Collaboration

Project Sammaan is a unique innovation initiative due to the diversity of the organizations working on it: design firms, government bodies, empirical researchers, architectural firms, waste management experts, community engagement specialists, and an interface management team.

This amalgamation of seemingly disparate entities provides a robust and exhaustive approach that ensures community members’ needs are designed for, the facilities are both functional and valued, and the effectiveness of the engagement is thoroughly evaluated.

The involvement of government representatives is particularly important. The partnership between public and private entities is rare, and the BMC and CMC should be considered precedent setters in this innovation. The support and participation of the municipal corporations streamlines many processes (e.g., site selection, tenders, access to communities, etc.), validates the project to the citizenry the project seeks to help, and ensures that the facilities will be valued commodities in the cities for years to come.

Additionally, community engagement activities thus far have shown there is not only demand for the facilities from the communities, but also a willingness to work with the project team in sharing insights on everything from preferred design elements in the facilities themselves to sanitation practices and how they could be augmented with these facilities.

Co-creation sessions, feedback meetings, end-user testing of prototypes (e.g., the Potty Lab), and general conversations with individuals and families while visiting the communities Project Sammaan will work with have all helped direct the project thus far. Continued engagement along these lines is planned and will guide the team as the project nears construction.