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• (Journal Article) Uncovering the challenges to menstrual hygiene management in schools in Mali

  01.01.2015
  There is limited information on girls' menstrual hygiene practices and experiences at school in francophone sub-Saharan Africa. We conducted qualitative research to determine the challenges faced by school-aged girls in Mali, a culturally diverse and largely Muslim country. Research activities were conducted in eight urban and rural schools across the Sikasso and Koulikoro regions, including in-depth interviews with 26 girls and key informant interviews with 14 teachers and school directors. Results describe girls' practices for managing menstruation at school, their support systems and information channels, and their voiced recommendations for school WASH and education improvements.

• (Journal Article) At the nexus of investment and development: lessons from a 60-year experiment in SME impact investing

  01.12.2014
  Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) was launched as an investment club in 1953 when a group of North American Mennonite business people joined together to support the development of communities in Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. With their business background, this group of early ‘impact investors’ determined that they would provide loans to small to medium enterprises (SME) in order to catalyse sustainable economic growth. They offered the loans as high-risk venture capital and mitigated the risks with the provision of business coaching and technical assistance. Since those early days, MEDA and the SME investment fund managers which it has co-founded (Microvest and Sarona Asset Management) have continued to make impactful investments and to work towards a common development goal, ‘to help people help themselves’ (Fretz, 1978 : 19). This paper presents a case study of the 60-year ‘MEDA experiment’, (Fretz, 1978), describes specific activities and innovations, and identifies MEDA's learnings that have emerged from this SME investment experience.

• (Journal Article) Assessing climate impacts on gender and socially inclusive WASH: lessons from a research-practice project

  01.09.2022
  This paper describes a research-practice project that produced guidance materials for, and built knowledge on, assessing climate impacts on gender and socially inclusive water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services. Lessons about the relevance of gender and social inclusion for WASH climate resilience, and recommendations for programming and policy are provided. This paper outlines how a team of researchers and practitioners developed participatory community-based activities for assessing climate impacts on inclusive WASH in Indonesia and Timor-Leste. The team found differences in the type and magnitude of impacts that different people experience, burdens of responding to impacts, capacity to prepare for and respond to impacts, and influence on WASH decision-making. WASH programming and policy-making should seek to leverage tacit knowledge of local stakeholders and consult diverse people to inform climate interventions that provide equitable benefits. Partnerships between civil society organizations and research organizations can generate valuable and innovative learnings for WASH practice and policy.

• (Journal Article) Unpacking the policy landscape for menstrual hygiene management: implications for school WASH programmes in India

  01.01.2015
  Menstrual hygiene management (MHM) relates to how girls and women manage their monthly period, and require access to information about menstruation, clean and safe menstrual absorbents, and amenities and facilities such as toilets and water, and waste management to maintain hygiene. In general MHM is poor in India, with low levels of knowledge and many misconceptions, varied use of menstrual absorbents, and unhygienic practices among adolescent girls. With almost 50 per cent of school age girls enrolled in schools, creating a conducive environment in schools to promote MHM is imperative. This policy scoping exercise examines how select policy initiatives implemented by the Government of India address MHM, especially in the context of schools. This document review found that adolescent girls are a focus of most policy initiatives addressing MHM, with a focus primarily on the hardware (i.e. infrastructure, sanitary napkins) or software (i.e. health education) components. Most programmes are implemented at the school level, though guidelines for implementation are not always explicit. Programmes suggest convergence with other government programmes, yet operationalization of convergence mechanisms is lacking.

• (Journal Article) Taking Stock: Incompetent at incontinence – why are we ignoring the needs of incontinence sufferers?

  01.07.2016
  How would you cope if you had no control over how you urinated or defecated and regularly or constantly leaked urine or faeces? How would this make you feel? How would you deal with the smell, with the indignity? What if you were a young teenager, traumatized by very stressful events and returned to bed-wetting as a result? And what would you do if you didn’t have the money to buy spare underwear or incontinence protection products or those are simply not available to you? Could you manage if you were suddenly displaced in an emergency and did not have access to a toilet, shower or bathing facilities, or your usual materials and coping mechanisms? What if you lived in a camp and your toilet or bathing shelter was a 5 minute walk away and had a long line in front of it? Would you be able to stand in line at food distribution or water collection points, go to school, or look for or undertake work?

• (Journal Article) Book review

  01.09.2021
  Considering that decent shelter is essential to the quality of human life, the meagre attention given by the development finance sector on how to provide it is shocking. The need for a secure place to live garners surprisingly little focus outside the relatively small housing subsectors of urban development, and water and sanitation.