Civil society in urban sanitation and solid waste management: The role of NGOs and CBOs in metropolises of East Africa

Urban sanitation and solid waste management are among the most significant factors that affect the poor in developing countries and contribute to their sustained poverty. It is the poorest people, particularly children, who suffer most from weak or non-existent services, through illness, distress and many early and preventable deaths. This intolerable state of affairs is caused by a combination of political, socio-economic, cultural, and technological aspects. In recent years, sanitation and solid waste management have received increasing attention as shown in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aim at halving the proportion of the population without access to sustainable basic sanitation by 2015 and at achieving significant improvements in the lives of slum-dwellers by 2020 (MDG Goal 7). Today, with less than five and ten years to fulfill these targets,when compared to other developing continents, Africa is lagging behind and there is need for effective action to address this challenge. This research is placed within this debate and tries to contribute to achieving the aim of universal access to sanitation and solid waste management services. The focus is on the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) in urban slums of East Africa because these organizations are considered key players in the provision of sanitary and solid waste disposal services in such areas and yet their work has not been critically assessed. Two main questions were addressed; (i) In what ways are NGOs/CBOs participating in the development and implementation of sanitation and solid waste management and what are the key factors influencing their participation? (ii) How and to what extent are the sanitation and solid waste management activities of NGOs/CBOs sustainable; accessible to the poor; and flexible and resilient under changing socio-political, institutional and economic conditions? The conceptual framework developed for answering these research questions was based on the Modernized Mixtures Approach and several other theories (such as partnership paradigm, social network theory and institutional pluralism) that serve to explain key factors influencing the role of NGOs/CBOs in such activities. The research confirmed that NGOs/CBOs are fully involved in the provision of the two services and the idea of environmental partnership is widely shared and supported. Empirical evidence gathered showed a modernized mixture model emerging, where the conventional advocates of large-scale, privatized, and high-technological sanitation and solid waste services partner with NGOs/CBOs. This research also found that access to sanitation and solid waste services is driven by both NGOs/CBOs and the urban poor in collaboration. Social proximity is important, next to the conventional factors of spatial proximity, socio-economic characteristics and perception of the perceived competence of NGOs/CBOs. User acceptance of innovative technologies was found to be a key factor when trying to improve sanitary facilities for the urban poor. Keywords: Sanitation, Solid Waste Management, East Africa, NGOs, CBOs, Modernized Mixtures Approach </p

Landcare Bylaws Increase Adoption of Soil Erosion Control Technologies: Evidence from Mt. Elgon Highlands in Eastern Uganda

Uganda faces severe environmental problems such as soil erosion, yet adoption of technologies that can sustainably reduce or stop soil erosion remains low. This is partly due to lack of locally enacted landcare bylaws and limited involvement of local communities in bylaws formulation. Using a case study of Kween district we assessed the effect of landcare bylaws and local community involvement in bylaws formulation on adoption of soil erosion control technologies. The study used primary data collected from a survey of 120 randomly selected farmers and secondary information synthesized from Kapchorwa District Landcare Chapter reports, consultative workshops attendance lists, lists of members on the Bylaw Implementation Committee, and the printed poster of the ‘‘Benet landcare bylaws”. The data was analysed through generation of descriptive statistics. Findings indicate that there was minimal involvement of local communities in bylaws formulation. Although penalties for breaking the enacted landcare bylaws exist, they were yet to be enforced. Further, we note a sharp increase in adoption levels of all technologies stipulated in the bylaws during the year (2009) when the bylaws were passed and popularized. Adoption of soil erosion control technologies is highest among people who participated in the formulation of the bylaws. Thus, we conclude that other factors remaining constant, both the landcare bylaws, and involvement of local communities in bylaws formulation are associated with increase in technology adoption. Keywords: Landcare bylaws; Community involvement; Uganda

Profiling unauthorized natural resource users for better targeting of conservation interventions

