Download this pageArticles
This annotated bibliography brings together all of the outputs which have been published by the IDS coordinated Sexuality and Development Programme since its inception.
Reports
This study aimed to analyse state and union budgetary commitments for the transgender communities as well as their uptake in India on one hand and to document various forms of discrimination, exclusions and violations of rights faced by transgender communities in Tamil Nadu on the other.
- The gender-identity programme has given Khawaja Siras a way to feel safe and secure.
- The programme could, if it chooses, to grow in the way this study identifies, possibly make long-term impacts on the way the heteronormative society of Pakistan conceptualises gender and sexual minorities.
Thsi report highlights that people with non-conforming gender and sexual identities living in poverty are rendered invisible in development. In an attempt to counter this invisibility, this report investigates the experiences of exclusion encountered by Khawaja Siras, a gender and sexual minority in Pakistan.
To work towards inclusive development that addresses social exclusion, development actors need to shape and implement development policies that ensure:
- That all people irrespective of their sexuality and gender identity are actively protected against social, economic and political forms of discrimination.
- That health, education, and social protection resources that contribute towards individual wellbeing and overall socioeconomic development are made available to all those in need, leaving no one behind.
The findings in this report are based on a review of empirical literature on sexuality, gender and development, including primary research conducted on the IDS Sexuality, Poverty and Law programme. In mapping these findings against the brand new SDG framework, the report highlights the importance of SOGIE-inclusive development in the post-2015 era.
- This report came out of a Religion, Gender and Sexuality workshop, hosted by Sonke Gender Justice, MenEngage Africa, Institute of Development Studies and Wits Centre for Diversity Studies in Johannesburg, South Africa.
- Religious doctrine shapes and informs decision-making at the individual and collective levels, and sexuality and gender rights advocates must therefore work with faith-based organisations and religious activists to challenge harmful and discriminatory sexuality and gender norms and practices.
The workshop provided a space for faith leaders and those engaging with faith institutions to discuss successes, challenges and learning around sexual diversity and gender justice.
In response to the Sustainable Development Goals, this paper argues that lesbian, gay, bi and trans (LGBT) people worldwide must be included properly in aid and development spending. It highlights that LGBT people are disproportionately affected by the challenges that the SDGs are intended to solve.
The scoping report explores the role of faith communities in preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence.
This report examines the implications for US health and policymakers to consider when it comes to the criminalization of homosexuality in many African states and the decision by Uganda and Nigeria to impose increasingly draconian punishments on homosexual conduct.
- The poverty and poor socioeconomic conditions in which many sexual and gender minority peoples live should be addressed through holistic initiatives that extend beyond skills training
- Initiatives addressing discrimination and socioeconomic marginalisation should be mainstreamed within pre-existing development projects
- Specifically within the context of Nepal, avenues for people of sexual and gender minority experience to receive formal recognition and certification of their education, skills and qualifications is imperative for chances to obtain employment
This case study explores the relationship between socioeconomic opportunity and exclusion in relation to minority gender and sexualities in Nepal.
- Fears about sexuality are a key reason for parents withdrawing girls from secondary education. This includes fears about girls' expressing their desires as well as fears about sexual violence.
- The only place where sexuality is addressed in the examinable curriculum is through human reproduction in science textbooks. Evidence suggests that this is often taught inadequately as teachers feel inhibited and lack the skills to deliver the content appropriately.
This report shares the findings of a sexuality and gender audit of a national government programme to strengthen secondary school education in India (i.e. the last four years of schooling).
- Research indicates that many trans young people, and poor trans youth in particular, drop out of education or under perform due to bullying and violence in Brazilian schools.
- Religious moral conservatism has played a big part in the failure of the 2004 'Brazil without Homophobia' programme to achieve its objectives of combating discrimination and supporting sexual diversity in the education system.
This audit analyses key aspects of public policies in education and sexuality in Brazil, which have been designed as part of the wider programme Brazil Without Homophobia (BWH – Programa Brasil sem Homofobia), launched in 2004.
Books
This book provides a critical mapping of African sexualities to inform readers about the plurality and complexities of sexualities on the continent. It also poses gender-sensitive and politically aware questions that challenge the reader to interrogate assumptions and hegemonic sexuality discourses.
This book asks how we should think about the boundaries of states in a world where threats to human rights emanate from both outside the state and the state itself? Arguing that attitudes towards boundaries are premised on assumptions about the locus of threats to vital interests, the book digs beneath two major normative orientations towards boundaries-cosmopolitanism and nationalism-which structure thinking on questions of public policy and identity.
