Rates of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) are high in Uganda, by both global and African comparison, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made things even worse. Breaking the cultural, religious and social norms that perpetuate and trivialise SGBV is key to improve the situation. However, there are also other measures, such as communication channels for reporting and following up on SGBV, safe shelters and support for girls threatened by perpetrators, and improved sexual education in schools.

Find out more and read the full policy brief here.

It is widely acknowledged that global economic growth over the past half century, underpinned by a neoliberal capitalist discourse, has come at the cost of overexploitation of the world’s resources, severe ecological degradation and growing inequalities. Efforts to move rapidly towards a more environmentally sustainable and socially just future will depend on the emergence of compelling new narratives and visions to drive the necessary transformation of economies, technologies and institutions, and more fundamentally, of human values and cultural norms.

Download Finding common ground in transformative sustainability narratives.

This Knowledge Brief is based on Chris Riedy, Discourse coalitions for sustainability transformations: common ground and conflict beyond neoliberalism, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, Vol. 45, 2020, Pages 100-112, ISSN 1877-3435, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2020.09.014.

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Header image: L. Brideau via Flickr.

The enormity, complexity and urgency of the global targets enshrined in the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are widely acknowledged. However, even with calls for transformations to sustainability resounding around the globe, it is often not clear what should be transformed, by and for whom, and how. There are considerable gaps in our understanding of how knowledge about transformation can inform intentional change towards environmentally sustainable and socially just goals. The scientific literature points to three main ways of conceptualizing and approaching research and action towards transformations to sustainability, which can be described as: (1) structural, (2) systemic and (3) enabling. Research on and efforts to achieve transformations to sustainability can draw on the strengths of these contrasting but complementary approaches.

Download Three ways of understanding social transformations to sustainability.

This knowledge brief is based on Scoones, I. et al. (2020). ‘Transformations to sustainability: combining structural, systemic and enabling approaches.’ Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 42: 65–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2019.12.004

It features knowledge from the PATHWAYS network, which was part on the first phase of the Transformations to Sustainability programme. You can find out more about PATHWAYS here.

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Header photo: Asian Development Bank via Flickr.

The beliefs and values of Indigenous peoples can provide important insights into human relationships with nature. Indigenous worldviews can offer alternative solutions to restoring degraded ecosystems and suggest new frameworks for building a more sustainable, holistic and equitable approach to the management of natural resources. However, Indigenous knowledge and beliefs have, until recently, been largely ignored in formal resource management strategies, since they are perceived to conflict with established, science-based management methods. This is slowly changing, as the value of Indigenous resource management practices is becoming recognized. This Knowledge Brief is based on a peer-reviewed article in which the authors discuss the efforts of Indigenous peoples to contest freshwater management regimes that are based on Western concepts and ideologies.

Download Promoting Indigenous knowledge and values for more sustainable water resource management

This knowledge brief is based on Parsons, M. and Fisher, K. (2020). Indigenous peoples and transformations in freshwater governance and management. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, in press. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2020.03.006

This post was originally shared on the MISTY project website, on 13 July 2020.

Researchers at MISTY’s partner institute, the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), Dhaka, have this month published an important Policy Brief which presents the findings of a qualitative survey of 50 Bangladeshi migrants recently returned from different labour receiving countries after the outbreak of COVID-19. Many of these migrant workers were arbitrarily returned home and a significant portion of their wages and other benefits remain unpaid.

The study found that although many of them had valid visas and work permits, three-quarters (78%) of Bangladeshi migrants who returned after the outbreak of Covid -19 were forcibly sent home. The study further found that 74% of returning migrants left behind substantial resources in terms of unpaid wages, benefits and other dues. On average the affected migrants lost 175,000 Bangladeshi Taka (approx. 2,060 US dollars/ 1,800 Euros) in remittances.

A significant number of the migrants who were forcibly returned were held in detention centres before being sent home, and all, without exception, described the return journey as traumatic. RMMRU’s study highlights the vulnerability of migrant work forces in crisis situations and reinforces the need to do more to ensure their rights and protection.

The broader aim of this study is then to convince Bangladeshi policy-makers of the need to document the experiences of migrant workers who have been forced to return in the wake of COVID-19, in order to develop emergency guidelines for their protection in future emergency situations.

The full text of this Policy Brief can be found here on the RMMRU website.