Building partnership for participatory sanitation and hygiene planning: lessons and experience from Tanzania

Tanzania, like much of sub-Saharan Africa, is rapidly urbanising and small towns are developing without sufficient planning. The Cities of Tomorrow research project is using participatory approaches to work with stakeholders in Babati, Tanzania to build the evidence needed to help develop and inform a town-wide sanitation and hygiene plan and to feed into the development of the Babati spatial master plan. This paper describes some of the lessons learned through the development of the partnership between government, academic and non-governmental institutions working together on this project. Mixing research outcomes with operational planning has been a new experience for all partners but the perceived value of research has increased through the use of interactive research tools. Understanding the governance of each partner, carrying out institutional priority mapping and improving communication channels were among the identified improvements that could be made to strengthen the partnership further as the project progresses.