Children in parts of urban Africa are powering change in their communities with the support of a major international research partnership led by Lancaster University.

By processing human waste from school toilets, otherwise destined to contribute to water pollution and disease, children in Accra have been taught to manage a bio-digester which turns this waste into power (gas), bringing light, and fuelling kitchens, in their school.

Working with local NGOs, schools, foundations and a whole host of partners, Lancaster University is supporting young people to understand and share the power of science though a ‘demonstration facility’ in their school. Children from the age of 14 have been taught to run and manage the facility which includes a bespoke classroom in Umar Bun Hatab Islamic Basic School, providing them with a deeper understanding of the role of science at every stage of the complex circular process of turning human waste into power.

This learning, which included conducting science experiments of their own, has not only unlocked opportunities for the students in the school who have been able to go on to study science at a higher level, but also has an impact beyond the classroom, enabling the children to become ambassadors for science in their communities and homes.

Since its origins in a community safe water and sanitation intervention project in Bangladesh and Tanzania in 2016 (The Last 100 Metres project), empowering young girls to understand the risk of water pollution, Lancaster University has developed a series of projects, in particular RECIRCULATE and ACTUATE, which drove circular waste eco-innovation in Africa.

Through the RECIRCULATE and ACTUATE Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF) projects, Lancaster University has successfully worked with a school in one of Accra’s low-income communities. The ‘Science in the School’ initiative helped the school to introduce its pupils to place-based transformative learning in their formative stages. Children from the surrounding low-income communities, where poor sanitation is routine, were introduced to the concepts of the emerging science of safe circular sanitation.

And now in their latest project, AHEAD, (‘African headteachers unite schools into a circular sanitation learning hub’, led by Manoj Roy and Roger Pickup), the Lancaster team has brought together head teachers from a number of countries to empower young people who are leading on science-informed change. See a research video (with subtitles) of this that the team has released at a panel session on 'Publishing through the Community: Advances in Interactive Research on Informal Sanitation', at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2025:

And thanks to the enthusiasm and energy of their community partners, the initiative has gone from strength to strength, coming to the attention of the President of Ghana (His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo) at COP 26.

Through the AHEAD project, the circular sanitation demonstration initiative that began life as a pilot in one school in Accra, Ghana, is now inspiring interest and action to demonstrate the power of this work as a replicable model across Africa (Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania) and South and East Asia (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia).

The innovative RECIRCULATE and ACTUATE projects established and gifted an off-grid, small-scale, locally made anaerobic digester and a demonstrator-lab inside Umar Bun Hatab School by integrating and working with a stakeholder collective involving both Lancaster University and local researchers at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Ghana, local business partners (such as Sewerage Systems Ghana Limited), NGO organisations (such as Green Advocacy and Hatof Foundation, both based in Accra, Ghana), community leaders and the school.

The off-grid micro-digester and lab-space have allowed pupils to learn how human waste from the school’s toilets can be transformed into biogas and organic fertiliser, giving them first-hand experience of the potential of integrating science, engineering and social processes. This ‘solar powered circular sanitation experiment’ extended and built upon an earlier collaboration with the school resulting in the installation of a computerised weather station within the school premise.

The Umar Bun Hatab School has continued to draw a lot of interest from other schools in Accra. Many schools have taken their students to see the lab.

Dr Richard Bayitse, Senior Research Scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Ghana, who coordinated the technical and engineering design and installation of the anaerobic digester, said “the students and the community who are involved, they bought into the idea, so that the ownership is there and still ongoing in Ghana.”

Mr Imoro Sulemana, Headteacher at Umar Bun Hatab Islamic Basic School in Madine Accra, said the project had generated a lot of interest in the school in science, leading students to excel in scientific pathways previously not open to them and enabling them to take ownership of the facility, sharing their knowledge with others.

Professor Roger Pickup, Lancaster University Microbiologist and Health researcher, said the project had enabled those within it to develop their scientific understanding and skills. “This is not just a group of scientists with a great idea, it also includes NGOs, the Government, and other foundations. We are able to promote what we are doing at a policy level.

“The great thing about this work is that it is applicable to many different communities. This is not new science, but what this project does is build effective partnerships with communities to develop a deeper, increased awareness of the potential of this science to change lives.”

Dr Manoj Roy, Lancaster University Sustainability Social Scientist, said one particularly important part of the project brought women and girls into laboratories to witness the processing of water samples taken from their municipal pumps and also from the storage vessels in their homes. He said the results had enabled ‘deep learning’ which unlocked an effective form of community knowledge sharing and placed the voices of young girls at the centre.

“These kids have been on a journey,” he says. “What is more, they were invited into a scientific lab. These kids saw that those scientists were very welcoming and through this experience they understand they have got access to the knowledge production process. The students then become change agents. This project can give a voice to the youngest, providing them with knowledge and information that can influence the whole family.”

Dr Suresh Rohilla, former Inclusive Urban Sanitation Programme Lead at International Water Association and now Associate Professor at the University of Bradford, said: “Schools are the foundation for humanity. This is the way to make water everybody’s business. This is the perfect action research project where a bio digester was installed in a school where children come to know that waste is not waste but a resource.”

Mary Sibande, Director of Research University of Livingstonia, Mzuzu, Malawi, added: “The model is great – for example providing energy for cooking and lights in schools. The demonstrator can show people how to turn waste into fertiliser and that it is not expensive. This model should be scaled up.”

The AHEAD initiative aims to build on these early successes and interests to assemble a Headteachers Forum from across the DAC (Development Assistance Committee) List of official development assistance (ODA) recipient countries. The initial list of countries includes Bangladesh, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria and Tanzania.