Better the devil you know? A relational reading of risk and innovation in the rural water sector

Julia Brown, Marije van den Broek · 2017 · Geographical Journal

Summary. A Ugandan NGO developed CBM-lite, an innovation to improve hand pump maintenance in rural water systems by replacing voluntary committees with paid operators and adding microfinance insurance for repairs. Despite addressing real sustainability problems, the innovation faced resistance because stakeholders preferred known risks of system failure over potential threats to established ideology, organizational reputation, and social norms. The study reveals that sector inertia, not technical barriers, explains why communities resist even improvements to community-based water management.

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@article{brown-2017-better-devil-you-know-relational,
  title   = {Better the devil you know? A relational reading of risk and innovation in the rural water sector},
  author  = {Julia Brown and Marije van den Broek},
  journal = {Geographical Journal},
  year    = {2017},
  doi     = {10.1111/geoj.12215},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12215}
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Better the devil you know? A relational reading of risk and innovation in the rural water sector
AU  - Julia Brown
AU  - Marije van den Broek
JO  - Geographical Journal
PY  - 2017
DO  - 10.1111/geoj.12215
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12215
ER  - 

Details

DOI

10.1111/geoj.12215

Countries

Uganda

Regions

Africa

Categories

innovation-theory, rural-data-and-definitions

Added

2026-04-28