Can peer-to-peer learning strengthen local government capacity to deliver sustainable and equitable sanitation services in low resource settings?

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- The challenge:Strengthening capacities of local governments to deliver sanitation services is imperative to ensure we have area- and nation-wide outcomes. The top-down transfer of best practices from one place to another without accounting for local capabilities or resources overburdens administrations setting them up for failure. Horizontal P2P between local governments operating within a particular system, and under similar conditions, could support the spread of local innovation and ideas while avoiding the pitfalls of top-down, carbon copying of interventions.P2P learning is popular in development however much of the evidence base has focused on intervention in western contexts or international initiatives between the global North and the global South. There is limited scholarship on P2P between local governments within a low or middle income setting. - The approach:A participatory action research approach is proposed, working with an implementing partner to develop and test a P2P learning initiative in a particular country. Throughout the initiative data will be collected from participants. Regular workshops will also be held with the implementing partners and others involved in the rollout to reflect on data collected and tweak the intervention design. Participants will then be followed-up with to assess outcomes and impacts of the initiative, including any changes to the scale and quality of service provision. In addition, I plan on undertaking two to four case studies on P2P learning initiatives that can also be drawn on and inform the research project. - Impact:The primary aims of the research is to develop an evidence base on P2P learning between local governments in a low or middle income setting alongside a P2P learning intervention which increases local capacities. If successful the project could be expanded and a blueprint developed which other countries and regions could adapt to their context.