Educating sanitation professionals: moving from STEM to specialist training in higher education in Malawi

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Educating sanitation professionals: moving from STEM to Educating sanitation professionals: moving from STEM to

specialist training in higher education in Malawi specialist training in higher education in Malawi

Brighton A. Chunga

Mzuzu University

David Mkwambisi

Malawi University of Science and Technology

Cassandra L. Workman

University of North Carolina Greensboro

Francis L. de los Reyes III

Rochelle H. Holm

University of Louisville

, [email protected]

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Original Publication Information

Chunga, B. A., Mkwambisi, D., Workman, C. L., de los Reyes, F. L., & Holm, R. H. (2022). Educating

sanitation professionals: Moving from STEM to specialist training in higher education in Malawi.

Waterlines

(3), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3362/1756-3488.22-00662

ThinkIR Citation

Chunga, Brighton A.; Mkwambisi, David; Workman, Cassandra L.; de los Reyes, Francis L. III; and Holm,

Rochelle H., "Educating sanitation professionals: moving from STEM to specialist training in higher

education in Malawi" (2022).

Faculty Scholarship

. 922.

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Abstract: Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

(SDGs) requires effective changes in multiple sectors including education,

economics, and health. Malawi faces challenges in attaining the SDGs in

general, and specifically in the sanitation sector. This paper aims to describe

the existing landscape within public universities in Malawi to build a

framework for training a cadre of locally trained experts. This is achieved by

reviewing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degree

programmes and assessing the extent of inclusion of sanitation education.

The historical compartmentalization of academic programmes has resulted

in few programmes to build on. Deliberate investment is needed to build from

the current STEM higher education landscape to an effective framework for

training sanitation experts, especially female experts. For low-income countries

such as Malawi, a cadre of ~17,600 locally trained sanitation experts may be

needed, for which the current higher education landscape is not sufficient.

Using the Centre of Excellence in Water and Sanitation at Mzuzu University

in Malawi as a case study, this paper provides a model of sanitation education

in low-income countries that: 1) provides an effective complementary contri-

bution to delivering sanitation education; 2) links to overall SDGs, national

policy, university goals, and localized needs; and 3) engages students, faculty,

and communities in local research.

Keywords: higher education, public health, sanitation, sub-Saharan Africa,

sustainable development

Introduction

Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires

effective changes in multiple sectors spanning education, economics, and health

(United Nations, 2022). While these goals are sector-specific, they are interdependent

Educating sanitation professionals: moving

from STEM to specialist training in higher

education in Malawi

Brighton A. Chunga, David Mkwambisi, Cassandra L.

Workman, Francis L. de los Reyes III, and Rochelle H. Holm

Waterlines, 41:3, 1–13

<http://dx.doi.org/10.3362/1756-3488.22-00662>

Brighton A. Chunga, Centre of Excellence in Water and Sanitation and Department of Water and

Sanitation, Mzuzu University, Malawi; David Mkwambisi, MUST Institute of Industrial Research and

Innovation, Malawi University of Science and Technology, Malawi; Cassandra L. Workman,

Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina Greensboro, United States; Francis L. de los

Reyes III, Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State

University, United States; Rochelle H. Holm, Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, School of

Medicine, University of Louisville, United States and Centre of Excellence in Water and Sanitation,

Mzuzu University, Malawi

distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No-derivatives

CC BY-NC-ND licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

www.practicalactionpublishing.com, ISSN: 0262-8104/1756-3488

2 B. A. CHUNGA ET AL.

September 2022 Waterlines Vol. 41 No. 3

and their attainment requires convergence. Effective sanitation can reduce health

risks and promote productivity for communities and households in Malawi, Africa,

but about one-third of households lack an improved toileting facility (Malawi

Government, 2019; World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations

Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2021). This is related not only to specialist services but

also to sanitation as a part of awareness and behaviour-change campaigns. However,

action plans to build sanitation capacity in national policies and strategies require

multi-pronged support underlying new African innovations (WSP-AFRICA, 2006;

Malawi Government, 2019). To address this, multi-sector approaches require skilled

engineers, well-trained practitioners, capable regulators, and a vibrant private sector

to work in an enabling policy environment to offer affordable sanitation services

while maintaining an economically viable business.

