Dr Innocent Tumwebaze

My main areas of interest and expertise:

• Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) service systems
• Health behaviours and change mechanisms
• Stakeholder engagements in service delivery
• Behaviour change communication
• Urban environmental sanitation planning

Current research activity

• Beyond Networked City (BNC): A GCRF funded collaborative project aimed at enhancing the delivery of sustainable and resilient water, sanitation and energy services to marginalized communities in cities of developing countries through highly innovative delivery systems.

Recently completed research projects 

• Global water pathogens knowledge to practice project: This collaborative project, funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, involved the development of pathogen-based sanitation safety planning decision support tools to empower WASH professionals in using an evidence-based approach for managing health outcomes.
• Evaluation of the effectiveness and mode of operation of Community-Led Total Sanitation in Tamale region, Northern Ghana.
• Community-Led Urban Environmental Sanitation (CLUES): UNICEF-Ghana funded consultancy aimed at building capacities of government in Ashaiman, Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) and Peoples Dialogue (CSO) to pilot the CLUES approach to increase improved sanitation coverage.

• Tidwell J., Chipungu J., Ross I., Antwi-Agyei P., Alam M., Tumwebaze I., Norman G., Cumming O., Simiyu S (2020) Where shared sanitation is the only immediate option: a research agenda for shared sanitation in densely populated low-income urban settings. American Journal of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene.
• Mraz L. A., Tumwebaze K. I., McLoughlin R. S., McCarthy E. M., Verbyla E. M., Hofstra N., Rose B. J.,6 and Heather M. Murphy M. H. (2020) Making waves: Why pathogens matter for meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 on safely managed sanitation. Water research.
• Tumwebaze K. I., Rose B. J., Hofstra N., Verbyla E. M., Musaazi G. I., Okaali A. D., Kaggwa C. R., Nansubuga I., Murphy M. H. (2019) Translating pathogen knowledge to practice for sanitation decision making. Journal of Water and Health, 17, 896-909.
  

Career

Before joining Loughborough in January 2021, I was a Postdoctorate Fellow at Temple University, USA and working as a Country Director in Uganda on a collaborative project of Global Water Pathogens – Knowledge to Practice project. I received my BA in Social Sciences and MSc in Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatics from Makerere University, Uganda in 2006 and 2011 respectively, and my PhD in Psychology from the University of Zurich in Switzerland in 2014.

After the completion of my PhD studies, I joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a visiting researcher in the Sociotechnical Systems Research Center, during which I participated in the Water Test Kits evaluation research in Gujurat, Ahmedabad in India, led a scoping study on water, water safety and livelihoods in three districts in Gujurat, India, and led an evaluation of post-harvest food storage technologies in Uganda.

Other engagements since then have been consulting projects and contributing to scientific knowledge as a peer reviewer for different international journals, participation in international conferences and contribution to education as an external examiner.

Professional affiliations

• Member Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (Susana)
• Member African Water Association

Awards

• Arun Deb “Promise of Excellence” Award 2020, Global Water Alliance
• North-South Centre of Competence in Research (2011-14), PhD Funding
• Belgian Development Technical Cooperation – Uganda (2007-09), MSc Funding

External activities

• Peer reviewer for International Journals: Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, Journal of Public Health, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, International Journal of Environmental Health Research, Journal of Environment, Development and Sustainability, Journal of Social Science and Medicine, PLOS One, Tropical Medicine and International Health, International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, BMJ Global Health, The Science of the Total Environment, and Water Research.
• Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda: External examiner for MPH students’ dissertations.

Key collaborators

My research and enterprise activities are conducted with a range of academic and stakeholder partners, including:

• Bristol University
• Makerere University
• University of Cape Town
• Sierra Leone Urban Resource Centre
• Government and NGO partners in Uganda and Sierra Leone