Factors effecting basic needs service design and innovation at the bottom of the pyramid

Abstract

The research carried out in thesis is sub-set of a longer on-going project to facilitate a sustainable ‘demand driven’ approach to water and sanitation product and service development. The project aims to achieve public and private health benefits where urban low-income tenant households, typically living in slums and informal housing areas, cannot access the conventional infrastructure. These families that rent a single room in a slum for $10 per month and who may be earning an uncertain wage of $2 per day. Unable to afford to invest in fixed assets when they might be required to move at very short notice. The project seeks to deliver desirable products to the local market, the one billion growing to two billion slum dwellers, which will be available for years to come. This is irrespective of any on-going donor involvement and possibly in advance of formal recognition and infrastructure investment by conventional service providers. Cont/d.