Malawi requires substantial investment in training institutions to improve

sustainable shifts in the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector (Luwe et al.,

2021). However, internal capacities in sub-Saharan countries, such as Malawi,

in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is low

(Mwamsamali and Mayo, 2014; Mbano and Nolan, 2017). While basic education

attainment numbers remain low for both genders, more males than females have

attended secondary school (Malawi Government, 2019). In Malawi, less than

0.5 per cent of the population has attended university (Malawi Government, 2019).

A supportive environment for girls to enter a STEM higher education track is another

gap that needs to be addressed concurrently (Mbano and Nolan, 2017).

Historically, specialists from other STEM backgrounds, such as civil and environ-

mental engineering, would lead the sanitation sector as technical and engineering staff.

With newer developmental challenges and dimensions in sanitation, such as faecal

sludge and menstrual hygiene management, traditional engineering-based technical

solutions may not support a multidisciplinary sanitation scope. Still, there are known

gender gaps among technical and engineering staff in Malawi (Mwamsamali and

Mayo, 2014); as a result, community-wide environmentally related health challenges

are gendered. Creating this enabling environment presupposes the capacity to produce

and sustain a critical mass of sanitation practitioners, which in turn depends on the

capacity to train future sanitation specialists (Cavill and Saywell, 2009; Workman et al.,

2021). Inclusive, gender-sensitive, and improved STEM education in higher education

offers a key pathway for training a critical mass of sanitation experts.

In Malawi, as in many sub-Saharan African countries, behaviours around latrines

are gendered, with women being responsible for the cleaning and management

of household latrines. Sanitation for households in Malawi primarily consists of

simple pit latrines (Malawi Government, 2019), a basic hole in the ground

often surrounded by an enclosure made of local bricks, and either a grass or

iron sheet roof. With increasing population density (Malawi Government,

2019), this technology is pushed beyond capacity by both high-volume usage

(requiring routine pit emptying) and a lack of space for the construction of new

pits, especially in urban areas. Thus, particularly, women and girls face health

and safety risks as they are primarily seen as responsible for the management of

household sanitation and require adequate infrastructure for menstrual hygiene.

PRACTICE PAPER: EDUCATING SANITATION PROFESSIONALS IN MALAWI 3

Waterlines Vol. 41 No. 3 September 2022

Other issues, such as safe disposal of children’s faeces, are also highly gendered.

These challenges will require basic sanitation education at all levels of education

and more investment in specialist training, especially among females.

The shortcomings of gender-inclusive trained specialists are recognized by the

government of Malawi. The National Sanitation Policy acknowledges a countrywide gap

in sanitation-related human capacity (Malawi Government, 2008). Furthermore, the

National Education Policy asserts that quality, equitable, and accessible higher education

should include both teaching and research (Malawi Government, 2013). Furthermore,

the need for local research and effective dissemination of the findings is cited in the

National Sanitation Policy (Malawi Government, 2008), National Water Policy (Malawi

Government, 2005), and National Environmental Health Policy (Malawi Government,

2018), but they do not focus on working with universities for local solutions.

An improved and inclusive STEM and sanitation educational framework is a

necessary precursor for women’s involvement in decision-making, leading to

other important health-seeking behaviours. This paper aims to review the existing

STEM higher education landscape in public universities in Malawi to construct

a conceptual framework for training a gender-equitable critical mass of future

sanitation experts. It also critically reflects on the role of higher education insti-

tutions, building on the complementary experience within the framework of a

Mzuzu University centre as a replicable model for capacity building of WASH

research knowledge in low-income countries.

Materials and methods

2.1 Data

A list of public universities and degrees in Malawi, Africa, was obtained from publicly

available Malawi Government National Council for Higher Education (NCHE)

Accredited Institutions and Programmes (2020) records. While all six public univer-

sities offer some degree of basic coursework, each university has a distinct mandate

and operates independently. Two of the accredited institutions, the Malawi College

of Accountancy and Malawi Institute of Management, do not offer any STEM-related

programmes. In 2021, the University of Malawi (UNIMA), the largest government

institution of higher education in the country, was split into separate universities,

namely the University of Malawi, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS),

and Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS), but this split was

ongoing and thus not reflected at the time of data collection.

The authorship team further offered insights from their own first-hand experi-

ences: data on the operational practices of the Centre of Excellence in Water and

Sanitation (WATSAN Centre) were provided by RHH and BC.

