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Philippine Symposium on Sustainable Sanitation

ADB advocates that sanitation be an urgent priority for governments in Asia, and invites governments, utilities, public and private agencies, and communities to accelerate actions that will achieve better sanitation results.

In line with this, the Philippine Government has been moving its sanitation agenda forward with its National Sanitation Summits held in 2006 and 2008, organized by the Department of Health (DOH). This symposium, to be held concurrently with the celebration of Global Handwashing Day, will showcase innovative and forward looking programs, projects, initiatives and good practices addressing the myriad problems of sanitation in the country.

ADB is supporting the Philippine Ecosan Network (PEN) in organizing the symposium as an activity under the Stockholm Environmental Institute-EcoSanRes 2 Philippine Knowledge Node Project. The symposium’s expected policy and collaboration outputs will be adopted by the DOH as inputs for the planning of the East Asia Ministerial Conference on Sanitation 2 (EASAN-2) in January 2010 to be hosted by the Philippine Government.

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The objectives of the symposium are to:

• Promote sustainable sanitation and hygiene concepts, ideas and principles among major sanitation stakeholders and decision makers
• Sustain the momentum of sanitation initiatives created by the 2008 International Year of Sanitation and the National Sanitation Summits of 2006 and 2008
• Recognize leading institutions and local governments that have embarked on essential programs, innovative projects and good practices on sustainable sanitation and hygiene
• Discuss major policy reforms and programmatic efforts by key stakeholders and support institutions

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The symposium is being organized by the Philippine Ecosan Network (PEN), with ADB as one of PEN's contributing partners.

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National and local decision makers, and representatives from support and donor institutions, academe, and civil society are invited to participate.

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The symposium will be held at the Grand Ballroom of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Makati City, Philippines.