Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) has a vision of a world in which all urban dwellers – including the poorest – enjoy affordable, high-quality water and sanitation services. The organisation has helped transforming cities to benefit the millions who lack access to water and sanitation by working with service providers (SMEs, utilities, municipal governments) in Africa and South Asia, to support provision of financially viable and socially equitable sanitation solutions in cities.

With core funding of £4million from DFID, WSUP is beginning the roll-out of a four year programme of research around urban sanitation, primarily focused in Ghana, Kenya and Bangladesh.

A primary WSUP interest is sanitation financing, and specific projects within this programme are likely to focus on inter-related aspects including: consumer willingness-to-pay, cost projection and modelling, market development and private-sector enablement, and public financing mechanisms including ring-fenced taxation and cross-subsidy. Following extensive consultation with in-country actors, WSUP will be releasing diverse competitive calls in coming months, and this workshop will provide an opportunity to discuss the design of calls (for which Cambridge researchers will of course be very welcome to bid). The workshop will also facilitate wider discussion around research priorities in the urban water and sanitation domain, and around prospects for partnership in bids for other research funding streams, including GCRF.

 If you would like to participate please register here.