Photo credits: Photo by Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad (India)

The International Water Association (IWA) is delighted to announce the launch of the call for nominations for the Inclusive Urban Sanitation (IUS) Champions Programme. This prestigious initiative aims to recognise excellence, leadership, and innovation in the sanitation sector. It responds to the need for encouraging and recognising contributions of sector players towards achieving SDG 6.2 in low- and middle-income countries. The IUS Champions Programme is open to individuals, teams (including communities) and organisations/institutions active in the sanitation sector. Those eligible can be drawn from practice, academia/science, consultancy, formal and informal private sector service providers, NGOs and civil society, international organisations, or government entities. Individuals, teams, and organisations/institutions can be nominated only based on the work they have conducted in low- and middle-income countries.

The IUS Champions programme is a central component of the Inclusive Urban Sanitation initiative and the related dedicated campaign – SanitAction – launched to gather the support and collaborative action needed to secure progress.

Nominations are open! 

Nominations for the IUS Champions are open until 10 September 17 September 2023. The 2023 winners will be announced at a ceremony during the Water and Development Congress & Exhibition on 10-14 December 2023 in Kigali, Rwanda.

There are several categories – at this stage we particularly welcome nominations for:

• IUS Champion for Service Delivery recognises individuals, teams, and organisations that have promoted equitable and inclusive sanitation services across the entire service chain. Within this category are four sub-categories:
  i) Containment systems
• IUS Champion for Youth Engagement recognises the contributions of youth (individuals under 35 years), teams, or organisations working with young people to improve and deliver inclusive sanitation services, thereby contributing to the achievement of SDG 6.2.

Nomination and Selection Process 

The IUS Champions nomination and selection process involves some key aspects. Full details are set out in the Prospectus. If you want to nominate an individual, team (including communities) or organisation/institution for the 2023 IUS Champions Programme, please visit this page and fill in the online form. The submission deadline has been extended to 17 September 2023, 23:59 BST. All submissions must include:

• Nominee’s full name, affiliation, country, and email address.
• An indication of what category you are submitting the nomination in.
• A detailed description addressing the judging criteria outlined below (maximum 100 words per section).
• Sources (e.g., project websites, publications, etc.) that serve as a reference for the success of the initiative.

Nominations will be evaluated on the basis of several criteria:

• Innovation
• Sustainability
  
• Impact
• Equity and Inclusion
  
• Geographical scope
• Integration, Partnership and Collaboration

Please note that nominators must be IWA members and self-nominations are not accepted.

For more information and to access the nomination form, please visit this page. We also encourage you to review the Prospectus for detailed information about the programme and its categories. 

Join us in reshaping the global agenda on urban sanitation and celebrating the pioneers who promote inclusive, resilient and sanitation-secure cities. For any queries or assistance, please contact: iuschampions@iwahq.org