Despite being the original inhabitants of the equatorial forests of Africa’s Great Lakes region, Batwa are, in official terms, practically invisible. Facing ongoing discrimination resulting in poverty, unemployment and poor access to education and health care, their situation is compounded by a lack of acknowledgement of their struggles by their respective governments. It is extremely difficult, frequently impossible, to find statistics and data about the Batwa communities in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda; it is even harder to find gender-specific data about the situation of Batwa women and girls. Yet comprehensive and disaggregated data collection is vital to ensure that governments meet their obligations to protect minorities and indigenous peoples under international law, and that development programmes respond sufficiently and appropriately to the specific needs of Batwa. The requirement is particularly great in relation to Batwa girls and women who, as previously documented by Minority Rights Group International (MRG), suffer multiple forms of discrimination.

Over the past 25 years, Rwanda has undergone remarkable shifts and transitions: culturally, economically, and educationally the country has gone from strength to strength. While much scholarship has understandably been retrospective, seeking to understand, document and commemorate the Genocide against the Tutsi, this volume gathers diverse perspectives on the changing social and cultural fabric of Rwanda since 1994. Rwanda Since 1994 considers the context of these changes, particularly in relation to the ongoing importance of remembering and in wider developments in the Great Lakes and East Africa regions. Equally it explores what stories of change are emerging from Rwanda: creative writing and testimonies, as well as national, regional, and international political narratives. The contributors interrogate which frameworks and narratives might be most useful for understanding different kinds of change, what new directions are emerging, and how Rwanda's trajectory is shaped by other global factors. The international set of contributors includes creative writers, practitioners, activists, and scholars from African studies, history, anthropology, education, international relations, modern languages, law and politics. As well as delving into the shifting dynamics of religion and gender in Rwanda today, the book brings to light the experiences of lesser-discussed groups of people such as the Twa and the children of perpetrators.

The Routledge Handbook of Tourism and Indigenous Peoples presents an up-to-date, critical and comprehensive overview of established and emerging themes around Indigeneity and connections between Indigenous peoples and tourism development. Offering socio-cultural perspectives and multidisciplinary insights from leading Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars and tourism practitioners, the book explores contemporary issues, challenges and trends. Organised into six sections, the handbook explores Indigenous community involvement in tourism, Indigenous entrepreneurship and innovation, Indigenous tourism policies and politics, and the complexities of colonialism and decolonisation issues. This text focuses on the active role that Indigenous peoples have in the industry and uses international case studies and experiences to explore the global context of Indigenous tourism. This handbook fills a notable gap by offering a critical and detailed understanding of the role of Indigenous practitioners and societies in tourism and how they interact within the tourism nexus. It will be of interest to scholars, students, tourism practitioners and policymakers working in tourism, development studies, anthropology, human geography and sociology.

The field of ‘critical indigenous rights studies’ is a complex one that benefits from an interdisciplinary perspective and a realist (as opposed to an idealised) approach to indigenous peoples. This book draws on sociology of law, anthropology, political sciences and legal sciences in order to address emerging issues in the study of indigenous rights and identify directions for future research. The first part of the volume investigates how changing identities and cultures impact rights protection, analysing how policies on development and land, and processes such as migration, interrelate with the mobilisation of identities and the realisation of rights. In the second part, new approaches related to indigenous peoples’ rights are scrutinised as to their potential and relevance. They include addressing legal tensions from an indigenous peoples’ rights perspective, creating space for counter-narratives on international law and designing new instruments. Throughout the text, case studies with wide geographical scope are presented, ranging from Latin America (the book’s focus) to Egypt, Rwanda and Scandinavia.

In Uganda, conditions in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH) remain the primary drivers of morbidity and mortality, accounting for 60 percent of years of life lost. The high burden of these conditions can be attributed to a poor quality of care resulting from inadequate financial, human, and material resources compounded by weak multisectoral coordination. Moreover, the country's high population growth rate and a young population imply that RMNCAH service delivery will continue to dominate health sector reforms--even with the increasing prevalence of noncommunicable and infectious diseases. Over the past two decades, Uganda has focused on improving the quality of RMNCAH service delivery, leading to declines in the maternal, infant, and under-five mortality ratios and the increased use of modern contraception among married women. However, the neonatal mortality and teenage pregnancy rates have stagnated, and the low civil registration of births and deaths remains challenging. Investing in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health in Uganda: What Have We Learned, and Where Do We Go from Here? comprises 12 studies conducted as part of the RMNCAH Operational Research Program drafted between 2019 and 2021 and finalized and disseminated in October 2022 across 45 districts of Uganda with funding from Sweden and the World Bank. These studies underscore important lessons learned and offer suggestions for enhancing the delivery of RMNCAH interventions. Each chapter represents one study and discusses service delivery, the health workforce, financing, health information systems, and governance and leadership. Two appendixes summarize key findings and recommendations and explain the roles of key stakeholders in the RMNCAH Operational Research Program.