Data analysis

The list of accredited universities and programmes was coded according to degree

type (N = 325, total undergraduate and graduate-level programmes). Inclusion

criteria for programmes deemed relevant for STEM higher education to build a

4 B. A. CHUNGA ET AL.

September 2022 Waterlines Vol. 41 No. 3

framework for training a cadre of gender-inclusive sanitation experts were: 1) any

bachelor in science programme; 2) other bachelor programmes considered to be

applicable based on their title (specifically, bachelor of civil engineering (water)

(honours), bachelor of technical education (science), and bachelor of social science

(gender studies)); and 3) graduate programmes (master’s or doctoral level) based on

a programme title in STEM, public health, or sanitation entrepreneurship. In total,

180 programmes were included. The number of degree programmes relevant to

sanitation was based on the programme title, indicating it as a core focus.

Ethics

Data used in the analysis are available in public records.

Results and discussion

The opportunity for a gender-equitable critical mass of future sanitation experts

As of August 2020, accredited public higher education institutions offered a total

of 325 study programmes. While there are several (N = 180) STEM-related degree

programmes to support sanitation experts, only four of these have a core sanitation

focus (Table 1). No university offers a four-year bachelor of science degree in

sanitation. There are four sanitation graduate degree programmes (MPhil or PhD

Applied Sciences in Environmental Sanitation at the Polytechnic, University of

Malawi, and master’s or PhD in Sanitation at Mzuzu University). Public universities’

first year student admissions are coordinated at the national level by the NCHE.

Graduate programmes have a decentralized admission process and Malawi does not

have a graduate record examination or equivalent.

Historically, Malawi has imported the British higher education model, a highly

selective system designed to accommodate few students, and has resisted local-

ization (Holland, 2010). While some STEM-related programmes have coursework

in sanitation (e.g. the bachelor degree in water resources management and devel-

opment at Mzuzu University), the expansion of key concepts that address localized

sanitation challenges is missing. Higher education curricula in traditional disci-

plines such as languages and arts are able to more universally be borrowed from

western higher education models, whereas fields of studies such as emptying

of pit latrines or menstrual hygiene management requires a local curriculum.

The historical compartmentalization of higher education programmes in Malawi

may have cut off innovative programmes dealing with localized problems and

may be directly linked to the exclusion of sanitation in STEM-related academic

programmes as emerging issues related to government priorities for policy inter-

vention that have not yet caught up. Further, because of this historical framework,

any modification to foster greater diversity in STEM undergraduate programmes

is not realistic in the short term; thus, decentralized graduate programmes offer

the greatest window for immediate admissions and curriculm changes. How the

ongoing disbanding of the University of Malawi addresses the original special-

ization focus of each university should be followed for future research.

PRACTICE PAPER: EDUCATING SANITATION PROFESSIONALS IN MALAWI 5

Waterlines Vol. 41 No. 3 September 2022

Table 1 Public institutions of higher education in Malawi, and number of science, technology,

education, and mathematics (STEM), gender studies, and sanitation programmes

Name Training focus Number of STEM or

gender studies degree

programmes

Number of

core sanitation

programmes

College of Medicine,

University of Malawi

Training doctors and

nurses

15 0

Kamuzu College of Nursing,

University of Malawi

Training nurses 22 0

The Polytechnic, University

of Malawi

Engineering, business,

and applied sciences

32 2

Chancellor College,

University of Malawi

Social science, law,

humanities, and

education

32 0

Malawi University of Science

and Technology (MUST)

Science and

technology

9 0

Mzuzu University (MZUNI) Teacher training,

humanities, and

health sciences

16 2

Lilongwe University of

Agriculture and Natural

Resources (LUANAR)

Agriculture,

natural resources,

environment, rural

development, and

human nutrition

54 0

Malawi College of

Accountancy (MCA)

Accountancy 0 0

Malawi Institute of

Management (MIM)

Business management 0 0

Notes:

Currently known as Kamuzu University of Health Sciences.

Currently known as Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences.

Currently known as the University of Malawi.

