Dr Gina S Itchon, Professor at the Xavier University Dr. JP Rizal School of Medicine, and Director of its Center for Global Health, represents the East Asia and Pacific regions as a member of the first ever Global Steering Committee (GSC) of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) in the election for regional representatives held last October 17-20 2022.  Representatives from South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, North America, Middle East & North Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia were also elected.  The GSC will function as the principal decision-making and governance body of the organization.  It is responsible and accountable to all members and is tasked to ensure sound strategic and financial functioning of SuSanA.

SuSanA is a loose organization of people and organizations who share a common vision on sustainable sanitation and who want to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 6, which has to do with water and sanitation.  SuSanA came into existence in early 2007. Since then, it has been providing a platform for coordination and collaborative work. SuSanA connects members to a community of people with diverse expertise and opinions. SuSanA also serves as sounding board for innovative ideas. Finally, SuSanA contributes to policy dialogue through joint publications, meetings and initiatives. It is currently hosted by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in Bonn, Germany. Xavier University, through the Social Development Office has been an active member of SuSanA since 2010.  As an academic institution, XU largely contributes to the group through research and publications on sustainable sanitation.