The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and IHE Delft Institute for Water Education have agreed to launch the Global Sanitation Graduate School, an initiative to transfer new curricula and course materials on non-sewered sanitation to at least 30 universities in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Global Sanitation Graduate School’s mandate is to ensure transfer and exchange of educational materials and to support the capacity building of universities in countries where students do not have regular access to advanced level courses in sanitation. At the heart of the initiative is the recently launched Master of Science in Sanitation program at IHE Delft. The program is focused on the delivery of sanitation services to urban communities in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Upon completion of the program curriculum, the modern sanitation practices can be embraced with deeper insight, advanced knowledge and greater confidence.

The initiative is gender sensitive and aims to attract women and men from diverse backgrounds in acknowledgement of the diversity and complexity of challenges in urban sanitation worldwide. The agreement stimulates cooperation between universities and sanitation experts, and guarantees delivery of at least 1,000 well-educated sanitation experts. The grant period covers 5 years and has been signed on 3 August 2018.