This book addresses how sexual practices and identities are imagined and regulated through development discourses and within institutions of global governance.
This book explores the sexual lives of people in Egypt and across the region. It uses sex as a lens through which to examine the region's complex social landscape, especially as it is so entwined in religion and tradition, politics and economics, gender and generations.
This booksurveys how rapid changes taking place at the start of the 21st century in social, cultural, political and economic domains impact on sexuality, health and human rights.
This book explores what women are doing to change their own personal circumstances and provides an analysis of collective action and institutionalised mechanisms aimed at changing structural relations.
Practical guides
- Neither Egypt nor Lebanon can be said to offer social or legal environments that are supportive of sexual and gender nonconformists (SGNs) – at least not at the present time.
- Lebanese police and judiciary continue to target SGNs, particularly those from the most disadvantaged parts of society. However, some of Lebanon’s SGNs can now count on the social and legal backing of a steadily growing pro-SGN circle.
- Egypt still retains its colonial-era laws regulating sex.
- Although Egypt’s Constitution does not explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, the state’s harassment of SGNs clearly contradicts Articles 58 and 57 of the current constitution.
This report focuses on the rights of sexual and gender nonconformists in Egypt and Lebanon. It explores the somewhat similar social attitudes towards sexual and gender nonconformity and follows the divergent trajectories of both countries with regards to sexual rights activism.
This guide provides background on a number of tools for advocacy and social mobilisation, direct action, education for transformation, community transformation and designing a learning event. It draws on the reflections of participants in the Vishtar’s Gender, Diversity and Social Transformation in India.
This policy advocacy toolkit was developed to assist African civil society organisations. The resources address issues related to the achievement of gender equality; the prevention of HIV and AIDS and gender-based violence; the promotion of sexual and reproductive health and rights; as well as involved parenting and the rights of LGBTI people.
A toolkit produced to support effective media engagement to influence the post 2015 agenda.
This 'pay what you want' e-book (or free through social media) is a guide to understanding gender from a social justice perspective. It includes gender exploration, social justice 'how-tos', practical resources, and graphics.
Clips and documentaries
Sex Workers talk about the impact of the Anti Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking Law in Cambodia.
A film that exposes the hidden world of sexual and gender-based violence against men in the conflicts of the Great Lakes Region.
Digital mapping and visualisation tools
This website is the product of research conducted by members of Nepal’s sexual and gender minorities in collaboration with Paul Boyce and Daniel Coyle as part of a larger research project on sexuality and law around the world.
HarassMap uses mobile and online technology together with an offline community mobilisation effort in neighborhoods throughout Egypt to map incidents of sexual harassment and violence.
Newspaper articles & blog posts
This blog post discusses violence against Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender women as a multi-faceted development issue.
Dan Glass reflects on his experiences of Vishtar’s Gender, Diversity and Social Transformation in India.
Participants in the first Love Matters Music Award were coached by international experts and had the chance to perform their songs live to a live audience. In this blog post, workshop facilitators Arno Peeters and Iris Honderos, report on the learning processs and share insights into creating messages through music.
If Pope Francis’s mission is to push for an end to violence and for peace and reconciliation, sex education and sexual violence need to be high on his agenda argues Pauline Oosterhoff.
Simon Colmer on his learning while visualising online survey data after using these techniques as part of research on transgender peoples and livelihood options in Vietnam.
Elizabeth Mills explores her recent report on the Sustainable Development Goal framework. She highlights the importance of language, evidence from the Sexuality, Poverty and Law Programme and the roles of international institutions and the UK government.
Ntokozo Yingwana talks about her work coding, analysing and summarising IDS Sexuality, Poverty and Law programme Evidence Reports. She summarises the findings and recommendations under the theme, 'economy, employment and livelihoods'.
Blog post by Stephen Wood for IDS in which he explains his argument that sexuality needs to be championed as a core concern of development.
As a participant in Vishtar’s Gender, Diversity and Social Transformation in India, Dan Laverick talks about his experiences, including sharing learning with others, the meaning of poverty and understandings of gender.
Blog post by Xiapei He for IDS, which talks about the work of the Pink Space NGO to explore the sexual desires and needs of people with disabilities in China.
This blog post argues that the idea of ‘sexuality’ as political object and the perpetration of a racialised discourse of difference that highlights the colonial continuities in ‘development’.
This blog post argues that while it is important for LGBT rights to play a greater role in UK foreign policy outlook, cracks in the government’s new positive approach are beginning to show.
This post argues that the transgender and bisexual rights agendas are viewed as marginal or quietly ignored in favour of the 'broader' gay equality agenda.
