Hybrid governance configurations, co-production and unequal water outcomes in the Mathare informal settlement, Nairobi

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Background An estimated 53 million people live in informal settlements in African cities (Tusting et al., 2019). As is the case in most of the global south, these sites are characterised by enduring post-colonial legacies of class segregation, inequality and multiple forms of neglect and deprivations, including inadequate access to utility services such as water and sanitation (Myers, 2011). Consequently, settlement residents are forced to rely on informal service providers. Access through these providers is, however, subject to prevailing settlement-level politics, which involves a hybridity of actors and institutions. The last decade has seen an increase in research and interventions centring co-production in urban governance (Mitlin & Bartlett, 2018). Nevertheless, our understanding of how hybrid governance arrangements shape co-production processes and outcomes - particularly concerning water accessibility and availability - remains remarkably limited. While researchers have extensively studied co-production in relation to citizen-state relations and social movements, literature is silent on how everyday politics may influence co-produced processes and outcomes. Furthermore, only a few studies recognise that co-produced urban services may reproduce unequal power relations in communities (Siame & Watson, 2022). Through a case study of Mathare, a rapidly transforming and densifying informal settlement, and using water services as a lens, the proposed research aims to address this gap by exploring the settlement's micro-politics and linking this analysis to co-produced water services and household access to water outcomes (accessibility and availability of quality water). This proposal builds on my research experience working with Ghetto Foundation, a community-based organisation in Mathare. My study will generate novel conceptual and practical insights relevant in the analysis, design, implementation and evaluation of future co-produced interventions in similar settings.Research QuestionsThe study's central research question is: How are hybrid governance configurations in Mathare formed, organised, and networked, and how do they shape the processes and outcomes of co-produced water services? I have split the central question into five sub-questions in line with the study's specific objectives as follows: Objective I: To analyse change over time1. How has Mathare's water provision changed since the water disconnections and protests of 2007/8 as the settlement has densified, while also undergoing increasingly diverse and fragmented water service providers?32. In what ways have hybrid governance configurations responded and adapted to water policies and programming over time?Objective II: To analyse socio-political dynamics between actors3. What are the levels of influence/power, goals, and interests of the different actors in the maintenance, (re)production and regulation of Mathare's water infrastructures (both human and non-human) and how are they connected to or disconnected from each other? Objective III: To understand residents' water outcomes4. What are residents' experiences in terms of accessibility and availability of quality water?Objective IV: To evaluate the impact of hybridity on co-produced interventions5. How can co-produced interventions leverage hybrid governance configurations to support more equitable and less extractive service provision?