Unauthorized use of natural resources is a key threat to many protected areas. Approaches to reducing this threat include law enforcement and integrated conservation and development (ICD) projects, but for such ICDs to be targeted effectively, it is important to understand who is illegally using which natural resources and why. The nature of unauthorized behavior makes it difficult to ascertain this information through direct questioning. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, has many ICD projects, including authorizing some local people to use certain nontimber forest resources from the park. However, despite over 25 years of ICD, unauthorized resource use continues. We used household surveys, indirect questioning (unmatched count technique), and focus group discussions to generate profiles of authorized and unauthorized resource users and to explore motivations for unauthorized activity. Overall, unauthorized resource use was most common among people from poor households who lived closest to the park boundary and farthest from roads and trading centers. Other motivations for unauthorized resource use included crop raiding by wild animals, inequity of revenue sharing, and lack of employment, factors that created resentment among the poorest communities. In some communities, benefits obtained from ICD were reported to be the greatest deterrents against unauthorized activity, although law enforcement ranked highest overall. Despite the sensitive nature of exploring unauthorized resource use, management‐relevant insights into the profiles and motivations of unauthorized resource users can be gained from a combination of survey techniques, as adopted here. To reduce unauthorized activity at Bwindi, we suggest ICD benefit the poorest people living in remote areas and near the park boundary by providing affordable alternative sources of forest products and addressing crop raiding. To prevent resentment from driving further unauthorized activity, ICDs should be managed transparently and equitably

Innovation platforms: A tool for scaling up sustainable land management innovations in the highlands of eastern Uganda

Sustainable Land Management (SLM) technologies for preventing land degradation have been pilot tested in highlands of eastern Uganda with success and are available for uptake by farmers in the zone. Despite the available technologies and successful pilot experiments, the effect and uptake of the SLM innovations still remains insignificant. This has been attributed to lack of incentives, innovative institutional governance structures and policy processes to accelerate uptake and utilisation of SLM technologies. Innovation systems approach was experimented in scaling up SLM innovations in the highlands of Eastern Uganda. Stakeholders were organised into platforms and empowered to promote SLM practices in the landscape. Members of IPs selected the SLM innovations and implemented them with support from National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO). More households adopted SLM practices including trenches, contour bunds and agroforestry. Twenty three tree nurseries were established and over 350,000 tree seedlings distributed for planting. The platforms facilitated collective visioning, sharing of skills and knowledge and strengthened participation of local governments in research and promotion of SLM technologies. When well initiated and operationalised, innovation platforms are effective avenues for scaling up adoption of SLM innovations to a wider landscape and communities.Les technologies de gestion durable des terres (SLM) pour pr\ue9venir la degradation des terres ont \ue9t\ue9 test\ue9es avec success dans les hautes terres de l\u2019Est de l\u2019Uganda et sont disponibles pour utilisation par les fermiers de cette r\ue9gion. Malgr\ue9 la disponibilit\ue9 des technologies et le success des essais pilotes, l\u2019effet et l\u2019adoption des innovations de SLM demeurent insignifiants. Ceci a \ue9t\ue9 au manque des mesures d\u2019encouragement, des structures de gouvernance institutionnelle innovative et les processus de lois qui acc\ue9l\ue8re l\u2019adoption et l\u2019utilisation des technologies de SLM. L\u2019approche des syst\ue8mes d\u2019innovation \ue9tait \ue9xp\ue9riment\ue9 par des innovation de SLM dans les hautes terres de l\u2019Est de l\u2019Uganda. Les partenaires \ue9taient organis\ue9s en plate forme et renforc\ue9s pour promouvoir les pratiques de SLM dans le paysage. Les membres des IPs ont s\ue9lectionn\ue9 des innovations de SLM et les ont execute avec le soutien de National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO). Plusieurs m\ue9nages ont adopt\ue9 les pratiques de SLM entre autres les tranch\ue9es, les courbes de niveaux et agroforesterie. 13 p\ue9pini\ue8res \ue9taient \ue9tablies et plus de 350.000 plants d\u2019arbres \ue9taient distributes pour plantation. Les plates forms ont facilit\ue9 dans la vision collective, le partage d\u2019exp\ue9riences et connaissances et renforc\ue9 la participation des gouvernements locaux dans la recherche et la promotion des technologies de SLM. Lorsque correctement initi\ue9es et op\ue9rationnalis\ue9es, les plates forms d\u2019innovation constituent des voies efficaces pour l\u2019adoption des innovation de SLM sur un vaste paysage et une grande communaut\ue9

