As water and sanitation challenges continue to grow across communities in Kenya and beyond, universities are increasingly being called upon to move beyond knowledge production and play a more active role in shaping practical solutions.

At Strathmore University, this shift is taking shape through structured innovation spaces that bring together students, staff, and alumni to respond to real-world challenges. One of the key platforms advancing this approach is the Ideas Festival 2026, organised by the Research and Innovation Department, which has opened applications for interdisciplinary teams to develop solutions in the water and sanitation sector.

The Ideas Festival is structured around thematic areas that reflect the complexity of water systems and the multiple forces shaping access, management, and sustainability. These thematic areas also sit within a wider global and national development context.

Water and sanitation remain central to Sustainable Development Goal 6 on clean water and sanitation, Kenya’s Vision 2030 development framework, and the African Union’s Agenda 2063, all of which recognise water security as fundamental to health, economic development, and social well-being. Against this backdrop, the Ideas Festival positions innovation as a practical response mechanism rather than a theoretical exercise.

The first thematic area focuses on policy, governance, and financial innovations for sustainable water solutions. This theme reflects a long-standing reality in the water sector: that infrastructure alone is not sufficient without effective institutions, financing models, and accountability systems.

In many contexts, including Kenya, water access is shaped as much by governance structures as by physical supply systems. This aligns closely with SDG 6, which emphasises not only access to water but also its sustainable management, including institutional capacity and equitable distribution.

A second thematic area focuses on technology and data innovations for smart water management and security. This is where the conversation intersects most visibly with the global digital transformation agenda. Across cities worldwide, water utilities are increasingly adopting sensor-based monitoring, digital metering systems, and AI-supported analytics to improve efficiency, detect leaks, and predict demand patterns.

In Kenya, this direction mirrors broader national priorities under the digital economy agenda, where data-driven systems are being positioned as enablers of improved public service delivery. Within SDG 9 on industry, innovation, and infrastructure, such technological integration is increasingly recognised as essential to building resilient and efficient systems.

The third thematic area focuses on clean water, sanitation, and health, reinforcing one of the most direct and persistent development linkages in the sector. Despite global progress since the Millennium Development Goals era, waterborne diseases and sanitation-related health risks remain a challenge in many regions, particularly where infrastructure access does not translate into safe usage or hygienic practices.

This theme reflects the continued relevance of SDG 3 on good health and well-being, alongside SDG 6, which explicitly links water and sanitation access to public health outcomes. The emphasis here is on the lived reality that water systems are ultimately public health systems.

The fourth thematic area addresses sanitation systems for rural and urban contexts, where disparities in infrastructure development continue to shape access and quality of services. Rapid urbanisation across African cities has placed increasing pressure on existing sanitation systems, particularly in informal settlements and peri-urban areas, while rural communities often face challenges related to affordability, distance, and system maintenance.

The global development agenda, including SDG 6, recognises this inequality as a central barrier to universal access, requiring solutions that are adaptable rather than uniform in design. This theme therefore reflects the need for context-specific innovation that responds to different spatial and socio-economic realities.

Climate change underpins the fifth thematic area, which focuses on climate-resilient water and sanitation systems. This is increasingly a defining pressure point for water systems globally. Droughts, floods, and shifting rainfall patterns are no longer episodic disruptions but recurring features of climate variability, particularly across Africa, which is consistently identified in global climate assessments, including those by the IPCC, as highly vulnerable to climate impacts.

This reality directly connects to SDG 13 on climate action, as well as Kenya’s national climate commitments, which prioritise adaptation strategies in critical sectors such as water, agriculture, and urban infrastructure. The emphasis is on building systems that can absorb shocks while maintaining continuity of essential services.

The sixth thematic area introduces a circular water economy approach within coastal and fishing communities. This reflects an emerging global shift toward resource efficiency and sustainability, particularly within blue economy frameworks where water systems are directly linked to livelihoods.

In coastal regions, where communities depend heavily on marine and freshwater ecosystems, integrating waste reduction, resource recovery, and sustainable production systems is increasingly being explored as a pathway to both environmental protection and economic resilience. This aligns with SDG 14 on life below water, as well as broader circular economy thinking promoted by global environmental governance frameworks.

Across these six thematic areas, a clear pattern emerges: water and sanitation challenges are no longer confined to engineering or infrastructure alone. They are shaped by governance systems, technological change, health dynamics, climate pressures, and economic structures.

This complexity explains the deliberate emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration within the Ideas Festival, where teams of two to three participants are drawn from different academic backgrounds to ensure that solutions reflect multiple perspectives.

The Ideas Festival has evolved significantly since its introduction in 2022. Initially conceived as an internal platform to encourage students and staff to translate ideas into practical solutions, it began as a relatively contained innovation exercise focused on bridging academic learning with applied problem-solving.

Over time, it has expanded in scope and participation, increasingly incorporating alumni and aligning more closely with broader societal and development challenges. Each edition has built on the previous one, gradually shifting from idea presentation toward structured engagement with real-world problems.

Within Strathmore University’s broader research and innovation agenda, this evolution reflects a growing emphasis on research-to-impact pathways, where knowledge generation is closely linked to practical application. It also reflects an institutional shift toward strengthening collaboration between academia, industry, and communities, ensuring that research and innovation are not confined within academic spaces but are actively connected to societal needs.

Applications for the 2026 edition are open to students, staff, and alumni, with submissions closing on 31 August 2026. A total prize pool of KES 350,000 has been set aside in recognition of innovative solutions that demonstrate both feasibility and potential for real-world application.

What distinguishes the Ideas Festival within this broader landscape is not only its competitive element, but its role as a structured environment where ideas are developed, interrogated, and connected to wider innovation pathways.

In this sense, it reflects a broader institutional and global shift toward recognising universities as active contributors to solving complex development challenges rather than passive observers of them.

Article written by Otuma Ongalo.