Graduate School of Global and Regional Studies (GRS), Toyo University hosted the 3rd cohort of the Training Program, titled as “City Wide Inclusive Policy and Innovation in Sanitation in Asia focusing on Japanese Experiences” from February 13 to 24, 2023. This 2-week program was prepared in collaboration with the Japan Education Center for Environmental Sanitation (JECES), the Japan Environmental and Sanitation Center (JESC), Japan Sanitation Center (JSC) under the auspices of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) with the funding from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is to be noted that Toyo University also hosted the first cohort of this training program from February 27 to March 6, 2022, fully online and the second cohort from August 22 to September 3, 2022, face-to-face in Hakusan Campus.

The training facilitators were from the professors at GRS of Toyo University, ADBI, JECES, JESC, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Ministry of Environment Japan (MoEJ), Yachiyo Engineering Co., Ltd., (YEC), and Athena Infonomics (India). They had in-depth expertise on cross-cutting issues of the wastewater and sanitation sector.

In this cohort, a total of 28 participants attended. Among them, 12 participants were ADBI nominated central government officials from 5 Asian countries (Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines). And 16 participants were from the Graduate School of GRS at Toyo University (13 master's students and 3 doctoral students), representing 9 different countries from Asia, Africa, and the Pacific Islands.

This training program has covered different important topics believed to be helpful for sanitation development in the developing economies. Topics include the development history of the sanitation in Japan, technologies, procedures and policies, organizational systems, legal and regulatory practices in Japan, financial aspects and business models, gender consideration, etc. The training was conducted in participatory modes comprising interactive lectures, group works for country reports and action plans, presentations of such reports and plans, field inspections of on-site sanitation facilities, factory visits, open discussions, Q&A etc.

This course was run by two professors from RDS (Dr. Hidetoshi Kitawaki and, Dr. Toshiya Aramaki) and 3 Teaching Assistants (TAs) from doctoral course (Mr. Md. Shoriful Alam Mondal, Mr. AUKLEYA Walter Greamah, Ms. Fernando Charmilla Jeewanne).

https://www.adb.org/news/events/adbi-toyo-university-training-program-on-city-wide-inclusive-sanitation-policy-and-innovation-in-asia-focus-on-japanese-experiences-2023