The traditional ‘development engineering’ approach, i.e. the modification

of infrastructure or equipment from high-income countries to address a gap in

low-income countries, has not worked for sanitation in southern Africa, especially

for poor communities (Muller, 2020; Workman et al., 2021). This has also been

shown as a concern for humanitarian response engineers with a similar training

challenge, where ‘technical’ qualifications require strong consideration of both

proper training and experience (Reed and Fereday, 2016). The wide capacity

gaps in the WASH sector include ineffective staffing (e.g. too few or too many

untrained staff, staff with an inappropriate skill set, or unproductive staff), a lack

of contextual awareness, and a one-size-fits-all approach to technology (Cavill

and Saywell, 2009; Workman et al., 2021). However, recent global efforts with

massive open online courses (MOOC) in sanitation, water, and solid waste for

development are challenged by the under-representation of female students and

primarily attract well-educated students, rather than increasing student diversity

6 B. A. CHUNGA ET AL.

September 2022 Waterlines Vol. 41 No. 3

(Suter and Lüthi, 2021). In Malawi, MOOCs are unlikely to play a positive role in

the context of higher education because of the lack of accreditation by the NCHE,

and access to online courses may be hindered because of poor internet connec-

tivity or lack of computers among potential participants.

New policies, solutions, technologies, and gender-sensitive education initia-

tives should provide support to women and girls as future cadres of sanitation

researchers, policymakers, nonprofit organization leaders, and business owners

(Figure 1).

A replicable model for WASH research capacity building

Mzuzu University developed a model to promote sanitation education in

low-income countries, an illustrative output under the umbrella of our logic

model. While there are several higher education centres for the water sector

throughout Africa, few sanitation-focused centres exist, with the most notable

being the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Research and Development Centre at

the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (Sindall et al., 2018).

The Centre of Excellence in Water and Sanitation (WATSAN Centre) at Mzuzu

University was established in 2009 to fill the knowledge gap in water supply and

sanitation based on practical and problem-oriented research within a narrow

geographic area, mostly in the northern region of Malawi. It was started by a team

of eight faculty members in the Department of Geography and was initially run

by existing university staff members. In 2012, a full-time female manager (RHH)

Goal

Outcomes

Outputs

Activities

Intermediate

results

WATSAN

centre

More female

STEM

graduates

Improved sanitation in Malawi

particulary for women and children

Research gender

gap in STEM/

sanitation education

Research into

technical needs for

the sanitation sector

More highly

qualified sanitation

practitioners

Enhanced collaboration

of STEM educators and

sanitation practitioners

Improved

sanitation

technology

Better

gender-inclusive

sanitation policy

Improved

gender equity in

sanitation sector

Improved gender

equity in STEM/

sanitation education

Figure 1 Logic model for the present research

PRACTICE PAPER: EDUCATING SANITATION PROFESSIONALS IN MALAWI 7

Waterlines Vol. 41 No. 3 September 2022

was employed, and the centre was transferred to the Faculty of Environmental

Sciences to allow greater flexibility for work across departments and faculties.

The manager then had full reporting accountability and responsibility equal to a

head of department.

In terms of a funding model, the WATSAN Centre is self-funded, which means

that research is more often directed by funding agencies promoting development of

relevant research programmes than university priorities. All research is contracted,

with no staff paid by the university, and the WATSAN Centre is one of the top

income-generators for the university. Finances run through university processes and

pay 15 per cent overhead to the university, covering the cost of office space and access

to university services. Additional building renovations for labs have been secured

from within funded projects. At Mzuzu University, overall operations are controlled

by a single bank account where the national government makes deposits; however,

the WATSAN Centre has a dedicated bank account within the university financial

system. This separate accounting practice allows for improved financial reconcili-

ation and reporting, a common requirement for funding agencies, especially United

Nations agency partners.

In a typical month, three to six project proposals are submitted by the WATSAN

Centre, emphasizing the business side for continued operations. On a smaller

scale, the WATSAN Centre has many similarities in self-funded operations within

the higher education context to the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Research and

Development Centre (Sindall et al., 2018); such centres also requires leadership that

has recognized higher education teaching, research, and outreach in sanitation, as

well as junior researcher mentorship.

One of the major projects to build a framework for training a cadre of sanitation

experts in Malawi was undertaken when, in August 2013, the WATSAN Centre was

awarded a USD$199,000 contract titled ‘Solutions for pit desludging and subsequent

sludge management in low-income urban areas in Malawi’ by the Water Research

Commission (South Africa) through a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates

Foundation. The contract provided an impetus for the WATSAN Centre to focus on

sanitation in higher education, specifically at the graduate school level. Instead

of using project-embedded scholarship funds to send Malawian students to study

outside Malawi, Mzuzu University started its own master’s and PhD programmes

for students focused on producing local knowledge products in the sanitation field,

specifically a variety of new, innovative, pit latrine emptying tools.

