Innovation intermediaries as agents of change in sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2022, 3.5 billion people still lacked access to safely managed sanitation services globally (United Nations, 2023). Sanitation is one area that still faces a challenge in technological diffusion, and there is little on why on-site delivery systems succeed or fail in the urban context (Van Welie, 2019). The failure to upscale or diffuse innovations and achieve effective sanitation governance has been attributed to a lack of coordination, unclear roles and responsibilities of actors, and institutional fragmentations that are often poorly understood and neglected as a result of their multifarious, cross-cutting, and complex nature (Andersson et.al., 2016; Mara and Evans, 2018; Gambrill et al., 2020; Valette and Colon, 2024). Sanitation as a complex and multi-faceted problem requires a collaborative and coordinated effort from multiple actors across all levels of governance for it to be fully functional (Franceys and Hutchings, 2017; World Bank Group, 2022). It is crucial to understand how institutions evolve to adapt and respond to external shocks (e.g., climate change) and how they respond to new ideas, innovations, or mandates at a policy level (Franceys and Hutchings, 2017; Patterson and Huitema, 2019).
The role of intermediation by multiple actors during the entire innovation process in sanitation remains limitedly understood (Hyvärinen, 2024; Van Welie, 2019). While the financial needs and technical solutions are well known, there has been less attention given to the transformational role of sector governance in sanitation. Strong sanitation institutions can have positive impacts on service delivery outcomes. Therefore, it is fundamental to examine the conditions for and processes of innovative change to facilitate sustainable and effective sanitation service delivery outcomes.

This research aims to investigate the role of innovation intermediaries as agents of change in sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa. It will explore 1) the regulatory processes followed at multiple levels of governance (i.e. local, regional, and national levels) to institutionalise new rules, arrangements, and norms to facilitate the diffusion of innovations; 2) regulatory processes followed at multiple levels of governance (i.e. local, regional, and national levels) to institutionalise new rules, arrangements, and norms to facilitate the diffusion of innovations; 3) the intermediary actors driving innovation development, and how can their roles be conceptualised; and 4) interactions across various segments of the sanitation value chain and how are relationships are governed.

It will employ a case study approach and follow qualitative methods using research techniques such as semi-structured interviews, focus groups, literature review and document analysis. It will draw on Everett Rogers's diffusion of innovations theory that explains how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technologies spread through socio-technical contexts.

Ultimately, it intends to contribute to enhanced knowledge and understanding of the role of intermediary actors as agents of change for effective sanitation governance and the diffusion of sanitation solutions.