Promoting solar photovoltaic (PV) off-grid solutions for poor rural areas without access to electricity is a good thing. However, there are problems associated with waste produced from lead-acid battery disposal.
13 December 2016
New words keep on being invented and becoming current in development discourse. Some, like heteronormativity and intersectionality, are long combinations of Greek or Latin and their meanings have to be learnt the first time you hear them. Interrogating their roots can lead to misunderstanding.
12 December 2016
The bond notes have arrived! Well at least a $2 one and a $1 coin. Subject to street protests, court cases, beatings and arrests, and the object of both ridicule and fear, never has a new form of exchange been subject to such intense – and prolonged – debate.
12 December 2016
To mark Human Rights Day, Ruth Naylor, highlights the data gaps and challenges to addressing educational needs for refugees and internally displaced persons.
9 December 2016
Academics, NGOs and civil society organisations welcomed the announcement last week by the Government of the new Government Grants Standards. The ‘anti-advocacy clause’ announced last February was roundly criticised for potentially gagging both scientists and charities.
6 December 2016
There is a real buzz about Mundra village on the Gulf of Kachchh coast, one of the fastest growing industrial hubs in India. A sprawling port, two of India’s biggest thermal power plants, and a special economic zone with growing export industries jostle for space in what once used to be...
5 December 2016
Integrated water resource management (IWRM) became the buzzword for water resources policy gurus in the 1990s. The donors poured millions into projects, plans, programmes and many, many workshops and consultancy exercises.
5 December 2016
When we think of bonded labour we don’t instantly think of diarrhoea, but our research in India and Nepal, suggests that diarrhoea and ill-health poverty, loans and bonded labour are all interlinked.
2 December 2016
The AWID forum became a huge tribute to diversity, in a celebration that shows how humans can live in equity, stimulating and enhancing the different things that each person brings to the whole.
1 December 2016
Second runner up ‘Why on earth did I agree to do this?’ Angela asked herself. She looked at the other people sitting with her on the podium. There were four other speakers - three men and a woman. She knew and respected them all. They were hard-working, committed people, who...
1 December 2016
Second prize The villa stood at the end of a shabby street, where, along the street’s sides, crooked shanties cropped up like overgrown grass. The street was usually quiet, but there were times when it wasn’t. Like when the boys played cricket in the evenings, when the sun was starting to...
1 December 2016
Third prize He’d been travelling for just over three months but this was his final destination before returning home. The thought made him nauseous. There was not much waiting for him there except the high expectations of parents which he had no idea how to meet. Join the family business, put...
1 December 2016
