (WSP-EAP). DHV Consultants in association wtih PT Arkonin Engineering SP, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, PT Mitra Lingkungan Dutaconsult, PEM Consult, and Yayasan Indonesia Sejahtera have been contracted to provide a range of technical services to implement ISSDP.

This urban sanitation programme can be a demonstration project for other Indonesian cities. The cities involved are: Surakarta and Blitar in Java, Denpasar in Bali, Banjarmasin in Kalimantan and Jambi and Payakumbuh in Sumatra.

The IRC inputs by two staff members in various missions in 2006 and 2007 have focused on support to advocacy and communication on sanitation, and to assist in the planning of the community participation and management component of the programme.

Advocacy ouputs

The outputs include:

• A draft overall communication strategy.
• Working note on best practices for advocacy and sanitation awareness raising in and outside Indonesia.
• An advocacy/lobby guide to be applied by ISSDP.
• Practical recommendations on how to use the Indonesian sanitation conference scheduled for May 2007and the process leading up to and beyond it for advocacy and awareness raising.
• Recommendations on study tours for government officials and politicians.
• A media briefing guide.

Community participation and management ouputs

• A manual combining a Participatory Environmental Risk study and a Participatory Demand Assessment Study, to set the priorities for Community-based Services in those parts of the cities where such services are appropriate.
• The draft manual also includes assessment and scoring sheets for MCK and schools, and spreadsheets for the aggregation of the information at the lowest, intermediate and highest levels of the neighbourhoods that function under the lowest local Government level (Keluharan).
• An overview of the options that can be tested to expand conventional sewerage networks to low-income households living within the catchment areas of such networks.
• A design for a study using Focus Group Discussions and participatory tools with different target groups to determine to which extent the findings from more general rural and urban studies on sanitation and hygiene apply to the conditions and practices in the six cities.

For more information see the ISSDP site.