Women in South Asia have struggled for many decades to improve their lives within their families, in their communities, for securing their livelihoods and in getting their voices heard as citizens by the state, with women's movements being critical in advancing their rights. However,...
More than half of humanity currently lives in urban areas and 90% are projected to do so by 2050. One in three urban dwellers, and an estimated 881 million people in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) now live in informal settlements, colloquially known as 'slums', where they have...
IDS is working with Health Systems Global (HSG) to develop communications, share messages and engage with its members and the global community.
Future Health Systems is a research consortium working to improve access, affordability and quality of health services for the poor.
International Women's Day is an important day for raising awareness of the challenges for achieving gender equality and to recognise the accomplishments of gender activists around the world. To unpack key debates around child marriage law and its implementation in Pakistan, Mahnaz Shujrah, a...
8 March 2023
Covid-19 has changed the world as we know it. In particular, the pandemic has significantly affected the lives of people with disabilities, with many facing additional barriers in access to services, increased isolation and increased risks of poor health and social outcomes. To strengthen...
31 January 2023
In Bangladesh and India, informal healthcare providers (IHPs) have long been part of the countries’ health systems. However, formal recognition of their existence is sensitive, partly due to resistance and concern from professional health bodies. Research by Future Health Systems (FHS)...
10 October 2018
In public health research, the focus has traditionally been on descriptive and analytic epidemiological research (“what”, “why”, “where,” and “who”). Less attention has been given, particularly in low-income countries, to “how” interventions do or do not work in the “real...
10 October 2018
In Bangladesh and India, informal healthcare providers (IHPs) have long been part of the countries’health systems. However, formal recognition of their existence is sensitive, partly due to resistanceand concern from professional health bodies. Research by Future Health Systems (FHS) partners...
20 June 2018
IDS Policy Briefing 110
The world is becoming increasingly urbanised. Over one third of urban dwellers now reside in low-income urban settlements, where living conditions are often inadequate and there exist multiple barriers to access to health services for women and girls.
15 February 2016
To mark International Women’s Day 2024, colleagues from the Sustaining Power: Women’s struggles against contemporary backlash in South Asia (SuPWR) project, of which IDS is a partner, share their essential feminist reads. Ranging from meditations and essay collections to academic...
6 March 2024
An International Women’s Day film screening of 'This Stained Dawn', a documentary film about the build up to the 2020 Aurat March (women’s march) in Pakistan. The screening will be followed by a question and answer session with the globally acclaimed film director and producer Anam...
In recent years, there has been a global shift in the fight for women’s rights and gender justice – from the overturning of Roe v Wade, the introduction of the Anti-homosexuality Act 2023 in Uganda, the revocation of transgender rights to self-identification in Pakistan, stricter hijab...
23 February 2024
Join IDS and ARISE for a lunchtime seminar and exhibition of ‘ARISE Kenya Photovoice’ and find out more about our work on health, wellbeing and accountability in the urban informal settlements of Nairobi. The exhibition includes a selection of images produced using Photovoice, a method...