Gendering activism, exile and wellbeing: Chilean exiles in the UK

Drawing on the case of Chilean exiles in the UK this article looks at the experiences of exiles through a gender lens. The analysis argues for the need to recognise the gendered nature of spaces of political activism in order to highlight the contribution made by many Chilean women to life in exile. Using a gender lens sheds light on the multiple ways in which many women were indirectly the victims of abuse under the military regime and how this impacts on their mental health and wellbeing. The analysis also provides new insights into how forced migration impacts on gender roles and norms among those living in exile. The article primarily focuses on the experiences of women who arrived in the UK as the 'wife of' political activists, a group whose needs have been frequently overlooked

A Gendered Analysis of Labour Market Informalization and Access to Health in Chile

Health sector reforms across Latin America are replacing the concept of risk-sharing across the population with more individualized approaches to accessing health care, and health insurance schemes have been advocated by the World Bank as a means of helping poor people overcome the risk of ill health. Yet at the same time the lowering of labour standards and the growth of informal workers means that for an increased number of workers, contributing to a health insurance scheme is not feasible. Drawing on evidence from Chile this article examines the gendered dimensions of these processes and highlights the ways in which the gender division of labour means that women are more adversely affected than men

Moving the goalposts: reconfiguring the role of the private sector in the provision of water

This chapter is concerned with privatisation and PPPs in the water sector. The chapter traces the evolution of private sector involvement in water services, This initially expanded in the 1980s and 90s, led by the extreme form of water privatisation in the UK, and promoted by donors, notably the World Bank. By the early 2000s, it became increasingly clear that the policy was not working as planned. Contracts were difficult to establish and sustain, and many were cancelled or renegotiated. Little investment was raised from the private sector and the evidence of efficiency gains was weak. Privatisation tailed off in the late 2000s. In addition a number of cities remunicipalised their water, mainly in France, in an explicit rejection of the profit motive in the water supply. More recently, policy attention has turned to the potential of the private sector as a financier for the water sector, in line with trends in development finance more generally. The paper shows that this is problematic for a number of reasons and calls for greater attention to be directed towards supporting public sector water services

Unpacking ‘women’s health’ in the context of PPPs: a return to instrumentalism in development policy and practice?

There has been a significant increase in funding for health programmes in development over the last two decades, partly due to the formation of public–private partnerships. This article examines the impact of public–private partnerships from the perspective of women’s health, asks whether the current culture of funding has led to an increased instrumentalism in women’s health programming and what effects this has on how women’s health is addressed at the level of practice. The article is based on research carried out with UK-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and its conclusions raise further challenges for improving women’s health policies and programmes in development

Coupled pre-mRNA and mRNA dynamics unveil operational strategies underlying transcriptional responses to stimuli

Genome-wide simultaneous measurements of pre-mRNA and mRNA expression reveal unexpected time-dependent transcript production and degradation profiles in response to external stimulus, as well as a striking lack of concordance between mRNA abundance and transcript production profiles