Hybrid governance configurations, co-production and unequal water outcomes in the Mathare informal settlement, Nairobi

Background
An estimated 53 million people live in informal settlements in African cities (Tusting et al., 2019). As
is the case in most of the global south, these sites are characterised by enduring post-colonial
legacies of class segregation, inequality and multiple forms of neglect and deprivations, including
inadequate access to utility services such as water and sanitation (Myers, 2011). Consequently,
settlement residents are forced to rely on informal service providers. Access through these providers
is, however, subject to prevailing settlement-level politics, which involves a hybridity of actors and
institutions. The last decade has seen an increase in research and interventions centring co-production in urban governance (Mitlin & Bartlett, 2018). Nevertheless, our understanding of how
hybrid governance arrangements shape co-production processes and outcomes - particularly
concerning water accessibility and availability - remains remarkably limited. While researchers have
extensively studied co-production in relation to citizen-state relations and social movements,
literature is silent on how everyday politics may influence co-produced processes and outcomes.
Furthermore, only a few studies recognise that co-produced urban services may reproduce unequal
power relations in communities (Siame & Watson, 2022). Through a case study of Mathare, a rapidly
transforming and densifying informal settlement, and using water services as a lens, the proposed
research aims to address this gap by exploring the settlement's micro-politics and linking this
analysis to co-produced water services and household access to water outcomes (accessibility and
availability of quality water). This proposal builds on my research experience working with Ghetto
Foundation, a community-based organisation in Mathare. My study will generate novel conceptual
and practical insights relevant in the analysis, design, implementation and evaluation of future co-produced interventions in similar settings.
Research Questions
The study's central research question is: How are hybrid governance configurations in Mathare
formed, organised, and networked, and how do they shape the processes and outcomes of co-produced
water services? I have split the central question into five sub-questions in line with the study's specific
objectives as follows:
Objective I: To analyse change over time
1. How has Mathare's water provision changed since the water disconnections and protests of
2007/8 as the settlement has densified, while also undergoing increasingly diverse and
fragmented water service providers?
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2. In what ways have hybrid governance configurations responded and adapted to water
policies and programming over time?
Objective II: To analyse socio-political dynamics between actors
3. What are the levels of influence/power, goals, and interests of the different actors in the
maintenance, (re)production and regulation of Mathare's water infrastructures (both human
and non-human) and how are they connected to or disconnected from each other?
Objective III: To understand residents' water outcomes
4. What are residents' experiences in terms of accessibility and availability of quality water?
Objective IV: To evaluate the impact of hybridity on co-produced interventions
5. How can co-produced interventions leverage hybrid governance configurations to support
more equitable and less extractive service provision?