The Batwa communities of the Great Lakes Region are mainly former hunter-gatherers who have been evicted from their forest homes over the course of many decades. They now live as a neglected and marginalized minority, often in remote conflict and post-conflict areas. Although Batwa adults and children across the region have identified education as their most important priority, the vast majority have had little if any chance to go to school. Poverty and hunger, and the long distances they often have to travel to access schooling, prevent children from enjoying what is their fundamental human right. Batwa identity has been historically misrepresented in school curricula in the region, and this continues today. Batwa children in Burundi report being told by teachers that because they are Batwa, they are ‘worth nothing’. For Batwa, access to education means change at the most basic level, such as being able to read public signs and notices. It allows self-sufficiency and promotes self-esteem; it offers the potential to undertake training in technical skills or access to employment, all of which would help Batwa people combat the poverty they live in. The welfare of minorities within a country has repercussions for its welfare as a whole. If the social and political exclusion of the Batwa is to end, it is clear that their education opportunities must improve dramatically at every level. This report contains a wealth of first-hand research from Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda which clearly shows that more positive action is needed from governments, civil society organizations and the international community.

"Gender, age, class, ethnicity, religion, and political ideologies all matter in peacebuilding. Adopting a feminist approach, the 13th volume of International Development Policy analyses such intersecting differences in local contexts to develop a better understanding of how intersectionally gendered dynamics shape and are shaped by peacebuilding. In this volume, findings are presented from a six-year collaborative research project that, involving scholars from Indonesia, Nigeria, and Switzerland, investigated peacebuilding initiatives in Indonesia and Nigeria. The authors identify a number of logics that highlight how gender is deployed strategically or asserts itself inadvertently through gender stereotypes, gendered divisions of labour, or identity constructions. Contributors include: Mimidoo Achakpa, Ceren Bulduk, Rahel Kunz, Henri Myrttinen, Joy Onyesoh, Elisabeth Prügl, Arifah Rahmawati, Christelle Rigual and Wening Udasmoro"--

The opportunities and comfortable lifestyle available to most Australians have been denied to generations of Indigenous people. As a result some of Australia's original inhabitants suffer from what has been described as 'Fourth World' standards of health. This is out of place in a country that prides itself on egalitarianism and a fair go for all. Shifting the focus from individual behaviour, to the social and political circumstances that influence people's lives and ultimately their health, helps us to understand the origins of poor health. It can also guide action to bring about change. Social Determinants of Indigenous Health offers a systematic overview of the relationship between the social and political environment and health. Highly respected contributors from around Australia examine the long-term health impacts of the Indigenous experience of dispossession, colonial rule and racism. They also explore the role of factors such as poverty, class, community and social capital, education, employment and housing. They scrutinise the social dynamics of making policy for Indigenous Australians, and the interrelation between human rights and health. Finally, they outline a framework for effective health interventions, which take social factors into consideration. This is a groundbreaking work, developed in consultation with Indigenous health professionals and researchers. It is essential reading for anyone working in Indigenous health.

As scientists claiming specialized knowledge about indigenous peoples, especially American Indians, anthropologists used expositions to promote their quest for professional status and authority. This title shows how anthropology showcased itself "to show each half of the world how the other half lives".

Social and behavioral scientists study religion or spirituality in various ways and have defined and approached the subject from different perspectives. In cultural anthropology and archaeology the understanding of what constitutes religion involves beliefs, oral traditions, practices and rituals, as well as the related material culture including artifacts, landscapes, structural features and visual representations like rock art. Researchers work to understand religious thoughts and actions that prompted their creation distinct from those created for economic, political, or social purposes. Rock art landscapes convey knowledge about sacred and spiritual ecology from generation to generation. Contributors to this global view detail how rock art can be employed to address issues regarding past dynamic interplays of religions and spiritual elements. Studies from a number of different cultural areas and time periods explore how rock art engages the emotions, materializes thoughts and actions and reflects religious organization as it intersects with sociopolitical cultural systems.