The most powerful connections happen where you least expect them ...
... and the more we all connect – across sectors and silos, beyond hierarchies and professional identities, in authentic, human, unguarded conversations – the more likely we are to solve some of the biggest problems facing our world today.
This is our invitation to you. And it’s just the beginning.
Listen in on big ideas from the smallest room
You need grassroots inclusion where the community has a say
Every decision you now make will impact generations to come
Climate change is about climate justice
It’s crucial to get the youth perspective
Connect
If you strive to make new connections, open lines of communication and collaborate with others to create a more integrated, equitable and sustainable world, this is the place to help create new solutions.
Explore
Meet the people making a difference in their countries, working to achieve clean water, sanitation and hygiene for all. Educators, healthcare workers, researcher and grassroots organizers bringing sustainable solutions to their communities for today and tomorrow.
Why
Climate change and water are interconnected. Activists and experts from a wide variety of sectors living in all regions of the world can come together to inspire and support each other. We are a global community and we can work together to make our planet a better place.
Connect
Are you curious to make new connections and share knowledge towards a fairer, more sustainable and inclusive world? Frustrated by old ways that haven’t worked?
Do you believe, like we do, that business-as-usual is not going to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals? That we need new forms of relationship and connection, exploration and problem-solving?
Connect with us and other like-minded changemakers
Sign-up to be informed about the next Toilet Talks episode, exciting events, #CommitToConnect inspiration, and other fun updates.
Tell us your story, how will you #CommittoConnect?
Change starts with YOU. Mobilise with other like-minded activists to improve the lives of every person in the world. We can make this happen if we all work together.
Tell us how you will #CommittoConnect via hello@toilettalks.org
Srilekha Chakraborty
I connect with others to make the world a better place by leaning in to listen to the stories and always try to critically evaluate when to leave the center stage and make some more space.
Gabriel Klaasen
Everyone's lived experience is unique. What you are fighting for might not be a priority for someone else. I connect through first-hand engagement with individuals. Drawing and discussing links of intersections in our ways of change-making. Our struggles seem separate, yet there are intersections. Our differences don't have to divide us. If we work together and tackle our issues at their core we can be stronger in achieving a just world.
Nabanita Das
My aim is to address the inequality aspects I witness in my state, to ensure that everyone has access to safe water and a toilet, and develop nutritional benefit programs. I feel connected to the community I work with. From helping India move toward becoming an open-defecation free country to ensuring adolescent girls learn proper menstrual hygiene, I work every day with the aim of achieving SDG-6 in my country.
Sára Bori
Working for an organisation focusing on supporting water, sanitation and hygiene services for life, I will connect with others by supporting cross-cutting and multi-level knowledge sharing and development.
Shomy Hasan Chowdhury
I connect with others by exercising active listening, empathy, and tolerance for diversity. The genuine connection occurs when people realize I value them and have an open mind. It may then lead to us sharing our passions, struggles, and best practices, and eventually to meaningful collaboration that has a positive influence on people and the planet.
Connect with us online/on social media:
Explore
Find stories and ideas, people and organisations who could help you accelerate change.
Toilets, another thing that connects us
“The toilet is an amazing resource!” Few people announce that with such enthusiasm. For award-winning musician and songwriter Okyeame Kwame, going against the grain is not unusual, it’s celebrated—especially when it comes to issues of the heart.
All Systems Connect 2023
Connect, learn, unite and make change with experts and activists, decision-makers and influencers from water, sanitation and hygiene, health, climate, economic development, education, social justice.
Join us at All Systems Connect 2023.
2 -4 May 2022 in The Hague, The Netherlands
Share yours
Do you have a unique insight, useful resource, or way of working that others could learn from?
Let us know about it. We could have it on this site!
You have to ask for what you want
In honour of International Women’s Day, we’re giving the floor to you. Women who champion for the right to water and sanitation respond to big ideas from the smallest room.
Here's what they have to say
Less blah, more dancing
Moving beyond the greenwashing blah and stepping into a world where we not only act together, but move in coordinated synchrony.
