Equity and Inclusion in Sanitation and Hygiene in South Asia: A Regional Synthesis

Today, 2.6 billion people in the world have nowhere safely to defecate on a daily basis or to follow hygienic practices that are important for their health and wellbeing. People are different and require support to overcome the specific impediments that stand in the way of their being able to use services sustainably. There is a greater likelihood of success if we focus on the forgotten millions, first . When pastoralists, ethnic or religious minorities, the disabled, the chronically ill, children, the aged, adolescent girls, women, or anyone without voice or agency are centre stage, their needs are reflected in design and investment decisions, with gains for all, including the larger community. To make this happen for all those without sustainable sanitation and hygiene, we will need to redefine policy and practise so that equity is woven into the fabric of every investment, every supervisory mission, every reward and every audit

Environmental effects on cephalopod population dynamics

Cephalopods are a relatively small class of molluscs (~ 800 species), but they support some large industrial scale fisheries and numerous small-scale, local, artisanal fisheries. For several decades, landings of cephalopods globally have grown against a background of total finfish landings levelling off and then declining. There is now evidence that in recent years, growth in cephalopod landings has declined. The commercially exploited cephalopod species are fast-growing, short-lived ecological opportunists. Annual variability in abundance is strongly influenced by environmental variability, but the underlying causes of the links between environment and population dynamics are poorly understood. Stock assessment models have recently been developed that incorporate environmental processes that drive variability in recruitment, distribution and migration patterns. These models can be expected to improve as more, and better, data are obtained on environmental effects and as techniques for stock identification improve. A key element of future progress will be improved understanding of trophic dynamics at all phases in the cephalopod life cycle. In the meantime, there is no routine stock assessment in many targeted fisheries or in the numerous by-catch fisheries for cephalopods. There is a particular need for a precautionary approach in these cases. Assessment in many fisheries is complicated because cephalopods are ecological opportunists and stocks appear to have benefited from the reduction of key predator by overexploitation. Because of the complexities involved, ecosystem-based fisheries management integrating social, economic and ecological considerations is desirable for cephalopod fisheries. An ecological approach to management is routine in many fisheries, but to be effective, good scientific understanding of the relationships between the environment, trophic dynamics and population dynamics is essential. Fisheries and the ecosystems they depend on can only be managed by regulating the activities of the fishing industry, and this requires understanding the dynamics of the stocks they exploit