News

This blog is written by Christine Fostvedt-Mills and originally appeared on the Sanitation Learning Hub website. 

There’s much that can be said about the intersection of poverty, gender and the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and nutrition outcomes of pastoralist women in Afar region, North Ethiopia. Here, women bear the burden of responsibility for nutrition and WASH provision but suffer disproportionately from the effects of poor WASH coverage. Lack of access to nearby reliable water sources means they spend large amounts of time fetching water and lack of adequate sanitation leaves them vulnerable to disease and physical insecurity when they are forced to defecate in the open. However, despite the implications on their health and wellbeing, it can be difficult for women’s voices to be heard when it comes to improving development outcomes for their communities.

For over ten years, IDS’s Sanitation Learning Hub (previously known as the CLTS Knowledge Hub) has been supporting learning and sharing within the international sanitation and hygiene sector, using innovative participatory approaches. The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) has recently awarded the Sanitation Learning Hub further funding for a four-year programme (2019-2023) so that the Hub can continue to support and strengthen the sector in tackling the complex challenges it faces in delivering universal safely managed sanitation by 2030.

Praxis - Institute for Participatory Practices is scheduled to hold the 20th edition of its international commune on participatory development from 1-8 March 2017 at USI, New Delhi.

The Praxis annual commune is a residential event that brings together development workers, policy makers and proactive individuals from across the world to share information and experiences as well as keep themselves abreast of the latest in the field of participatory development. It provides a theoretical understanding of participatory approaches/tools as well as the opportunity to apply them in the field and network with like-minded individuals. For more information email info@theworkshop.in or go to The Workshop 2017.

This new IDS Bulletin ‘Power, Poverty and Inequality’ edited by Marjoke Oosterom and Patta Scott-Villiers, brings together the latest analysis on understanding power and inequality and their links to poverty.

Ten years ago, IDS published an inaugural IDS Bulletin on power and change. This collection of articles were influential in developing ways to analyse socio-political situations using a power lens which helped people and organisations working in development improve effective policy and action. In particular, the issue clarified the use of the powercube, a tool for investigating the different faces of power (visible, hidden and invisible power), its levels (local, national, global) and spaces of operation (closed, invited and claimed).