Balancing economic growth and river protection is a significant undertaking, but not an impossible one. This policy paper addresses the environmental, social, and regulatory complexities surrounding industrial production in Bangladesh. It examines how power dynamics in global supply chains influence state-market regulatory relationships and provides recommendations to strengthen state regulatory capacity, enhance civil society participation in regulatory processes, and strengthen public-private partnerships through global-local alignment.
Inequalities
Ten years of REACH Kenya
A brief overview of work by the REACH programme in Kenya on interlinked groundwater systems, institutions, water quality management and reducing inequalities, illustrating milestones in the Kitui and Turkana Water Security Observatories.
Rethinking responses to the world’s water crises
This perspective paper in Nature Sustainability reframes responses to mitigating the world’s water crises using a ‘beyond growth’ framing. Beyond growth is systems thinking that prioritizes the most disadvantaged. It seeks to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation by overcoming policy capture and inertia and by fostering place-based and justice-principled institutional changes.
Unpacking the progression of climate uncertainty into precarity in the urban context of drylands: the case of floods in Lodwar, Turkana
Climate uncertainty has always existed both as a socio-ecological reality for pastoralists living with climate variability in drylands and as a component within climate modelling. Despite this, there is little consideration as to the experiences of poor people in the urban drylands living with intensified hazards. In response, this paper discusses an emerging conceptual nexus of uncertainty and precarity, using the example of flood disaster governance in Lodwar, Kenya.
Public participation and community engagement in domestic water supply management in Kenya: Progress and directions
This report, produced by the University of Oxford in collaboration with representatives from civil society, research institutions, government organisations, and NGOs, evaluates public participation and community engagement in domestic water supply management in Kenya, analysing policy progress, practices, and challenges within an evolving governance landscape.
REACH Story of Change: Water law reform to improve water security for vulnerable people in Africa: A hybrid water law
Permit systems used for water authorisation were introduced in many African countries during the colonial era to protect water entitlements of settlers, with disregard for customary water tenue and local needs. These permit systems require users of water above a defined threshold to apply for permits offering formal legal water rights, therefore granting those who use water below this threshold weaker legal status. This REACH Story of Change explores a science-practitioner partnership which assesses water permit systems in Malawi, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The findings have been presented at key international forums and gained significan media attention, influencing policy discussions on water governance reform to better support inclusive rural development and farmer-led irrigation.
Addressing intrahousehold dynamics, power and decision-making in household water portfolios
This paper aims to understand intrahousehold power dynamics and how these shape decisions around water collection and allocation. Social norms, property rights and water infrastructure all influence household members’ bargaining power and shape the context within which household decisions are made. Analysis of intrahousehold dynamics needs to go beyond considering dynamics between spouses, instead also considering others who also contribute to water collection and usage.
REACH Story of Change: Redefining the connections between WASH and gender – Measuring women’s empowerment in WASH to support policy and practice
This REACH Story of Change presents the development of the Empowerment in WASH Index (EWI), a novel survey-based tool to measure agency, voice and empowerment in a WASH context. The EWI has been used in six countries to assess and evaluate women’s empowerment, showing its potential to inform policy and practice in the WASH sector by providing more robust evidence on how to integrate gender into intervention design, monitoring and evaluation.
Unbundling water and land rights in Kilifi County, Kenya a gender perspective
Feminist scholars have highlighted the importance of women’s land rights, and irrigation studies have explored the gendered relationships between land and water rights. However, less research has been conducted which assesses the relationship between water and land rights for domestic and productive purposes. Therefore, by collating community profiles, focus group discussions, interviews and survey data, this study explores women’s rights to land and water within rural communities in Kilifi County, Kenya. It provides interesting insight into the dynamics and negotiations of water access, including the social networks that affect how water transactions take place.
Reinforcing Feedbacks for Sustainable Implementation of Rural Drinking-Water Treatment Technology
Water safety management is a key factor that rural service delivery models must incorporate if they are to achieve universal access to safe drinking water. Practices such as source protection and water treatment help reduce the risk of fecal contamination. Therefore, this study recognises the importance of water treatment, assessing the implementation of passive chlorination and ultraviolet (UV) disinfection technologies in rural parts of South America, Africa, and Asia. The results identify a series of leverage points which highlight the need for fit-for-purpose intervention design reinforced by collaboration between facilitating actors through hybrid service delivery models.
