Research group conducted fieldwork and held a workshop in Kisumu, Kenya
In May 2014 a research group from JOOUST (Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Kenya), Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), and School of Public Administration (GU, Sweden) conducted field studies in Kisumu. The researchers, together with representatives from the city of Kisumu, the local community, and local private waste management actors visited informal settlements where they met and learned about the formal and informal waste management in Kisumu; they met local community representatives as waste pickers, municipal officers, residents, waste managers, politicians and community leaders – who among others together with the researchers celebrated an interactive workshop about the possibilities and challenges for a sustainable waste management in the informal settlements in Kisumu.
The research project aims to explaining the challenges and potential solutions for the co-production of participatory waste management services in informal settlements. Patrik Zapata, Associate Professor at the School of Public Administration participate in the research project were waste in informal areas of cities are examined through case studies and workshops in Kisumu.
Patrik Zapata, tell us about the field work in Kisumu.
- Field work is always quite intense and more or less mind blowing. The field is about learning, learning and more learning, the more people you meet and the more you see, the more to take in, and during the days in Kisumu we wet many and saw a lot. The Kenyan project leader, Dr. Michael Oloko, and his team had planned it all and managed to help the rest of us to get acquainted with Kisumu’s informal parts and its waste.
- We were quite a few going around together in Kisumu. Doing field work in a group is rather different from doing it alone, which often is the case. In the group, we discussed the research as we went along, formulated more questions as we went along. The practitioners in the group also showed the old truth that research is not only conducted in and by universities – the interactions between us all in the group, and the people we met were rather amazing, new ideas came up during meetings, and before we knew it, they started implementing them! Now we have data, well a lot of data. And in August it’s time to go to Kisumu again, meet more people and learn more.
- Finally, Michael Oloko, María José Zapata Campos (Gothenburg Research Institute) and I got the opportunity to join an ICLD activity close to Nairobi for a day. There we presented our field work and thoughts to local government officers from around East Africa participating in a ICLD training programme. Another great experience for us, direct feedback from practitioners, what can be better?
Within the project further field work will be made in Kisumu, August 2014 and February/March 2015.
More information about the project
ICLD - Swedish International Center for Local Democracy supports the research project “Combatting Poverty and Building Democracy through the Co-Production of Participatory Waste Management Services: the Case of Kisumu, Kenya”. The project is led by Maria José Zapata Campos, Gothenburg Research Institute, University of Gothenburg in collaboration with School of Public Administration, University of Gothenburg, Chalmers University of Technology and JOOUST, Kenya.