PROJECT OVERVIEW 

A human-centered design strategy to support a sanitation social enterprise in Ghana to increase its scale and impact.

PROJECT INFORMATION

TIMELINE: 2015
LOCATION: Kumasi, Ghana
Client: Clean Team Ghana
Partners: Soshl Studio
Role: Designer, Social Innovation Strategist

STORY

Approximately 1 billion urban dwellers worldwide lack adequate sanitation facilities in their homes. In Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana, that figure is less than 20 percent. For those without in home access, their options are to walk long distances to a public toilet or even open defecation.

In 2011, Clean Team Ghana launched. Founded as a joint venture of Unilever and Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (and with design strategy support from IDEO and IDEO.org), it is a social enterprise that provides safe, hygienic and convenient sanitation to the homes of low-income urban dwellers through a portable toilet and companion sanitation service. In 2015, they hired Studio O and SOSHL Studio to help them figure out how to scale up the business through reaching a greater diversity of customers, including poorer households and schools. The team undertook human-centered design research process in Kumasi to understand what were the needs and aspirations of past, current, and prospective users as well as what barriers and opportunities existed in the marketplace. The team proposed strategies for adjustments to the business model as well as physical design components that could help Clean Team reach more customers while making their model more sustainable.

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