
Robert Chambers - Research Associate
Participation
T:
+44 (0)1273 915723
E:
r.chambers@ids.ac.uk
Administrator:
Richard Douglass
Google Scholar URL:
goo.gl/0R0Tl1
Professor Robert Chambers has a background in biology, history and public administration.
His current concerns and interests include professionalism, power, the personal dimension in development, participatory methodologies, epistemology, poverty, rural sanitation, stunting, teaching and learning with large numbers, and Community-Led Total Sanitation.

Can We Know Better?: Reflections for Development
This book is intended for all who are committed to human wellbeing and who want to make our world fairer, safer and more fulfilling for everyone, especially those who are ‘last’. It argues that to do better we need to know better. It provides evidence that what we believe we know in international development is often distorted or unbalanced by errors, myths, biases and blind spots. More details

Norms, Knowledge and Usage
Frontiers of CLTS: Innovations and Insights 7 (2016)The partial or total non-use of toilets, with some or all in a household defecating in the open, is a growing concern. Although all households may have a toilet, communities cannot remain open defecation free unless they are always used by everyone. This is not just an issue of maintenance and accessibility but also of social norms, mind-sets, and cultural preferences. The problem is widespread but most evident in India. More details

Sustainability and CLTS: taking stock
Frontiers of CLTS: Innovations and Insights 4 (2015)Sustainability is without doubt one of the most burning subject matters that subsumes many of the issues seen in Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) and wider Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) practice. This issue of CLTS Frontiers series identifes priority areas for learning More details

Reframing Undernutrition: Faecally-Transmitted Infections and the 5 As
IDS Working Paper 450 (2014)The dominant nutrition discourse concerns access to adequate food and its quality. It now includes food security, food rights and justice, governance and agriculture. More details
An Open Letter in response to the World Development Report 2015
18 Mar 2015By Robert Chambers, Petra Bongartz
BLOG: World Development Report 2015: Congratulations so far. Can you go further?
26 Feb 2014By Robert Chambers
Mentions in the media
The twin pit solution
07 Apr 2017Voices from the margin | Frontline
30 Oct 2015Will link to undernutrition force change?
02 Aug 2013
Thematic Expertise:
Agriculture; Nutrition; Participatory methodologies; Poverty; Water and Sanitation.
Related Programmes and Centres:
CLTS.
Geographic Expertise:
Central and South Asia; Sub Saharan Africa.