Sub-Saharan Africa

The commercialisation of water services in Kisumu, Kenya has resulted in fewer managerial changes than had been anticipated. Challenges include perceived political interference, inequitable treatment of different groups of residents, and little inter-agency coordination. A survey was conducted, focusing on the informal settlements, to help understand the root cause of the management flaws.

Food security is a key aspect of human development. The present article explores the shortcomings of agricultural interventions in two districts in eastern Uganda. Our study shows that these interventions have achieved only minor successes in relieving rural poverty and strengthening food security. Programmes that support prominent farmers with the aim of commercial development are unlikely to touch the poor. Food insecurity is related to the gendered division of agricultural work, control of cash income and the cycle of planting, harvest and crop sales for poor farmers.

As agências de desenvolvimento enfrentam o desafio de medir e relatar os resultados de suas contribuições para promover o desenvolvimento equitativo e sustentável. Como parte disso, as agências fazem previsões ambiciosas de objetivos de desenvolvimento e então comprometem-se a medir o que elas não conseguem alcançar no final de seus programas ou projetos.

In developing areas of the world, where local people's understanding of germ theory and water and sanitation problems is not complete, 3MTM PetrifilmTM can act as an important visual aid for development workers in order to educate people about water and sanitation topics. The present article gives an example of how 3MTM PetrifilmTM has been used to help establish a baseline understanding of water and sanitation problems in rural Mali, and motivated improved water and sanitation practices.

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The present article outlines a development project carried out in Namibia in 2006–2010 by the Icelandic International Development Agency and the Namibian Ministry of Education. The project aimed primarily to empower deaf people by building capacity in deaf education and developing Namibian Sign Language. Strong emphasis was placed on strengthening government structures and services to contribute towards equal rights and participation in society.

Development in Practice prides itself in being one of the most international of development journals, based on both authorship and readership. To reinforce our commitment to this international participation we are pleased to announce that our editorial team will now be strengthened by a group of regionally based contributing editors, who will provide a perspective on the key development issues, authors, and publications from those regions.

Many reintegration programmes focus on ex-combatants rather than communities, and this limited focus has created divisions among community members and strained reintegration processes in many post-war environments. In view of this limited approach to reintegration, more and more academics and practitioners are arguing for a community-based (CB) approach as a way of addressing resentment among community members for more effective peace-building. But how can CB integration programmes be planned and implemented in post-war environments?

The world is standing at a major point in its history as I write, with European politicians still deliberating as to how a deepening of the international economic crisis will be averted or at least mitigated. The longer term implications for developing and emerging economies cannot yet be known. At one level we may see a major change in the emphasis of development aid, as well as priorities within developing countries as the demand-led consumer boom falters, but new opportunities arise in those countries still maintaining their economic growth.

Forage development is one of the strategies to address feed scarcity and low livestock productivity in Ethiopia. In line with government strategy, multiple actors took part in a forage development programme for six years (2004–09) in Alaba Special District, in southern Ethiopia. This paper analyses the six-year forage development programme, comparing its two phases, from an innovation systems perspective to identify best practices.

This paper builds upon field research in Ajegunle, Nigeria, which suggests that effective HIV/AIDS prevention requires a much higher degree of independent community participation. In exploring ways to achieve this, we suggest that assessing community strengths provides positive scope for understanding and utilising a much wider variety of HIV/AIDS responses which have not been previously used in the context of community development. Community-based approaches also encourage a deeper understanding of locally-specific vulnerability issues that surround HIV and AIDS.