The academic programme was administered by the Department of Water Resources

Management and Development, and was adopted from an existing university

master’s and PhD in theology programme, which had historically focused on indig-

enously developed curriculum and publication of books to fill a local knowledge

gap in the theology field. Within the sub-Saharan region context, there is advocacy

for theology training to remain in higher education to help local communities

(Buitendag and Simut, 2017), and such pedagogical localization was thought to

be applicable to, and critical for, training a cadre of sanitation experts. A specific

example of the local sanitation focus includes field research data collection, where

several Mzuzu University students were paired with private sector pit latrine emptiers

8 B. A. CHUNGA ET AL.

September 2022 Waterlines Vol. 41 No. 3

to work within communities near the university campus. Global partnerships have

also been key in this framework, allowing Mzuzu University student networking

within the wider global sanitation sector. North Carolina State University (USA),

which has a track record of higher education sanitation programmes, served as a

host site for the exchange visit of a Mzuzu University master’s student for testing

and troubleshooting innovative sanitation equipment, and North Carolina State

University co-published peer-reviewed publications as outputs of the new academic

programme. This is similar to the success of the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

Research and Development Centre, where there is a strong focus on global

partnership together with action reflection research within eThekwini communities

(Sindall et al., 2018).

The new Mzuzu University academic programme embedded the sanitation

master’s and PhD students into the existing operations of the WATSAN Centre.

While students were being empowered and educated as the next generation of

sanitation professionals, they were also a source of relatively lower-cost research

labour for sanitation projects, allowing students ample field experience beyond

‘technical’ qualifications. From 2015 to 2020, the WATSAN Centre had 27 peer-

reviewed sanitation-related publications, which covered study sites throughout

Malawi. Of these 27, 11 had a Mzuzu University student as the first author, six

had a foreign first author, and 10 had a female first author. Beyond knowledge

documentation through peer-reviewed publications, a gap remains in textbooks

by and for sub-Saharan African academic higher education institutions used in

sanitation coursework. Additional accomplishments include local innovations

under the WATSAN Centre such as the low-cost no-cement corbelled latrine for

rural households, the low-cost no-cement sandbag latrine for rural households in

areas with sandy soil, and the pedal-powered gulper modification for emptying

pit latrines. However, as of 2021, though there have been several graduates of the

programme, only one female with a master’s degree in sanitation has graduated

from Mzuzu University. Mzuzu University graduates of the sanitation programme

have gone on to work for the Ministry of Health, non-governmental organiza-

tions, and the private sector.

Although this is a strong start to developing future sanitation experts, a critique

by the Mzuzu University administration of the WATSAN Centre is that it does not

focus enough on bringing in female students or linking STEM and gender studies.

This gender inequality may be the result of a significant lack of higher education

role models for female students, with only one female faculty member at Mzuzu

University with sanitation expertise. Research in the USA indicates that repre-

sentation among faculty is important for student success (Borman et al., 2010).

Further, sanitation leadership roles supporting achieving universal access to

sanitation in communities are under-represented by black, indigenous, and other

people of colour, and especially women, and additionally tend to over rely on

individuals educated in high-income countries (Worsham et al. 2021). The most

recent Mzuzu University sanitation-related faculty hire was in 2015, showing

that changes in gender equity take time in an academic setting. While front-line

community health workers in Malawi do not have a higher education requirement,

PRACTICE PAPER: EDUCATING SANITATION PROFESSIONALS IN MALAWI 9

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due to the expanded multidisciplinary approach needed for sanitation profes-

sionals we advocate the need for an additional level of training. For comparison,

community health workers have been set at a ratio of one per 1,000 people

(Malawi Government, 2017); a similar assertion can be made that specialist

sanitation education is needed to attain SDG 6 and, based on the current census,

a cadre of 17,563 locally trained sanitation experts may be needed, for which

the current landscape in higher education is not sufficient. Specialists trained

in sanitation through higher education should be multidisciplinary to include

the sanitation value chain, fundamental physical/chemical/biological processes in

treatment, public health and epidemiology, working with local communities, and

local solutions. Prioritization needs to be both for rural and urban communities,

as some issues, such as reducing challenges in menstrual hygiene management,

are not location-specific. Future research is needed to quantify the extent of the

under-representation of women sanitation specialists in Malawi, as well as how

many women make up undergraduate STEM majors and STEM faculty members

across public universities.

