(Dow Fellows Program 2015)

Over the past year, five members of the Dow Sustainability Fellows at the University of Michigan have joined together to take a multidisciplinary approach at tackling the problem of resource allocation and information sharing for non-profits that are focused on creating water resources in developing countries.

The team has partnered with Sadagaat, a Sudanese non-profit, to help the organization make smarter sustainability decisions. The first six months of the project were spent researching Sadagaat’s institutional capability, narrowing the scope of the project, and conducting on-site interviews with Sadagaat’s staff to find the right problem to solve. One of Sadagaat’s problems was that as a small non-profit, they often build waters resource where villages can fund construction. This donor-driven model potentially defeats longterm sustainability goals as water resources are often not built in areas that need or provide the most water.

Project Report