Initiating De-colonisation of WASH Sector Knowledge
While appreciating the high volume of on-going WASH and Covid-19 webinars, as WASH actors, have we noticed the explicit imbalance on global WASH sector knowledge? It is for this reason that I support Bruce. B., (2019)[1] who argues that, while the physical colonisation of the countries of the global South by the countries of the global North may have ended, knowledge colonialism continues.
As a member of the Women in Water Association of Kenya, I recall an uproar that arose in April 2020 on the lack of participation of youth, women and Africans in webinars and production of documentation on WASH amid Covid-19. African female WASH experts were disappointed, almost a similar disappointment around the same time when the Covid-19 vaccine was announced to be tested in Africa. Left out, ignored, undermined is how some Africans feel about some of the Knowledge Management and Development activities in the water sector.
In the year 2020, it is puzzling how North donor organizations design strategies, policy documents, frameworks, guidelines and so on to guide Africa’s water sector and they are endorsed for sector practice with zero participation in authoring, editing or overall contributions by Africans including those from their organizations. Instead Africans feature in data collection where we are asked the normal how long does it take you to fetch water and the likes? Does it mean Africans are consumers of knowledge and not producers?
Driving the point home is the current topic WASH amid Covid-19; from keen observation, there is no ‘new knowledge’ coming up from the webinars for the past couple of months, could it be because all information comes from the North? It must be appreciated that the water sector is a highly contextualized sector for some of these tendencies to be enabled. Besides Covid-19 provides an undisputed appreciation of contextualization; it’s not about the declarative knowledge i.e. (know-what), procedural knowledge (know-how) but mainly reasoning knowledge (know-why). The latter knowledge supports sustainably inform decision making processes and mitigation measures. Mirroring from this proposition and affirmed by the fact that nobody has ever experienced Covid-19 before, it is myopic to believe that someone on lock-down in Europe can comprehensively advice the South on managing the pandemic in the WASH sector. How about inquiring with a; Hello South! Can we combine our insights and do this webinar or documentation together?
The challenge is not only that the North is imposing western knowledge on the South but also knowledge being solicited from Africa and re-packaged with Northern authoring for our consumption. Is the North rendering the scholarships to the South on higher education and innovations incubation worthless?
On matters development, the President of the Republic of Kenya, H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta once said, this country, this continent (Africa) does not claim perfection — but we can claim progress. In the context of Kenya, Covid-19 has confirmed that necessity is the mother of invention and moreover proven that majority of Kenyans could apparently access a hand-washing facility at their cost, soap is being substituted by ash which even those at the bottom of the pyramid can access. Instead, the biggest problem has been safe water access, did it have to take a global pandemic for donors to appreciate this systemic challenge to inform a paradigm shift in the design of aid or trade in Africa’s WASH sector? Let’s talk with Africa! We understand and appreciate North donor funding but Africa has a voice, give Africans platforms to raise it in the realms of knowledge-production. An automated tap in the North is the first PPE in reducing Covid-19 infections, serving a similar purpose to a hands-free hand-washing station innovated by Stephen Wamukota, a 9 year old in Kenya among other students and entrepreneurs[2].
It may be argued that, since Africans have content and experts how about they step up and create their own platforms. Sure, we could! but that would be like creating music that only hits in your studio. Knowledge should be shared.
On the other hand, one may wonder, but what is the cause of knowledge imbalance in the WASH sector? Is the motivation that the demand side of knowledge (the South) is not ‘fit’? Is it because of the politics of knowledge? Escobar. A., (1995)[3] among other numerous authors concur that, development as a concept and practice is deeply political. It involves power and knowledge, representation, contestation, struggles and processes of negotiation on local, national and global levels. He upholds that development is never neutral and continues by cautioning that attempts to deny this simply adhere to a teleology that reproduces “endlessly the separation between reformers and those to be reformed”. I decipher, Water is also political and this write up is political.
In the views of Jim.D., (2020)[4], The inequalities demonstrated in knowledge production are also exacerbated by supply side-incentives. Northern-based organizations ‘do’ convening and research due to availability of budgets and these key global knowledge mobilization activities, tend to be based out of global head offices even if convened online. He adds that, the ways that the North hires (you need right to work in London, Ottawa, New York, Paris…), the forms of knowledge that are prioritized (abstract, codified), the pool of people from whom they draw (fancy degrees) opens doors for some and closes for others. He concludes by exclaiming that here we are in 2020, when listening in to development knowledge brokering events leads one to believe that all relevant global knowledge on development is produced in the North. It is not true, and it does not have to be this way. We have the internet.
SDG 10 and SDG 16 tries to reconcile this imbalance by setting up indicators on equality and good governance. Progress has been made on having all male discussion panels brought to an end. However, there is still need to provide both space and authority to those in the South to produce knowledge with no boundaries from a convivial thinking perspective. Some of these changes have to be deliberate; similar to the views of Jim.D., (2020), I look forward to the day that the North will not present or participate in webinars or endorsement of documentation or any other form of WASH knowledge products on the WASH challenges in the South, that lack representation from the South. After all, how useful can they be?
Water experts seem to be the enemies within towards SDG 6 realization. Business models of Knowledge management and development in WASH need to be inclusive. Knowledge Development and Management is the key to attaining SDG 6 effectively and efficiently, without de-colonising it, attaining SDG 6 will remain a fallacy.
Together, we can re-write the narrative.
[1] https://realkm.com/2019/12/13/new-initiatives-begin-decolonising-research-libraries-and-knowledge-systems-but-what-about-decolonising-km/
[2] https://www.the-star.co.ke/counties/central/2020-04-21-muranga-it-graduate-makes-automatic-handwashing-gadget/ and https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-52898797
[3] Escobar, Arturo. (1995). Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
[4] Jim Delaney Views are referenced from the KMD D-Group discussions
