Sanitation markets in urban informal settlements of East Africa Aime Tsinda a, * , Pamela Abbott b , Jonathan Chenoweth c a College of 4 Education, University of Rwanda, Po Box 5039, Rwanda b School of Social Science, University of Aberdeen, UK c Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES), University of Surrey, Guildford, UK article info Article history: Received 28 January 2015 Received in revised form 16 March 2015 Accepted 12 May 2015 Available online Keywords: Sanitation Market Informal settlements East Africa abstract This article analyses sanitation markets in the informal settlements of three case study cities, namely Kigali (Rwanda), Kampala (Uganda) and Kisumu (Kenya), to identify how sanitation markets in East Africa can be made to function more effectively. It is based on a mixed method approach where 1794 households from Kigali, 1666 households from Kampala and 1927 households from Kisumu were sur- veyed. This was complemented by qualitative research involving 83 focus group discussions, 99 in- terviews and 3 deliberative forums. Findings reveal similarities and strong differences between the cities in terms of sanitation markets. While construction and emptying services are more available in Kampala and to lesser extent in Kisumu, organic solutions are mostly available in Kigali. However, the purchase of products and services is generally low. One of the reasons is that households are provided with products they do not want to buy. The sanitation intervention should be focused on the households rather than the suppliers of sanitary products. This involves understanding consumers' needs, desires, habits and the circumstances required for a facility to be acceptable and meet the needs of users rather than what fits the supplier. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In East Africa, countries have rapidly increasing urban pop- ulations, with well over half their urban populations living in un- sanitary and overcrowded conditions in informal settlements - 55% in Kenya, 63% in Uganda and 68% in Rwanda (Eyakuze, Salim, & Hersi, 2012). Some researchers have argued that improving sani- tation in the informal settlements of Sub-Saharan Africa requires the development of sanitation markets. According to the basic principles of supply and demand, a market without available goods occurs for two main reasons: either, because there is no demand for the good, and therefore it is not lucrative to supply it; or alterna- tively, because demand is so high that supply has run out (Oti & Quinby, 2012). Although demand is important in sanitation, a key component of sanitation market is supply. Initially four, and more recently seven, factors relating to supply are discussed in the sanitation market literature as being key to having a functioning market (Leonie, 2011). These factors are product, price, place, pro- motion, policy, partnership and people. In this article, we are mainly concerned with only three factors (product, price and promotion). According to Peal, Evans, and Van Der Voorden (2010), the product can be an item (e.g. a latrine) or a service. Services which are needed in informal settlements include construction/installation of sanitation facilities, supply of sanitation products, repair/maintenance of facilities, emptying services, transportation/treatment/safe disposal of waste and ed- ucation/sensitisation of the community about good hygienic prac- tices. However, there is insufficient private sector involvement in the sanitation sector because of lack of a commercial market, low creditworthiness and low potential for income generation (Van Der Hoek, Evans, Bjerre, Calopietro, & Konradsen, 2010; Tr emolet, 2012). Promotion of sanitation might include something which helps to get the customers' attention and convince them to buy the product or make use of the service (Cairncross, 2004). However, often the key users of the services, particularly women who are traditionally involved in the health of a household, are not aware of the services available (Okurut, Kulabako, Chenoweth, & Charles, 2014; Outlaw, Jenkins, & Scott, 2007). Furthermore, the development of sanitation markets requires businesses operating in the informal sector such as Small-Scale Independent Providers (SSIPs). SSIPs are sanitation business owners who provide a range of services to the poor that fall into * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: aime.tsinda@gmail.com, aimetsinda@yahoo.fr (A. Tsinda). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Habitat International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/habitatint http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2015.05.005 0197-3975/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Habitat International 49 (2015) 21e29