Safeguarding refers to specific actions that reduce the risk of abuse, neglect, and harm. It is an essential aspect of all development programming and research, but due to existing social structures and entrenched power inequalities, it is particularly important in development programming and research focused on people with disabilities. This article reflects on implementation experience relating to disability-inclusive safeguarding from the UK aid-funded Disability Inclusive Development Inclusive Futures programme. It details efforts taken to design and implement participatory safeguarding approaches and activities through partnering with Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs). The article unpacks practical examples of inclusive safeguarding while also identifying challenges in forming equitable, proportional partnerships between international non‑governmental organisations (INGOs) and OPDs. It concludes by raising questions about how power, partnerships, sustainability, and solidarity impact on safeguarding for global actors working with locally embedded, under-resourced partners.

All people with disabilities should expect equitable access to services and equal opportunities; the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities explicitly recognises the importance of their full and effective participation and inclusion in society. However, particularly in low-income countries, people with disabilities with high support needs compared to other people with disabilities do not always benefit equally from existing policies, development projects, services, or practices. This article reflects on learning gathered from across the Disability Inclusive Development programme. It asserts that strengthening inclusion of people with disabilities with high support needs requires not only practical know-how at project level, but also systemic change to funding practices and project design. We identify key areas where collective focus and systemic change would ensure development programmes more commonly include people with disabilities with high support needs, who are often the hardest to reach and the most marginalised and excluded.

Este artigo analisa as dinâmicas das interacções entre organizações da sociedade civil, governos locais e o sector energético em três regiões-chave produtoras de energia em Moçambique: Inhambane, Tete e Cabo Delgado. Focaliza-se nos desafios e nas oportunidades para alcançar uma transição energética justa, num contexto político que prioriza investimentos e numa matriz energética predominantemente baseada em energia hidroeléctrica, gás natural e carvão. Com base em pesquisas realizadas em Moçambique sobre engajamento cívico e transição energética, o artigo apresenta três ideias centrais: (1) a dependência de Moçambique em combustíveis fósseis e a lenta expansão de projectos de energia renovável criam tensões entre a necessidade urgente de acesso à energia e os compromissos globais de mitigação climática; (2) a fragmentação do espaço cívico limita a capacidade das vozes locais influenciarem decisões políticas sobre a transição; (3) a criação de plataformas de engajamento democrático expandiria a participação comunitária e promoveria alianças estratégicas para abordar os direitos das comunidades locais.

At the 2021 United Nations (UN) Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting in Glasgow, Nigeria committed to renewable energy to contain carbon emissions responsible for global warming. Its subsequent national Energy Transition Plan pledged to cut emissions by phasing out fossil fuels. Decades of oil exploration in Nigeria’s Niger Delta have caused extensive environmental damage resulting in the destruction of traditional livelihoods, economic strangulation, and widespread poverty. Multinational oil corporations are now divesting rapidly, leaving behind a trail of environmental pollution without compensation to impacted communities. The clash between fossil-fuel phase-outs and local people’s environmental justice demands demonstrate the imperative of embedding justice and inclusion into green energy solutions. Drawing from the experiences of Nigeria’s oil-rich communities in the Niger Delta, this article argues that placing justice at the centre of national and global decarbonisation agendas is essential for ensuring that greener solutions do not contribute to human rights abuses and exacerbate pre-existing environmental challenges.

This is the glossary of IDS Bulletin 56.1 'Democracy Contested'.

<p dir="ltr">In this article, the authors propose a new political economy of climate change and development in which explicit attention is given to the way that ideas, power and resources are conceptualised, negotiated and implemented by different groups at different scales. The climate change and development interface warrants such attention because of its importance to achieving sustainable poverty reduction outcomes, cross-sectoral nature, urgency and rapid emergence of international resource transfers, initiatives and governance architectures, and the frequent assumption of linear policymaking and apolitical, techno-managerial solutions to the climate change challenge.

The late 1980s saw a phenomenal growth of international concern over the global environment. It has begun to influence politics both in industrially advanced countries and in the newly democratising countries of Eastern Europe. Recognising that the roots of this concern are not new, this&nbsp;IDS Bulletin&nbsp;addresses its twin aspects in the context of developing countries and at different scale levels. On the one hand, environmental change poses significant challenges for development policy and practice. On the other, the development process itself presents challenges for sound environmental management. Leach, M. and Mearns, R. (2025) 'Editorial: Environmental Change, Development Challenges', IDS Bulletin 56.1A: 17–20, DOI: 10.19088/1968-2025.103

There is an obvious connection between poor people's food security and the preservation of the environment in which they live. Yet there is little consensus about the nature of this relationship. Unless their interactions are better understood, there is a danger that policies for environmental protection – in an increasingly environmentally-concerned aid climate – will unknowingly compromise food security. An obvious illustration is the promotion of goats in marginal areas as an insurance against harvest failure; a policy which enhances food security but may have disastrous environmental consequences. This issue of the&nbsp;IDS Bulletin&nbsp;arises from a new research initiative at IDS, linking the work of the Environment Programme and the Food Security Unit. A number of workshops held at IDS considered whether two such diverse and extensive fields of inquiry could usefully be linked and, if so, what kinds of approaches would be most appropriate. The articles are the result of these workshops. Taken together with a Discussion Paper setting out the issues and Development Bibliography reviewing relevant literature, they form a starting point for more focused research on particular conflicts and complementarities between the pursuit of food security and environmental goals. Davies, S. and Leach, M. (2025) 'Editorial: Food Security and the Environment', IDS Bulletin 56.1A: 24–7, DOI: 10.19088/1968-2025.105

This is the Notes on Contributors for IDS Bulletin 55.2, Reimagining Social Protection.

Whilst international policy between the mid-1990s and mid-2010s gave some hope for progress on gender equality, events since then – including conflicts, climate change, the pandemic, and an increasingly insecure world – have thrown these hopes into doubt. Far from steady progress on gender equality, we now face backlash against gender and sexual rights. This article introduces our IDS Bulletin which explores understandings of backlash from a primarily global South perspective. Articles from Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Uganda, and the UK detail examples of anti-gender backlash in different contexts, and the actors, interests, and tactics involved. This introduction groups the issues into three themes: voice and tactics, framings and direction, and temporality and structure. It also briefly touches on the tactics gender activists have used in countering backlash. In conclusion, the article calls for an increased analysis of backlash from more diverse settings to develop better strategies for resistance and reclaiming gender justice.