A Process-oriented Approach to Equitable Resilience: Insights from Droughts in Lake Naivasha Catchment Area, Kenya

Drought is a recurrent hazard in Lake Naivasha Catchment Area, Kenya, a centre for commercial irrigated agriculture and horticulture. Drought affects smallholder farmers, pastoralists and larger-scale agricultural enterprises differentially. We gathered qualitative data through semi-structured individual and group interviews with representatives of all Water Resource User Associations in the area, focussing on drought impacts on various actors, and the strategies they undertook to alleviate drought effects. We used an original framework combining insights from equitable resilience and environmental justice literatures to understand how absorptive, adaptive and transformative resilience capacities are distributed among different groups. Historical processes of land alienation and promotion of commercial farming have reduced pastoralists’ and smallholders’ access to land and financial, social and political capital, and their involvement in water governance processes, which are dominated by large-scale commercial flower farms. Thus, smallholders and pastoralists are more vulnerable to drought and less able to enact drought resilience strategies, such as establishing water storage infrastructure and fencing off water access points. The study confirms the importance of analysing how historical processes influence contemporary drought resilience capacities. This approach enhances resilience analyses in an era of climate change, with broad implications for livelihoods and business.</p

People with Disabilities and Transport Access: Evidence from PENDA and Inclusive Futures

Transport is a fundamental enabler of participation in society yet people with disabilities frequently experience barriers to accessing it. These barriers are often greater in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite its importance, transport remains neglected in disability-inclusive development interventions. This article synthesises evidence from the Disability Inclusive Development Inclusive Futures programme and the Programme for Evidence to Inform Disability Action, which implement and evaluate disability inclusion interventions across multiple LMICs. We draw on their findings to examine the transport barriers experienced by people with disabilities and how these shaped intervention participation and outcomes. Findings highlight inaccessible infrastructure, a lack of accessible public transport options, unavailability of assistive technology, and transport-related stigma and discrimination as barriers. These barriers were shaped by intersectional disadvantage and risk constraining intervention participation and impact. We discuss the implications for disability-inclusive development intervention design and national transport policy, highlighting that transport access is a prerequisite for meaningful inclusion.To read your EPUB file, you must have an eBook reader installed. See the EPUB Download Guidelines for information on accessing EPUB files from IDS OpenDocs on your device.The EPUB file conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.</p

Smart City Surveillance in Nigeria

This report examines the current condition of public space surveillance in Nigeria. It provides a detailed timeline of the safe city projects in Nigeria, with the actors involved in these projects. Additionally, it explores the regulatory landscape behind the use of surveillance technologies to protect lives and properties in Nigeria.</p

K4DD Humanitarian Evidence and Discourse Summary January 2026

Monthly Humanitarian Evidence and Discourse Summaries aim to signpost FCDO and others to the latest relevant evidence and discourse on humanitarian action.</p

Social Assistance, Social Inclusion, and Social Cohesion in Conflict-‍Affected Contexts: Evidence from Niger

This Working Paper examines how access to social assistance is reconfigured during conflict in Niger’s Tillabéri and Diffa regions. Using social network research, we find that traditional solidarity mechanisms have ‍been eroded while fragmented ecosystems of formal, semi-formal, and informal actors have emerged. Access to social assistance reflects entrenched social patterns: agriculturalist majority groups have better access, while pastoralists and internally displaced persons (IDPs) are often sidelined. Intermediaries channel aid but can introduce new gatekeeping and accountability gaps. The study’s policy implications underscore the importance of inclusive, community-responsive social assistance, and the need for policy actors to consider the impact of social assistance on social cohesion.</p

Making Zambia's Growth Poles More Inclusive

Zambia continues to face increasing climate variability and shocks especially droughts, floods, and cyclones. These undermine agricultural and energy production, with subsequent negative impacts on food and water security, incomes, and livelihoods. Zambia’s national development strategies prioritise geographically targeted investments or ‘growth poles’ in agriculture, mining, tourism, and manufacturing, which are intended to serve as engines of pro-poor growth.This policy brief synthesises evidence on whether growth poles – particularly mining areas, sugar estates, farm blocks including agro-processing yards, tourism areas, and industrial yards – contribute to poverty reduction and climate resilience in Zambia, and proposes policy measures that are needed to strengthen the poverty reduction and resilience-building effects of growth poles. It draws on nationally representative panel data – the 2012, 2015, and 2019 Rural Agricultural Livelihoods Survey (RALS), and the 2022 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) – complemented by spatial analysis and extensive qualitative fieldwork.</p

Do Electronic Filing and Payment Increase Tax Compliance? Evidence from Large Taxpayers in Senegal

Governments in low-income countries have progressively introduced electronic tax filing and payment systems in the hope of reducing enforcement costs for tax administrations, compliance costs for taxpayers, and the risk of collusive in person interactions between the two. Combining high frequency administrative data with a dynamic difference-in-differences approach, we investigate the causal impact of a reform that made the use of these technologies mandatory for large taxpayers in Senegal. Our findings indicate no – or only limited – effects on key measures of tax compliance, such as the probability of declaring, the probability of paying, or tax payments. Nevertheless, online filing reduces the prevalence of missing values by more than 90 per cent, with important measurement implications. In particular, we show that aggregate formal employment is at least 20 per cent greater than suggested by the information obtained through paper filing.</p

Causes and Consequences of Air Pollution in Uganda

This rapid evidence review examines the principal factors contributing to air pollution in the Republic of Uganda (hereafter, Uganda) and its subsequent effects on health, the economy, society and politics. It provides a high-level summary of the main sources of air pollution in the country and examines the impact of exposure on health outcomes and economic prosperity. The focus of this review is on particulate matter (PM) of less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter (PM2.5) given its association with a range of health impacts. The review identifies an expanding, evidence base that is characterised by a proliferation of data regarding levels of air pollution. This includes an extensive database of ground level readings collected by Airqo, principally in Uganda’s urban centres.</p

Determinants of Personal Exposure to Air Pollution

This rapid evidence review collates available evidence on determinants of personal exposure to air pollution. The review draws upon an expanding and strong evidence base that includes academic and grey literature. The evidence base is extensive, identifying clear links between exposure and health outcomes covering an increasing range of countries. The review notes that a number of interventions are possible at the individual and household level but that community‑ and systems‑level interventions are crucial to reducing population exposure to air pollution by targeting the structural drivers of poor air quality rather than relying solely on individual behaviour change.</p

Glossary: Building Disability-Inclusive Futures

This is the glossary of IDS Bulletin 57.1 ‘Building Disability-Inclusive Futures'.To read your EPUB file, you must have an eBook reader installed. See the EPUB Download Guidelines for information on accessing EPUB files from IDS OpenDocs on your device.The EPUB file conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.</p