Oh, and one last thing before I tap out
All of my blogs have emphasised the need to actively listen, better understand and engage with local communities to bring about effective change in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector. This all leads back to the point I made in my very first blog. We need to work on decolonialising the WASH sector. Boyes ( 2019 ) states: "While the physical colonisation of countries of the global South by countries of the global North may have ended, knowledge colonialism continues." He has a point. Design strategies, policy documents, frameworks etc. for WASH interventions remain based on 'unrealistic assumptions' from the North, with little contribution in review, editing or authoring from Africans themselves ( Omamo and Farrington, 2004 ; Luseka, 2020 ). As long as these cultural idealisations continue, knowledge colonialism will prevail. But why is there such a knowledge imbalance? The answer might be deeply rooted in the notion of development itself. Escobar argues