To further contribute to closing the gap between sanitation research and outreach,

the WATSAN Centre initiated an annual STEM camp for local girls from the Mzuzu

area aged 5−18, serving over 700 girls in six years. These efforts need to continue

and be followed by campaigns to encourage women and girls to pursue STEM and

sanitation education. To support the entry of female students, bridging programmes

in STEM as a pre-entry course to university have been trialled on a limited basis in

Malawi with some success (Mbano and Nolan, 2017). More role models may help

girls and young women thrive and feel that they are up to the task of designing and

implementing locally sustainable sanitation solutions.

Conclusion

Public higher education institutions are key capacity-building organizations in

low-income countries. This critical discussion provides the first extended analysis

of sanitation training in higher education in Malawi. The present study suggests

that there is an inadequate gender-sensitive sanitation-specific specialist education,

which is required to attain SDG 6. Approximately 17,600 locally trained sanitation

experts may be needed, which will require many more higher education trained

experts than the current landscape of limited local specialist academic programme

offerings. In Malawi, a primary barrier to higher education training for solving

local sanitation problems is the historical institutional compartmentalization of

academic programmes, resulting in few options that are customized with a local

curriculum. The gender gap in sanitation education is also a reflection of a wider

STEM problem, and while sanitation is likely not a special case, it is certainly

impacted. A replicable model to complementarily promote sanitation education

within a narrow geographic area is presented, which also provides lessons on how

to identify research and education programmes, align with university academic

programmes, engage with communities, address the government development

agenda, and produce knowledge products. Following the eThekwini partnership

10 B. A. CHUNGA ET AL.

September 2022 Waterlines Vol. 41 No. 3

model and working with the local government and sanitation service providers is

also important for Malawi.

The gender gap in producing graduates and hiring faculty is large and persisting.

Deliberate investment is needed to support local higher education centres in

sub-Saharan Africa, building from current STEM education to a more effective

framework for training a critical mass of talented local sanitation experts to spur

sustainable development.

By connecting our logic model with lessons from the WATSAN Centre, we make

the following recommendations (Figure 2):

• Higher education curricula and textbooks should be developed by local authors;

these should be multidisciplinary and include the sanitation value chain,

fundamental physical/chemical/biological processes in treatment, public

health and epidemiology, working with local communities, and promoting

local solutions.

National policy

Higher education

operations

Higher education

attainment

Households lack an

improved toilet facility

Local sanitation

training programmes

Historical institutional

compartmentalization of

academic programmes

Opportunity for gender-inclusive improved

sanitation education in Malawi

Including STEM and

sanitation subjects

within primary and

secondary curricula

Supporting female

higher education

sanitation students

Developing curricula

and textbooks by

local author

Mounting career

choice campaigns

Increasing

investment

Funding

faculty

Advocating that

capacity development

includes student tuition

or research funding

Figure 2 Visual presentation of moving from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

(STEM) academic programmes to an effective framework for training sanitation experts within

higher education

PRACTICE PAPER: EDUCATING SANITATION PROFESSIONALS IN MALAWI 11

Waterlines Vol. 41 No. 3 September 2022

• STEM and sanitation subjects should be included in the basic primary and

secondary education curricula to provide students with a wide range of choices

when entering higher education.

• Student awareness about various sanitation educational programmes should

be generated through campaigns, providing information and guidance about

choosing their careers. Depiction of local female sanitation professionals as role

models should be encouraged.

• Female students in higher education should be supported to undertake research

related to sanitation, sometimes together with students from external institu-

tions. Integration with other departments should be promoted to give a more

rounded approach to sanitation (e.g. agriculture for end-use and disposal,

business administration for sanitation service providers, social science for user

perceptions, epidemiology).

• A partnership model for higher education should be followed to increase

investment in sanitation education and research by the government, funding

agencies, and the private sector.

• Increased funding agency support for capacity development should be

advocated, including supporting student bridging programmes, tuition, or

research funding.

• Faculty should be funded to provide consistent leadership in sanitation

education, such as centre managers.

Funding

This work was supported by the Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in

Research (PEER) project funded by the United States Agency for International

Development (USAID), the National Academy of Sciences (USAID Prime Award

Number AID-OAA-A-11-00012), and the Jon Rieger Seed Grant. Any opinions,

findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed are those of the authors

alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USAID or the National

Academy of Sciences.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Rebecca Clare Sindall for early discussions to

complement this work, Kip McGilliard for technical editing, and Marcie Jacques

for graphical art support.

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