Students publish policy briefs to advance just sanitation across urban Africa

This year, the students from the Environment and Sustainable Development MSc (ESD) have been part of the ESD learning alliance with the action-research project OVERDUE, a three year-project seeking to tackle the sanitation taboo across urban Africa. The focus of the 2022-23 ESD cohort has been on producing actionable knowledge to advance just sanitation in the city of Mwanza, Tanzania, in collaboration with project partners Ardhi University and the Centre for Community Initiatives (CCI).

The research started in January 2023, focusing on five thematic entry points: 

1. Bridging grid and off-grid sanitation through simplified community sewerage system
2. Shared sanitation facilities and land and housing tenure arrangements
3. Grassroots collective action and financing mechanisms for just sanitation
4. Social norms, bylaws and taboos regulating sanitation practices, gender relations, health and environmental outcomes
5. Closing the sanitation loop, wastewater reutilisation for urban farming. 

In April 2023, the fieldtrip culminated in a 10-day fieldtrip to Mwanza where students worked alongside local interns, partners and staff from The Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU). Students undertook primary data collection through a variety of focus-group discussions, key interviews and mapping exercises with residents of informal settlements, civil society organisations and local government officials. 

Read the findings and recommendations:

Strategies for equitable access to urban sanitation: Bridging-grid and off-grid technologies (PDF)

Keep the Pot Cooking: Community-led Revolving funds and the Key Ingredients for Just Sanitation (PDF)

Caring for the Carers: Gender Responsive Sanitation Policy and Action (PDF)

Closing the Loop: Capturing the Value of Sustainable Sanitation to Benefit Urban Agriculture (PDF)

Links for further information

• The policy briefs are available in English and Swahili. You can access the English version on the Environment and Sustainable Development MSc Overseas Learning Alliance webpage, along with information about our past alliances.
• Find out more about the OVERDUE project

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