Agricultural innovation platform as a tool for development oriented research: Lessons and challenges in the formation and operationalization

The emergence of Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) presents an opportunity to address any development problem. It involves innovative principles and an integrated research agenda while recognizing the need for greater organizational capacities among stakeholders in agriculture. Operationalization of IAR4D revolves around successful establishment and operation of an Agricultural Innovation Platform (AIP). Agricultural Innovation Platforms are being implemented in Lake Kivu Pilot Learning Site (LKPLS) of the Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Programme, covering three countries (Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo) with widely differing social political environments to address agricultural development challenges. This paper presents the processes, general guidelines lessons and experiences pertaining to “good practices” for organising and forming AIPs in the LKPLS. The life of AIPs covers three phases, namely; pre-formation, formation and post formation. The lessons and experiences are shared across 6 stages of AIP formation, namely; Identification of a research and developmental challenge(s), Site selection, Consultative and scoping study, Visioning and Stakeholder analysis, Development of action plans and Implementation of the action plans. Emerging lessons highlight AIPs as grounds and pillars for multi-level, multi-stakeholder interactions to identify, understand and address a complex challenge, concomitant emerging issues and learning towards achieving the agreed vision. Agricultural Innovation Platform formation is a dynamic, highly context specific process that incorporates all essential ingredients for successful innovation at once and provides an opportunity for local innovations to bear while at the same time nourishing on introduced innovations. In AIP formation, the recognition and value of indigenous knowledge and capitalization on prevailing policy, institutional setting and involvement of local leadership is vital. The form, nature and time taken by AIP formation process depends on both the conceptual and local context, quality of facilitation, socio-economic, culture, biophysical, political environment in which a common challenge and/or opportunity is identified and on the capacity of stakeholders to comprehend the Innovation Systems Approach (ISA). The process of AIP formation was faster in creating win-wins when market led. Strong leadership, strategic partnership, information flow, interactions and dealing with recurrent challenges during the AIP formation process are critical in fostering innovations. The major challenges included capacitating the stakeholders in requisite skills and dealing with persistent “handout-syndrome”

Institutional Innovations for Building Impact-oriented Agricultural Research, Knowledge and Development Institutions

