Rising to the challenge for new evidence on inclusive WASH

Women from an informal settlement in Makassar, Indonesia, participate in a design workshop as part of the RISE project to plan water and sanitation infrastructure for their neighbourhood (Monash University)

Although research recommends bolstering social capital to improve water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) project outcomes, few studies provide empirical evidence on the effect of intervention activities on social capital.

Supported by Australia through Water for Women, this study by Monash University and Emory University researchers aimed to evaluate the effect of participatory design and community engagement activities on social capital in urban informal settlements in Makassar, Indonesia, and Suva, Fiji, as part of the Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE) project.

In Indonesia, approximately one-third of the urban population lives in urban informal settlements, and in Fiji, this proportion is around 11%. Informal settlements are areas where residents lack secure housing, lack access to basic services and infrastructure, and hazards exist due to housing structure, geography, or environment.

People living in informal settlements face many challenges, but none more than people living with a disability and other marginalised community mmbers. According to the 2017 Census, approximately 14.3% of the population of Fiji lives with a disability, while Indonesia has the highest disability prevalence rate in Southeast Asia, officially recorded as 8.6% but widely believed underrepresentative due to data collection contraints and differing definitions,

The lack of access to safe water and sanitation makes those living in informal settlements more vulnerable to infectious and noncommunicable diseases, malnutrition, poor mental health, injury, and violence than people living in urban areas. But in these settings, although some improvements to water access can be made at the household level, effective sanitation improvements require collective community action.

Partnering with researchers from Universitas Hasanuddin, Fiji National University and the University of the South Pacific, the RISE team drew on established research which has shown that communities with higher levels of social capital perform better in community-based WASH interventions and have better health outcomes. This includes being more likely to participate in decision-making, planning, and construction of community-based piped water systems and toilets, and more likely to take up latrine use and hygiene behaviors.

"Since RISE has been here, we have come to know each other, we meet often, so there is more mutual cooperation. We have been helping each other out.”

A woman from an informal settlement in Indonesia

Through this study, the RISE team aimed to address an evidence gap by evaluating the effect of participatory design and community engagement activities on social capital. Activities included:

• Establishment of committees comprising existing and emerging leaders with lived experience and/or employment related to water and sanitation, health, and built environment who were elected or nominated in each settlement to serve as liaisons between the project and residents.
• Participatory design workshops, which aimed to inform residents about the program and capture residents’ needs and preferences for the design and location of infrastructure.
• In-depth, household-level consultations and observations, which were gender and socially inclusive and aimed to understand the specific needs of women, children, people living with disabilities, and other marginalised groups in the settlement.

“We started to see what we did not expect before: People are now working together for a common good.”

A man from an informal settlement in Fiji

The study found that participatory design and community engagement had a positive relationship with social capital in Indonesian informal settlement communities participating in the RISE project. But there was a surprising negative relationship in Fiji, which underscores the fact that intervention activities can have unintended consequences.

This study has important implications for participatory WASH programming and measurement of social capital and other social constructs that may facilitate collective action. The findings suggest that participatory design and community engagement can influence social capital in various country contexts. 

Access the full research paper:

"People are now working together for a common good”: The effect on social capital of participatory design for community-level sanitation infrastructure in urban informal settlements

The RISE project, which concluded at the end of 2022, also generated extensive evidence on a gender and socially inclusive co-design approach to WASH, including a toolkit and other resources that are now available for wide use.

*Project targets are based on partner Civil Society Organisations (CSO) project baseline studies. Project targets are updated periodically in response to changes in context as appropriate.