Between the Market and the State: Financing and Servicing Self–Sustaining Sanitation Chains in Informal Settlements in East African Cities: Financing and Servicing Self–Sustaining Sanitation Chains in Informal Settlements in East African Cities

This paper discusses how hybrid sanitation markets can contribute to improving sanitation in informal settlements in three cities of the Great Lakes Region in East Africa; Kisumu (Kenya), Kampala (Uganda) and Kigali (Rwanda) and more generally in sub-Saharan Africa. In doing so it draws on research carried out as part of a larger project developing and evaluating strategies for catalysing self-sustaining sanitation chains in informal settlements in the three countries. One of the strengths of comparative research is that it enables us to begin to distinguish the factors that relate to the physical, social, economic and cultural specifics of place from those that relate to the characteristics of people and their situation, including their socioeconomic circumstances and residency status. In doing so we recognise that there is a mutually reinforcing and reciprocal relationship between people and place and that understanding how place relates to sanitation will enable us to provide more ‘contextually sensitive’ policy interventions - a more nuanced understanding of what works, or is likely to work, in improving sanitation in informal settlements. In doing so we argue that poor sanitation is an outcome not just of individual choice but of the state of society and that increasing access to improved sanitation must take into account political economy factors.