The central development question in African agriculture is how to catalyze a more competitive, equitable and sustainable agricultural growth within the context of smallholder production systems, inefficient agricultural marketing, inefficient investments by private sector amidst degradation prone natural resources base (Lynam and Blackie, 1994; IAC, 2004; World bank, 2006 ). Concerted scholarly analyses of Science and Technology (S&T) strategies have given birth to Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) an organizing concept of the Innovation Systems Approach (ISA) as the promise holder. It is hypothesized that the generation, diffusion and application of impactful innovations critically depend on systemic integration of knowledge systems that promote communication, interaction and cooperation between agricultural research, education, extension, farmers, private sector and policy regulatory systems. This paper examines how the different institutional innovations arising from various permutations of linkages and interactions of ARD organizations (national, international advanced agricultural research centres and universities) influenced the different outcomes in addressing identified ARD problems. A multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary phased Participatory Action Research approach was used to pool knowledge to address outstanding and emerging challenges in three countries (DRC, Rwanda and Uganda) with 2, 16 and 24 years out of conflict, respectively) of the Lake Kivu Pilot Learning Site. A landmark institutional innovation was the participatory establishment of twelve (12) Innovation Platforms as tools for pooling knowledge across the agricultural business, education, research and extension systems. The knowledge “pool” was to generate, diffuse and apply innovations to reduce transactions costs and create value chain based “win-win” situations. A number of innovations (e.g. International Public Goods-IPGs, market binding contracts, registered brands and/or certification processes, diversity, density and quality of networks/collective action, bulking centres, ICT application and depth of knowledge pools) were initiated. There were major breakthroughs which included bringing on board non-traditional private sector and policy maker partners, overcoming the predominant “farmer handout syndrome”, building consensus and addressing common interest challenge. Making markets work, bringing various stakeholders including universities to the community and vice-versa, appreciation of indigenous knowledge system, propelling collective soil and water conservation and demand/utilization of technologies hitherto on-shelf were other very significant breakthroughs. Sustainable operations of the Innovation Systems knowledge “pool” nurturing institutional learning were ensured through the availability of a “functional body”. The body undertook the social enterprise of organizing farmers and traders, facilitating/brokering ARD organization linkages by using multi-media to build social capital to overcome emergent knowledge, credit, market, technology and resource degradation challenges under different policy regulatory systems

Principles, design and processes of integrated agricultural research for development: experiences and lessons from LKPLS under the SSACP

With increasing recognition holding the promise of overcoming the outstanding problems faced byAfrican agriculture, IAR4D faces the danger of being ‘blurred’ by past approaches and falling short of its potential to deliver the desired impacts in diverse multi-stakeholder, biophysical, socio- economic, cultural, technological and market contexts unless its actualisation and working is clearly understood. In this paper, we present the conceptualisation and principles of and knowledge-based experiences and lessons from the implementation of the sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSACP) in the Lake Kivu Pilot Learning Site (LKPLS). The presentation covers the formation and facilitation of IPs for the actualisation of IAR4D to evolve mechanisms for the early recognition of interlinked issues in natural resource management, productivity and value addition technologies, markets, gender and policy arrangements. These have autonomously triggered flexible, locally directed interactions to innovate options from within or outside their environment for resolving the challenges, and have moved along a new institutional and technological change trajectory. Emerging lessons point to the endowment of IP members with selfhelp knowledge interactions, training in IAR4D, quality of facilitation and research to be key determinants of the power behind of self-regulating mechanisms

Access of urban poor to NGO/CBO-supplied sanitation and solid waste services in Uganda: The role of social proximity

Inadequate urban sanitation and solid waste management in Uganda has prompted policy reforms in the two sectors. As part of this reform, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) have increasingly become involved in improving the sanitation and solid waste situation in poor urban informal settlements. This paper investigates whether social proximity influence access of the urban poor to sanitation and solid waste services provided by NGOs and CBOs. Using a sample of 337 households from 12 poor informal settlements in Kampala, social proximity in addition to other conventional factors proved relevant in explaining access of the poor to NGO and CBO solid waste and sanitation service

Comparing urban sanitation and solid waste management in East African metropolises: The role of civil society organizations

Sanitation and solid waste management systems have recently received major attention through the United Nation Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Increasingly, the role of civil society organizations – most notably Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) – in providing sanitation and solid waste management services to underserved, marginalized, poor or hardly accessible areas and communities is widely celebrated, as fully public and private schemes are thought to be less capable and willing to serve these areas and groups effectively. But little is known about the actual performance of NGOs and CBOs in urban environmental service provisioning in East African cities. This study explores and compares the extent and success of civil society organizations in providing urban sanitation and solid waste services for the poor in the capitals of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Using ideas of modernized mixtures and institutional pluralism we clarify the particular role of civil society institutions among a plurality of urban environmental service arrangements in East African cities. Major differences are found in CBO/NGO involvement in sanitation and solid waste provisioning, in the socio-economic characteristics of NGO/CBO service recipients and non-recipients, and in levels of appreciation of these systems