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Introduction
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August 2017 - present
Publications
Publications (32)
This handbook captures the learnings of nearly eight years of committed effort to undo the colonial assumptions that define so much of international development by fulfilling the radical transformative potential of education. After continuous experimentation and refinement in the classroom, and with the active participation of our students and alum...
This report describes the WASH gaps for the unhoused in Denver, Colorado based on a mapping exercise, focus groups and surveys with the unhoused.
Although access to water and sanitation have been recognized by the United Nations as human rights since 2010, that access continues to be a site of struggle in everyday life, especially among homeless populations. In this paper, we draw from two summers of a fieldwork-based course on homelessness and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in Denver, Color...
Analysing how water development projects unfolded in five rural communities in Mozambique, Emily Van Houweling offers an alternative perspective on water and the politicised nature of water management in the region. Using a hydro-social cycle framework, she demonstrates how water is tied to everyday life in matrilineal Nampula and how social relati...
Chapter 3 explores the role of water in everyday life in rural Nampula before the handpumps were constructed. Based on my ethnographic data, I describe how water was used in social, ritual, and everyday contexts, and the meanings water acquired through these activities. I argue that water has much to teach us about culture and society: its flows il...
In Chapter 5, I take on the question about why only a minority of people in each community used the handpumps. My answer exposes the micro and macro politics of the rural water project and the differences between the water at the well and at the handpump. The handpumps represented hybrid objects produced from an assemblage of modernisation ideologi...
In Chapter 4, I explore the concept of local ownership advanced in the project plans and argue that divergent perspectives of value and ownership among actors were at the heart of sustainability challenges. The Millennium Challenge Corporation sought to inspire community ownership through participation, voluntary management, and payment for water....
Chapter 6 focuses on the rural water project’s (RWP’s) gender approach and analyses how women experienced the project. In the RWP, gender was approached in a superficial and technical way that did not consider the matrilineal context of Nampula nor the constraints some women faced in participating. The outcomes of the water project for women were a...
Chapter 1 introduces the key themes of the book: hydro-social understandings of water, critical development approaches, women’s empowerment, and development evaluation. It also provides some reflections on my own positionality vis-à-vis the research and the water project.
Chapter 2 provides a historical look at the processes and events that shaped local perceptions of gender and development. Development invoked a variety of memories, emotions, and perspectives for the residents of Nampula. I group these understandings around three themes: development as freedom and liberty; development in terms of citizen–state rela...
Chapter 8 concludes the book by reconnecting my stories and observations from Nampula with larger theoretical debates about gender, water, and development. I group my contributions into three areas: development evaluation, development theory, and gender and development. My conclusions acknowledge the remaining big questions in these fields and prov...
Analysing how water development projects unfolded in five rural communities in Mozambique, Emily Van Houweling offers an alternative perspective on water and the politicised nature of water management in the region. Using a hydro-social cycle framework, she demonstrates how water is tied to everyday life in matrilineal Nampula and how social relati...
Analysing how water development projects unfolded in five rural communities in Mozambique, Emily Van Houweling offers an alternative perspective on water and the politicised nature of water management in the region. Using a hydro-social cycle framework, she demonstrates how water is tied to everyday life in matrilineal Nampula and how social relati...
Chapter 7 digs deeper into the gap between policy and practice by examining the culture of development. I include a wide range of actors in this description, focusing in particular on the role of the community organisers translating between development discourses and local understandings. The organisational culture of the Millennium Challenge Corpo...
Analysing how water development projects unfolded in five rural communities in Mozambique, Emily Van Houweling offers an alternative perspective on water and the politicised nature of water management in the region. Using a hydro-social cycle framework, she demonstrates how water is tied to everyday life in matrilineal Nampula and how social relati...
Although decolonisation is a pressing goal for many front-line instructors, there are few pedagogical resources for how to do this in the online environment. This article provides a set of strategic approaches that can help combat dominant power dynamics in the classroom and open opportunities for transformative learning. The research draws on inst...
In Africa women are underrepresented in higher education (HE) agricultural programs, despite the fact that they make up half of the agricultural labor force. This article discusses the reasons for women’s low enrollment in HE agricultural programs, focusing on socio-cultural norms and gendered perceptions of agriculture. Moving beyond access, it al...
Multiple-use water services (MUS) is an integrated service delivery approach that takes into account households' full range of water needs. Past studies have shown the benefits of MUS in terms of enhancing income and livelihoods diversification. However, little is known about whether MUS is associated with improved health, nutrition, or water servi...
Rural water planners assume the positive impacts of community water projects are spread evenly across the population. We test this assumption by looking at the distribution of benefits within communities that received handpumps in rural Mozambique. Using survey and qualitative data we analyse the characteristics of those groups who benefited from t...
Sustainable intensification (SI) is a term increasingly used for a type of approach applied to international agricultural projects. Despite its widespread use, many still do not understand or know about the various facets of this composite paradigm. A review of the literature has led to the formalization of three principles, which convey the curren...
In the Global South, gender roles and relations are closely connected to water collection and use. The aim of this article is to move beyond the simple development associations linking improved water access with women’s empowerment by showing how gender roles, marital relations, and the division of labor are connected to everyday water practices. E...
In 2015, African ministers established the Ngor Declaration to achieve universal access to adequate sanitation and hygiene services and eliminate open defecation by 2030. Realizing this target will require significant public and private investment. Over the last two decades, there has been increasing recognition that sanitation programs should be d...
There is growing evidence that rural and peri-urban households depend on water not only for basic domestic needs but also for a wide variety of livelihood activities. In recognition of this reality, an alternative approach to water service planning, known as multiple-use water services (MUS), has emerged to design water services around householdsʼ...
In 2010, a milestone was reached when the UN General Assembly recognized the human right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation. Yet, water also plays an important role in realizing other human rights such as the right to food and livelihoods, and in realizing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women....
Global food security challenges demand an understanding of farmers’ gendered practices and perspectives. This research draws on data from a quantitative survey and qualitative methods to explore gender differences related to farmers’ practices, perceptions, and knowledge of pesticides and other pest management practices in tomato growing regions of...
In many parts of rural Africa, women and children spend a lot of time collecting water. In the development literature, the water collection task is portrayed as oppressive, arduous, and disliked by women. Eliminating this activity from women's lives is believed to empower them, yet there has been little research investigating what actually happens...
Over the past decade there has been a growing interest in the potential benefits related to the productive use of rural piped water around the homestead. However, there is limited empirical research on the extent to which, and conditions under which, this activity occurs. Using data obtained from a comprehensive study of 47 rural piped water system...
In 2007, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) signed a $506.9 million compact designed to reduce poverty in Mozambique by promoting sustainable economic growth. Among the planned investments was the installation of 600 improved water points in rural communities across the provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado. In addition to the installation...
The United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights engenders important state commitments to respect, fulfill, and protect a broad range of socio-economic rights. In 2010, a milestone was reached when the UN General Assembly recognized the human right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation. However, water plays an important role...
Enhancing livelihoods and promoting gender equity are primary goals of rural development programmes in Africa. This article explores the role of productive water use in relation to these goals based on 1860 household surveys and 15 women’s focus groups conducted in four regions of Senegal with small-scale piped water systems. The piped systems can...
