Impact case study database

Research including R1- R3 informed the design and founding of FundiFix in 2013. The evidence-based approach of this social enterprise (initially elaborated in the underpinning research R6 and R1- R3, and later developing to incorporate learning from R4- R5) has enabled the company to evolve from a small social enterprise in 2013 into an independent organisation offering reliable and safe drinking water to 82,000 people in Kenya’s rural counties of Kitui and Kwale. Repair times for handpumps have been reduced substantially, and up to 20,000 users have benefitted from improvements to water infrastructure. The research has also influenced the development of the funding structure and legislative basis of the FundiFix model.

The growth of Fundifix as an independent company, enabling improved water provision in rural Kenya

Since 2013, FundiFix has evolved into a Kenyan-owned and registered social enterprise. Servicing 200 water pumps in that year, the company held 130 maintenance contracts with communities and schools, which serve a population of 82,000 people in Kitui and Kwale counties including 25,000 pupils in 74 local schools in December 2020 [ E1]. FundiFix therefore ensures the reliable delivery of around 73,000,000l of drinking water annually [ E1].

FundiFix also provides local employment and training for 17 full- and part-time in-house technicians, engineers and plumbers, and offers opportunities in accounting, business management and marketing [ E1]. As the Director of FundiFix explains, “we operate local offices to facilitate relationships with rural communities and provide quick response to breakdowns. We have employed professional technicians, own various assets including electrical and plumbing equipment/tools, and maintain stocks of spares at each of local offices to support delivery.” [ E2].

FundiFix has improved water service provision in two ways. First, use of the Water-point Data Transmitter device [ R6] has enabled the company to drastically accelerate the repair of existing ‘smart handpumps’. The 2014 Performance Review of Kenya’s Water Services Sector by the Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB) states that “with this system [FundiFix] the average downtime for handpumps in the study area fell from 27 days pre-trial to under three days, representing a great improvement in performance” [ E3]. The rapid repairs translate into many hours saved collecting water. Across all the pumps in FundiFix’s care, an estimated 100 person-days are saved per pump per year, or 12,500 person-days per year in total.

Second, in recent years FundiFix has rehabilitated and upgraded existing water infrastructure and offered new water services for up to 20,000 users in Kitui County. These benefits have been achieved through partnerships with local initiatives and international donors. Specifically:

• In Mwingi, a town in Kitui County, existing water infrastructure – the Tharaka Women’s Water Project – was upgraded in 2019. This entailed the repair of storage tanks and more than 50 km pipeline and valves, as well as the installation of production metering and a ‘water ATM’ (an unmanned smart handpump where people use a pre-paid fob to buy water). The costs amounted to KES1,400,000 (GBP9,258) and up to 15,000 users benefitted from improved drinking water [ E1].

• The Ikathima Community Piped Scheme in Kitui County was upgraded and improved in partnership with the Sharewater Foundation in 2018, at a cost of KES620,000 (GBP4,090). The works entailed expansion of solar water pumping, installation of a water ATM, rehabilitation of a ‘water kiosk’ (a smart handpump where people can buy water to take home by paying an attendant), and six months of repair and maintenance service for the scheme, leading to reliable water access for over 3,000 people [ E1].

• The Ivonangya Community Piped Scheme in Mwingi North was rehabilitated and improved for KES450,000 (GBP2,974) in collaboration with the Hardcore Foundation in 2019. FundiFix has helped to repair a community water kiosk and install a water ATM. This has enabled 24/7 access to water for up to 2,000 people [ E1].

To date eight rural piped schemes have been rehabilitated since FundiFix has taken over their management as part of an ongoing partnership with UNICEF Kenya [ E4].

Developing the FundiFix PPP funding model

The underpinning research [ R4] has also resulted in an innovative funding model for water services. This has been described by UNICEF Kenya as the FundiFix model [ E4]. The 2017 Impact Report of UNICEF Kenya demonstrates how the organisation has adopted and promoted the model: “UNICEF continued to build on the innovative Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) model, FundiFix, to improve maintenance services for rural water supplies" [ E4].

