Building Bridges between Municipal Government and Urban Slums

Abstract

Poor sanitation is a social determinant of diarrheal disease, which is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sanitation interventions in Ghana had not been participatory until 2015, when a group of Catholic sisters began an innovative cross-sector collaboration to address the issue of cholera in the Old Fadama urban slum of Accra. In this article, the sisters explore the application of community based participatory research (CBPR) and community-driven research (CDR) in detail through a sanitation example and their work with a population of vulnerable women and girls known as kayayei. They used CBPR to understand community needs and to align them with government policy and planning, and CDR to create projects responsive to community needs. This study contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by utilizing SDG 17 (partnerships), to achieve SDG 3 (good health and well-being), and SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation).