This study aims to explain (1) gender norms in sport and (2) perceptions of the role of sport in gender equality from the perspectives of Malay Muslim women sports policymakers in Malaysia. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with four policymakers and participant observation at a women's sports conference conducted in February 2020, and analyzed using a phenomenological approach. The findings indicate that Malay Muslim women policymakers perceived women's roles as mothers and wives as essential characteristics and attributed women's limited participation in sport to gendered divisions of labor and the male-centered structure of sport. However, these conditions were not recognized as forms of inequality; instead, women's power was understood in terms of invisible managerial capacities and emotional self-control, conceptualized as “inner strength.” Policymakers generally perceived gender equality as already achieved and framed the role of sport primarily in terms of expanding educational and employment opportunities. At the same time, the findings suggest that female athletes' social influence is mobilized to transmit state-endorsed notions of “femininity,” thereby potentially reproducing existing gender norms. By foregrounding policymakers' meanings and interpretations, this study demonstrates that, within Sport for Development and Peace (SDP), the promotion of gender equality may coexist with the reproduction of gender norms through female athletes' bodies. It further highlights how sport policy in Islamic contexts is shaped by the intersection of family values, gender norms, and nationalism, and reconsiders power in sport governance as a culturally embedded and often invisible practice rather than solely formal authority.

In the global debate on aid effectiveness and state capacity, “country ownership” is often portrayed as a unified national commitment to development goals. However, this macro-level perspective often overlooks the complexities of implementation on the ground. This paper bridges the gap between ideals and practices of policy by exploring the lived experiences of social protection sector practitioners in Malawi. It investigates how civil servants and development professionals exercise their agencies while navigating the tension between international aid mandates and domestic political incentives.

Drawing on 26 in-depth interviews with government officials, donor staff, and other stakeholders conducted between late 2023 and early 2024, the study employs a political economy analysis using the Political Settlements (PS) and Adapted Political Settlements (APS) frameworks. These lenses reveal a state of “fragmented ownership,” where the sector is divided into competing sides of influence. The analysis shows that donors dominate the technocratic national social support policy framework through their financial leverage and global norms. In contrast, politicians retain tight control over agricultural input subsidies, prioritising these programmes to secure electoral support and political survival.

In this fractured landscape, social protection workers are active mediators, not passive implementers. The study reveals that they face substantial ‘coordination costs’ — the undocumented administrative burden required to maintain these discordant systems. Facing a government reluctant to engage with their concerns, practitioners attempt to translate donor logic into political language, framing social protection as “investment” to capture elite attention. Furthermore, they are strategically pursuing the establishment of legal frameworks as a mechanism to reclaim professional autonomy and force donors to comply with national rules. This study argues that in aid-dependent contexts, ownership is not a static institutional attribute. Rather, it is a dynamic process. It is sustained only by the adaptive mediation of practitioners who hold these fragmented elements together through their daily labour.

This study established design criteria for decentralized wastewater treatment systems (DEWATS) to advance sustainable sanitation in ASEAN countries, where sewer networks are limited and financial resources are constrained. Using Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR, as a case study, data were collected through interviews and group discussions with local authorities, household surveys and field visits to evaluate the economic feasibility of implementing the DEWATS. The cost-benefit analysis evaluated the Economic Net Present Value (ENPV), Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR), and Economic Internal Rate of Return (EIRR), with the condition that the EIRR must exceed 5% over a 15-year project period. Based on these findings, three design criteria were proposed: (i) wastewater tariffs can be determined according to households' willingness and ability to pay, (ii) modular, low-maintenance systems can be adapted, and (iii) financial benchmarks ENPV greater than zero, BCR greater than one, and EIRR exceeding 5% should guide investment decisions. These criteria provide a transferable WTP/ATP-CBA analytical framework for similar ASEAN cities.

This article examines the HDP nexus from within development studies by shifting attention from the desirability of collaboration to its governance. The relief-development divide has long been contested in protracted crises, and humanitarian and development actors have often worked across it in practice. The more recent development is the extent to which such overlap is organised through common outcome formats, joint analysis, reporting rules, visibility requirements and development-finance conditions. Drawing on guidance documents, monitoring materials and public partnership documents from OCHA, OECD DAC, IASC, ICRC and selected development-finance partnerships, the article reconstructs the conditions under which HDP coordination becomes operational pressure. It defines operational pressure as a situation in which participation, access to funding, or coordination standing depends on accepting reporting, disclosure, or alignment requirements that may affect neutral, independent, and confidential humanitarian action. The ICRC's publicly documented work at the essential-services interface, especially WASH, is used as a hard case because it combines practical dependence on development expertise and finance with strong principled constraints. It argues that HDP implementation governance is compatible with humanitarian principles only when tools and standards preserve mandate autonomy, limited disclosure, differentiated reporting, opt-outs and principled-access safeguards.

This research explores the discourses and practices around children's sexuality that have remained largely invisible within residential care facilities in Bangladesh. Although previous studies have considered children's sexuality in these settings, they have tended to highlight sexual exploitation and sexual violence rather than the everyday ways in which sexuality is understood and handled within institutional life. Through an ethnographic approach combining participant observation involving both staff and children, as well as in-depth interviews with staff members, this study elucidates how understandings and practices around sexuality are shaped and justified in everyday institutional life. The findings reveal how themes such as romantic relationships, clothing, hygiene, physical affection, menstruation, and SOGIE (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression) are perceived and managed within the case-study facility. These discourses and practices were found to be formed at the intersection of the lived realities of the facility, the family, the community, and the national context, alongside the perceptions of the staff. In particular, the mutual“expectations”exchanged between the facility and the external environment played a crucial role in constructing and legitimizing the facility's approaches to sexuality. This process often served as a driving force for staff to rationalize and reinforce adult managerial intervention in children's daily lives. By focusing on these dynamics, the study demonstrates that the shaping of discourses and practices around children's sexuality within residential care facilities cannot be understood in isolation from external social relations. Furthermore, the findings reveal that in privately operated residential care facilities with weak financial bases and limited state support, it is crucial for supporters, both domestic and international, to engage with a nuanced understanding of how external voices influence the internal regulation of children's sexuality.