The challenge of financially sustainable water provision in rural areas is well known because the costs of infrastructure expansion, maintenance and repair are difficult to cover if water use is to be priced at levels that are affordable to all sectors of the population. Local communities play an important role in contributing to the financial sustainability of FundiFix: its community customers contributed over KES4,002,993 (GBP26,165), towards maintenance costs in 2019 [ E5], indicating they value its rapid and reliable service.

Nonetheless, other sources of funding are indispensable, and FundiFix has managed to secure these. This is primarily due to the creation of two Water Services Maintenance Trust Funds which subsidise the cost of the service through donor funding of “an estimated GBP165,000 from charities and non-traditional private companies [ E6]:

• The Hardcore Foundation – a-not-for-profit organisation that works with locally established organizations on various community based projects: EUR5,000;

• Base Titanium Ltd., a mineral sands project in Kenya: GBP50,000;

• doTerra Ltd. from Kenya: GBP15,000; and

• Share GmbH, a social enterprise from Germany: EUR150,000.

One of Share GmbH’s founders learned of the research on water infrastructure in Kenya from an article by Koehler in the Economist. Share works on a 1+1 principle, meaning that for each product sold an equivalent product is given to a person in need. Share’s founder explains that:

“this concept [i.e. FundiFix] was a suitable candidate for Share’s 1+1 principle, offering exact data on water output and reliable impact for the community. Therefore in 2019, Share contracted the Water Services Maintenance Trust to fund FundiFix in Kitui and Kwale counties to provide this 1+1 match through its rural water maintenance services … The match is equivalent to over 100 million litres of water provided by FundiFix to more than 80,000 rural water users.” [ E7]

Changing the legislative framework

Local and national government in Kenya has recognised and promoted FundiFix’s combination of improved service provision and innovative funding methods. A 2019 Research Report from the Sustainable WASH (Water and Sanitation Hygiene) Systems Learning Partnership states that “FundiFix has gained the support of both national and local government”, and confirms that WASREB have highlighted “FundiFix as a good example of the professionalization of rural water services” [ E8].

The Kenyan Ministry for Agriculture, Water and Livestock Development has convened a quarterly forum for WASH stakeholders in Kitui County since 2016. A County Executive Committee Member confirms that the research has informed the sustainability debate at these fora and has been instrumental in revealing policy gaps and influencing the design of the first County Water Bill. He writes that:

"the work that has been done by Oxford University research and by FundiFix has been important to improving our knowledge of rural water service issues affecting the County and subsequently helped us address access ... Demonstration of the FundiFix model since 2014, including the monitoring and funding approaches, has helped us give more reliable water to more than 58,000 people in Mwingi North and show a new way of providing these services” [ E9].

At national level, team member Koehler has influenced the Government of Kenya in the development of the Kenyan Water Act by the Government of Kenya. The Act passed in 2016, and Article 94(3) of the Act now recognises novel approaches to rural water provision, including private sector with investment and financial plans for rural water services. This marks an important shift from the previous emphasis on community management of water supply. On the basis of the team’s research findings (published as R1-R4), Koehler engaged extensively with the Acting Director for Water Services in Kenya’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, who says:

"I am therefore happy to confirm Johanna Koehler’s consultation role and enrichment of the amended Article 94 of the Water Act 2016, which is likely to have consequences for the 58 percent of the total Kenyan population outside formal, piped water service provision areas and the 78 percent that are not actively regulated” [ E10].

The FundiFix model is now enabled by national-scale legislation, which institutionally embeds its capability to provide access to clean, safe, locally available water in Kenya [ R5]. A case study on the use of smart pumps written by SDSN Trends – an initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network that brings together data experts from across the globe – concludes that:

“access to safe and reliable drinking water is a systemic challenge in sub-saharan Africa and throughout the world. This challenge is magnified by the technical and financial issues that reduce the reliability of handpumps and leave communities struggling to afford basic maintenance. The Smart Handpump Project in Kenya demonstrates an innovative way of remotely collecting data about handpump operation. Combining data with an alternative business model has reduced the pump downtime tenfold in participating communities and improved the reliability of water access” [ E11].