SOCIAL SCIENCE / Developing & Emerging Countries
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Community Water Supply
In recent years, efforts to bring water to the rural poor have produced dramatic changes around the world. The concept of community management has established itself as the most sustainable approach. Technologies have been adapted to widely varying conditions and rigours and, most important, for the...
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Contested Lands in Southern and Eastern Africa
Questions of land tenure and land reform and their impact on poor and vulnerable communities are of vital importance throughout Southern and Eastern Africa. From the vast literature on the subject, Robin Palmer has selected and summarised more than 300 recent books, articles, academic theses and rep...
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Benedita Da Silva
Benjamin Medea, Benedita da Silva
The first black woman from a favela to become a congresswoman and a senator in Brazil, Benedita da Silva has overcome an intimidating range of social obstacles. Born into a poor slum-dwelling family, she became a councillor in Rio, then a Federal Deputy and is now a congresswoman for the PT (Workers...
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The Flavour of Latin America
Forget the mass-produced tortilla chips and E-flavoured salsa dips. Discover the taste of real Latin American food, as diverse as its beautiful landscapes, drawing on age-old indigenous recipes with influences from Spain, Portugal and Africa. From the snow-capped mountains of the Andes there is drun...
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The Boulder Concept in Building Walls
This brief was written BY the Building Advisory Service and Information Network (BASIN) providing information resources on low-cost building technologies.
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Brazil In Focus
Brazil is depicted as a land of global superlatives, boasting the best football, the largest rainforest, and the world's worst social and economic inequality. It's vibrant culture is best known for Carnival and samba and attracts thousands of visitors each year. The Carnival capital of Rio also show...
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Eastern Caribbean In Focus
The idyllic landscapes of the Eastern Caribbean belie a dramatic and often cruel history. Fought over by the imperial Navies and vulnerable to natural disasters, these small islands have also been marked by slavery, migration and a tradition of resistance. With their population rooted in every conti...
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Ecuador In Focus
Wilma Roos, Omer Van Renterghem
Ecuador is one of the major tourist destinations in the Americas, offering unparalleled colonial architecture, dramatic landscapes and the eco-tourist mecca of the Galapagos Islands. But behind its colourful markets and mountain scenery lies a more complex country, divided by geography and race and...
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Daughters of Caliban
Haitian women and "voodoo" healing; Cuban women in the midst of economic crisis; Jamaican women and the unspoken racism of beauty contests. These are just three of the dimensions of this multifaceted survey of contemporary Caribbean women. Looking at a region where race and gender play vital roles i...
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Guyana: Fragile Frontier
Guyana's environment is in danger of wholesale destruction. In the name of economic liberalization, this small, indebted country is promoting a dramatic escalation of logging, mining and other forms of extraction. In the 1990s, millions of hectares of rainforest have been leased to foreign companies...