Abstract
The field studies performed by universities and research organizations give the clear understanding of “needs” and its structures. However, the development of the counter measures and solutions for these needs is challenge. Universities and research organizations have only an idea or “seed” for solutions. It is well-known that there is a large gap between “needs” and “seeds”. This gap is discussed in this paper based on the author’s experience on sanitation projects (SATREPS project and C13 project). The SATREPS project (title: “Improving Sustainable Water and Sanitation systems in Sahel Region in Africa: Case of Burkina Faso” ) is supported by JICA and JST and its goal is contributing to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by developing a new water and sanitation system based on the concept: “Don’t mix” and “Don’t collect” wastewater. In the C13 project, sanitation issues in developing world are recognized as a social innovation and business model which includes designing value chain among several stakeholders related to toilet has been proposed for slum areas in Indonesia and Zambia. The lessons learned from the sanitation projects are summarized as the following five important points: 1) design of whole value chain and its optimization; 2) creating adequate organization which responsible to the optimization of the whole value chain; 3) organizing the eco-system by several stakeholders, researchers and specialist relating to sanitation; 4) sharing the risk generated from prototyping activities; 5) creation of the innovation cycle.
