The water, energy, food, and health nexus: the case of informal settlements in Kampala, Uganda (PhD project - Tonny Ssekamatte)

Households are often excluded from governance arrangements despite being a site for sustainable development goals (SDG) interactions. Households in informal settlements for example, are characterized by extreme poverty (SDG 1), which hinders equitable access to water and sanitation services (SDG 6), energy (SDG 7), and food (SDG 2), and good health and well-being (SDG 3). Available evidence on SDG interventions however ignores social conditions, practicalities, and complexities of everyday life that shape Water, Energy, Food, and Health (WEFH) interactions in the household. Aside, donors and the private sector continue to make investments in sustainable development, however, their impact remains suboptimal. This is attributed to a siloed approach where ministries, agencies, and non-governmental organisations continue to work in isolation, which limits their ability to manage trade-offs and optimise synergies. A nexus approach in governing interactions between water, energy, food, and health is recommended to reduce governance fragmentation. However, the multiplicity of stakeholders and semi-autonomous centres of decision-making at the WEFH interface requires a polycentric governance framework, and an understanding of the envisioned roles of the household, donors, private sector, and aid recipients. The proposed study, therefore, will explore the interaction between WEF practices and Health, and the envisioned role of households, the private sector, and donors and recipients. A mixed methods study consisting of a household survey, shadowing, and key informant/ stakeholder interviews will be used. Data generated by the proposed study will inform the design of a household-inclusive polycentric governance framework for the WEFH nexus.