Networks, Externalities and the Adoption of Improved Sanitation Solutions in Urban Slums
Lack of sanitation in many dense low-income settlements in urban Africa is a major health hazard, contributing to high levels of infant mortality thorough the spread of diarrhoeal disease. However, despite significant investment by governments, international donors and NGOs in bringing sanitation technology to poorer areas, uptake in many cases remains low – in part because of social barriers to uptake.
Networks, Externalities and the Adoption of Improved Sanitation Solutions in Urban Slums aims to identify the role of peer effects in determining uptake and the ways interventions can be better designed to address these barriers. Focusing on Chazanga compound in the Zambian capital of Lusaka, the project will undertake extensive interviews with residents and conduct a randomised trial to assess how adoption spreads in social networks.
Working with a range of local and international partners, the findings will not only support the development of more effective interventions in Zambia but contribute to wider understanding of the influence of norms and social groups in uptake of similar interventions elsewhere.
Roland Rathelot (Principal Investigator, Assistant Professoor)
Muthoni Ngatia (Assistant Professor)
William Parienté
University of Warwick
Lusaka Sewerage and Water Company
Lusaka City Council
Millennium Challenge Account – Zambia
Toilet Yanga
Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP)
Detailed fieldwork investigations in Chazanga, Lusaka on the dynamics of household adoption of sanitation technology.
Communication of findings through a network of local and international partners, as well as a web platform.
Two major events, bringing together policy makers, public agencies and NGO representatives in Lusaka and international NGOs, government donors and media in London.