In this frank interview by Hajar Yagkoubi, former Netherlands youth representative to the United Nations and Toilet Talks interviewee, we evaluate COP26 through the eyes of water and sanitation expert, Arjen Naafs.
Post-COP Activists Connect
Young climate and water voices move beyond the blah.
An event which brought together passionate activists, experts in climate and water and those impatient for change.
Young activists in climate and water connected to look back on COP26 and ask, has it been more “blah, blah, blah”, or has genuine progress been made?
Health and water and sanitation are intrinsically related
Meet Cecilia. Being the District Health Inspector for the Kabarole district of Uganda, she works both in health and water, sanitation and hygiene. She is the first one to notice how the lack of water and sanitation services can become a serious health safety issue.
Cecilia wants her government do more to support the very poorest who cannot afford to provide sanitation facilities. She wants to see a more engaged community to advocate a positive mindset change as far as sanitation and hygiene is concerned.
Creating holistic change in Ethiopia's water sector
Zewdu Assefa trains grassroots operators in Ethiopia's water sector. Many of them don’t get formal instruction, so operation and maintenance is also a major challenge for them. There is a great demand for training in the country but the capacity is quite limited.
Zewdu is giving maintenance workers the tools to solve their own problems in the workplace.
At the crossroads of health, water and sanitation in Niger
Mourtala Abdou is a community health worker in charge of a healthcare facility in Niger. In addition to treating patients and raising awareness about personal hygiene, he also must manage the cleanliness of the health facility. He recently took part in a class to learn more about biowaste management and environmental cleaning.
Tackling inequality with cultural sensitivity in India
Nabanita Das is a researcher for an NGO in India. She contributes to the health, water, sanitation and hygiene and nutrition aspects of her organization and feels very connected to the communities works in and balances the sometimes-conflicting traditional customs with health promotion and hygiene education.
Nabanita aims to help end open-defecation and improve access to menstrual hygiene facilities.
Why
We believe that we’ll only solve the biggest problems facing our world today if we recognise how interconnected they are – and to learn and connect more, and in a variety of ways. Toilet Talks is one part of our wider ‘Connect’ programme.
At this critical time, we think we need to disrupt traditional routes to alliances, allies and partnerships. We want to learn from people working on issues that are different to ours, but connected. And to share our learning with them. We want to work out how we can help each other solve the big issues of today.
We think you’re here because you do too.
Climate change
Are you a … greenhouse gas expert, geoscientist, CEO, conservation manager, climate activist, environmental lawyer, sustainability consultant ...?
In the face of increased temperatures, intense rainfall, storms, high tides and floods, our infrastructure and systems will need to be strong and stable. Mitigation is critical but adaption is essential. Lessons learned from systems strengthening in water, sanitation and hygiene will help us all to prepare us for the changes to come.
Health
Are you a … virologist, public health officer, a medical doctor, a Minister of Health, running a local clinic?
People need clean water and sustainable sanitation and hygiene systems to be healthy. In order to have a prosperous society, good health is essential for allowing people to work, attend school and contribute to their local community. To achieve the Global Goals in health and in water and sanitation we need to understand, support and strengthen each others worlds. Toilet Talks does support this by building coalitions with experts and activists in health.
Citizen Voice
... or do you work in gender equality, education, economic development, human rights, citizen voice?
When citizens advocate for themselves and their communities and voice their needs to their government to improve services, their actions enable leaders to implement impactful and more equitable policies that help people live better lives.
The issues are all interconnected. And water is the river that runs through all of the Sustainable Development Goals. It’s the foundation to people living healthy, viable lives and to achieving social justice in the world.
We know these coalitions won’t be straightforward. There are many conflicts and ambiguities, but we will use these as strengths.
This is just the beginning...
About the creators
We are IRC. We believe in a world where water, sanitation and hygiene services are fundamental needs that everyone is able to take for granted. We are not a traditional charity. We strongly believe that vital public services should be funded by the systems that support them, not by aid or one-off gifts.
Through collaboration and the active application of our expertise, we work with governments, service providers and international organisations to turn this vision into reality. For good.
Learn how we make change last: www.ircwash.org
Drop us a line: hello@toilettalks.org
