About

The SaniHub project

SaniHub is a process which captures innovation and facilitates technology development through partnerships between itself, local and international actors. It is designed to interface with business through Water For People’s Sanitation As A Business programme and learn from the scientific research currently being undertaken at various institutions across the world.

The project has the vision of:

A sanitation market sector where technologies are being developed and supplied to entrepreneurs by local innovators

Therefore from initiation SaniLab will plan to work itself into redundancy. When this has been accomplished it will transfer full ownership to a partner, such as the Sanitation Solutions Company which is promoting sanitation services in Kampala. It is believed that this could take two years.

Aim of the SaniLab

The SaniLab project has four aims:

1. Develop sanitation technologies that are affordable for the low income market of developing economies;
2. Capture new innovations and support the process of bringing them to market with the SAAB programme;
3. Disseminate findings to the wider sanitation sector based on current academic research and evidence developed through its operations; and
4. Form partnerships so that the process SaniLab facilitates can be completely undertaken by local stakeholders without further assistance.

It will be based in Kampala, Uganda, because the SAAB programme has already established strong partnerships with a business development service, various entrepreneurs and engineering companies.

SaniLab will, therefore, work in collaboration with Water For People’s SAAB Programme; a local Business Development Service, Captiva; various technical companies; and multiple entrepreneurs, who will increase in number throughout the duration of the project.

The project’s success will be measured by assessing how many business and subsequent supply chains have been established to supply improved latrines; pit emptying devices and services; and treatment systems. This must involve key stakeholders such as district authorities, local research institutes and businesses. The project will only be deemed a success when this market is self-sufficient and will then move to aim to replicate the project in other countries where Water For People is operating.

Technology development as a process

Although the end result of technology development is most often seen as a product there is in fact a substantial process and significant number of services that enables that product to come to and operate within the market. SaniLab will focus on facilitating technology development to ensure that the products and services meet market needs rather than simply being developed as defined by the original objectives.

SaniHub uses three concepts to articulate this process. The first is the Industrial Emergence Framework which is used to describe how far along the process of development a technology is and therefore what sort of skills are needed to progress it to the next stage. The second is the Value Proposition which essentially sets the boundaries for a technology’s development. The third is the Sanitation Value Chain which delineates technologies in to how they provide a service; technologies are required at every stage of the Value Chain to ensure that services can continue.