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19Sep 2018 by Becky No Comments

#WEDC41 Part 4: The wider system and the role of religion

Water, World

In July, I spent two weeks in Kenya at the WEDC conference in Nakuru and visiting sanitation companies, Sanergy and Sanivation, and the newly-established sanitation research group at Meru University of Science and Technology. This is the fourth in a five-part series of blogs about that conference and those visits. You can see the earlier posts about (the lack of) government support for container-based sanitation businesses here, about WASH failures here and about behaviour change toolkits here. Nothing exists in a bubble. Sanitation is no exception. Sanitation is a social issue and any sanitation process will be affected by the communities, businesses, governments, NGOs and a host of other stakeholders that interact with them. Understanding that sanitation is part of a wider system and how that system works is a…

08Aug 2018 by Becky 4 Comments

#WEDC41 Part 1: The challenges of the world’s number 2 business

Water, World

In July, I spent two weeks in Kenya at the 41st WEDC conference in Nakuru and visiting sanitation companies, Sanergy and Sanivation, and the newly-established sanitation research group at Meru University of Science and Technology. This is the first in a five-part series of blogs about that conference and those visits. Sanivation and Sanergy are two companies making changes to the state of sanitation in Kenya. The two companies provide container-based sanitation services to residents in Nairobi and in Naivasha and are using the collected poop to make a product that they can sell. Sanergy uses a combination of black soldier fly larvae processing and composting to create animal feed and fertiliser. Sanivation dries faecal material to produce briquettes that replace the charcoal used for cooking across Kenya. Despite treating…

16Jan 2018 by Becky No Comments

Start 2018 right: pledge to actively support diversity!

Women, World

Following the #WDP36 list of women in drowning prevention, I posted on how to be an ally to under-represented groups. Soon after that, I was approached by SOBRASA, a Brazilian drowning prevention organisation,. They wanted to encourage individuals and organisations to take the five steps towards diversity that were listed in that blog. Together we came up with the graphic below and already, drowning prevention organisations across the world have pledged to actively support diversity. If you want to help your organisation grow by becoming more diverse and inclusive, pledge here. [emailpetition id="1"]

14Dec 2017 by Becky 2 Comments

How to be an ally

Women, World

Following on from the publication of the #WDP36 list two weeks ago, some men have asked what they can do to support women around them and increase the representation of women in leadership positions. Old rich white men dominate drowning prevention. Young black people dominate the drowning fatalities. If the drowning prevention community wants to achieve a significant global reduction in drowning, then the community needs to be more inclusive and more diverse. It needs to listen to voices from different countries, diverse backgrounds, different genders, and different experiences. The fact that people are asking how they can support that is testament to their commitment to improve diversity. The question is what that commitment should look like. Let’s start by defining the problem: Think about the positions that you hold…

02Mar 2017 by Becky No Comments

Reflections on FSM4

Water, World

I spent last week at the 4th International Faecal Sludge Management Conference in Chennai, India. It was a packed week of presentations, workshops, meetings and networking with over 1000 people with an interest in addressing the challenges of global sanitation. I have slowly been processing the things that I heard, saw and learnt and I have summarised some of my most important points below. (more…)

09Feb 2017 by Becky No Comments

Going travelling? Take a scarf!

World

A towel, [the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'] says, is about the most massively useful thing that an interstellar hitchhiker can have." I travel a lot, though admittedly so far only on Earth and I have my own version of the towel. Wherever I go, whether it is a long-haul flight to somewhere exotic or a local weekend away with friends, I pack a large lightweight scarf in my hand luggage. On recent trips, I have come to realise how massively useful it is. Here are a few of the things you can do with a scarf: (more…)

25Jan 2017 by Becky No Comments

Trump vs Women Round 1: The “A” bomb

Women, World

One of President Trump’s first acts in the White House was to reinstate the Mexico City Policy, or “the global gag rule”. The policy is reinstated and revoked every time the White House changes from Democrat to Republican and back. That’s because the subject of the policy, abortion, is a highly politicised topic in America. The policy means that NGOs that receive US foreign aid funding are not allowed to provide or promote abortions. It was first instated by Reagan in 1984 and it essentially exports the US debate on abortion. Sadly, that has dramatic negative effects on the health of women the world over. NGOs that provide family planning services now have a choice to make. Either they need to drop abortions from the suite of family planning options that…

18Mar 2016 by Becky No Comments

Development research: Access all areas?

World

Alexandra Elbakyan is in hiding, possibly in Russia. Elsevier, the publishing giant, have filed a legal case against her for sharing millions of academic journal papers on the internet. Her actions are a protest against the paywalls that so many scholarly articles are hidden behind. If you work in a research environment, these paywalls are all too common in your daily work. When looking for journal articles about international development sanitation earlier this week, I was dismayed to discover that the vast majority were locked away behind pay walls. Having working in research for a number of years, I am familiar with the frustration of finding what looks from the abstract like it might be exactly the paper you have been searching for, only to discover that to access the…

10Feb 2016 by Becky No Comments

Greed 1, Flint 0

Water, World

Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals is Clean Water and Sanitation. One of its targets is universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all. With the number of celebrities and companies donating bottled water to Flint, Michigan over the last month and a half, I would suggest that America is currently failing. Flint is a city of 102,000 people, and is less than 70 miles from the banks of Lake Huron, the third largest fresh water lake on earth. Despite this, human greed and arrogance have conspired so that every resident of Flint has been affected by lead poisoning from their water supply over the last two years. (more…)

27Jan 2016 by Becky No Comments

#TraditionallySubmissive: An open letter to David Cameron

Women, World

Dear Mr Cameron, I was appalled to hear your comments about the "traditional submissiveness of Muslim women" that have been so widely shared and ridiculed on social media. I have lived and worked in a number of countries, including those that are predominantly Muslim and, in my experience, your comments could not be further from the truth. The Muslim women that I have met are invariably strong women who realise that, in many ways, the world appears to be stacked against them and yet I have found that this never prevents them from doing the best they can for their families, their communities and society at large. Whilst I understand that anecdotes are not the same thing as data, let me share with you some of these women. (more…)

Category: World