“I want the urban STBM approach to be expanded in all urban villages in Magelang city,” instructed the Deputy Mayor of Magelang city, Mrs. Windarti Agustina in the stakeholder meeting attended by local government offices, the participatory M&E teams from USAID IUWASH PLUS supported villages, and private sector in mid-March 2020.
The Deputy Mayor made this instruction after learning from the participatory M&E teams that the urban STBM (community based total sanitation) approach implementation has brought positive changes to the community. They are more motivated to build toilets with septic tanks and/or house connections to wastewater treatment plant as a measure to achieve safely managed sanitation, among others is in Tidar Utara urban village.
“During the two year of the urban STBM implementation in USAID IUWASH PLUS’ working areas, we observe that the community members have better awareness to adopt clean and healthy behaviors and many safely managed sanitation facilities are built using the community’s resources or with supports from other stakeholders,” said Mrs. Tenny Iis Mulyadi – the Head of Tidar Utara urban village in Magelang city.
The urban STBM is an approach that USAID IUWASH PLUS has adopted from the MoH to promote WASH through community participation. This approach consists of six interrelated activities, namely stakeholder analysis, participatory assessment and triggering, community discussion for action plan development, participatory monitoring and evaluation, stakeholder meetings, and sanitation marketing and supply chain.
Responding to the Deputy Mayor’s instruction, the relevant local government working units in Magelang city, such as Bappeda, Disperkim, and DPMP4KB, supported by USAID IUWASH PLUS, conducted a series of discussions to prepare the urban STBM expansion since April 2020. They agreed that the WASH Communication Forum in Magelang city—which was established in December 2018, should lead the expansion to 12 non USAID IUWASH PLUS supported urban villages.
The forum, which consists of the representatives of the relevant local government working units, such as Bappeda, Disperkim, DPMP4KB, sub district, and village governments, has promoted safely managed water and sanitation and making it the development priority through a close collaboration with community groups, mass media, and private sector. This expansion was funded by the city government using its 2020 budget in the amount of 144 million rupiahs. The budget was used to finance the urban STBM implementation, including formation and trainings of the participatory M&E teams.
From August to December 2020, the WASH Communication Forum gradually expanded the urban STBM by socializing the urban STBM approach to other government units and community members, and implementing all activities of the urban STBM approach to 12 RTs in 12 urban villages. All of these areas have high open defecation rate and are located near a river.
In December 2020, the M&E teams, with assistance from USAID IUWASH PLUS, completed the participatory assessment, triggering and community discussions in the expansion areas. As a result, 12 community action plans were developed by the community and signed by the village head before being presented in the 2021-2022 Musrenbang at village level.
To ensure that the community action plans are discussed in the Musrenbang, Bappeda has also issued a circular letter to the village governments to include the participatory M&E teams into the discussion committee.
“The capable human resources, well established mechanism, and musrenbang will accelerate sustainable WASH development,” said Mrs. Handini Rahayu, the Head of Disperkim.
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