Urban sanitation is becoming an emerging priority in the WASH sector, partly due to the realisation that it has not been given enough attention in the past. For one thing, because the Millennium Development Goals targeted sanitation coverage (people having access to latrines) and cities are doing much better than rural areas in this respect.
It’s my 5th WEDC conference! This year the conference is in Hanoi, Vietnam co-hosted with the National University of Civil Engineering. WEDC Conference is a key international meeting attended by WASH policy and programme staff, academics, activists and experts. The papers will be available on-line shortly (www.wedc-knowledge.lboro.ac.uk) but in anticipation, here are some thoughts from the conference about the research and practice presented.
I have just had two remarkable weeks in India with the National Rural Livelihoods Mission. This is a national movement of, so far, 2.4 million women’s self-help groups (SHGs). Each has about 10 members. Then there are Village Organisations of SHGs and Federations above them. I was there to help explore whether these SHGs and their organisations could take a lead in the drive for rural sanitation. This involved field visits in Telangana (formerly part of Andhra Pradesh) and Bihar, and three brainstorming workshops, the last one at national level in Delhi, convened by the World Bank whic
Gender-based violence (GBV) is rarely out of the news, around the world shocking cases of abuse are reported on a daily basis.
falseAlthough the lack of access to appropriate sanitation, hygiene and water services is not the root cause of violence, it can lead to increased vulnerabilities to violence of varying forms, with incidences reported from a wide range of contexts. In response, the SHARE Research Consortium has developed a toolkit designed to help practitioners to better recognise the risks of violence linked to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and provide guidance on what WASH practitioners can do to reduce these vulnerabilities to violence.
