Jo Beall awarded British Academy funding for waste and well-being research in Ethiopia and Pakistan

19 December 2019

"The fastest growing cities are in developing countries of the Global South. These cities already struggle to provide adequate infrastructure and stand to be overwhelmed by future demand. In this context, well-being... becomes an urgent issue necessitating creative thinking and practical solutions.

Professor Simon Goldhill, Foreign Secretary and Vice-President of the British Academy

Jo Beall, Professorial Research Fellow at LSE Cities, has been awarded British Academy funding for a new research project on waste and well-being in Ethiopia and Pakistan.

Beall, with her team, was one of 23 researchers to receive funding through the Academy's Urban Infrastructures of Well-Being programme, which aims to "support innovative interdisciplinary research with the potential to improve the lives of those living through rapid urbanisation and infrastructure development in cities of the Global South", according to its website. 

Titled "Rubbish, Resources and Residues: Waste and Well-Being in Ethiopia and Pakistan", Beall's research will investigate the need for integrated approaches to solid waste management in Karachi, Faisalabad, and Addis Ababa.

The project will be focused on policies such as decentralisation, the rise of public utilities, and the influx of refugees and migrants who compete for access to waste jobs and whose well-being are most threatened by uncollected waste.

Beall will be leading the 21-month project as principal investigator, along with Saeed Ahmed and Suneela Ahmed (NED University of Engineering), Syed Mansoor Ali (Loughborough University), Hayal Desta (Addis Ababa University), Eyob Gebremariam and Julia King (London School of Economics and Political Science).

Beall is also the co-lead investigator of Governing Infrastructure Interfaces, also a British Academy-funded project focussing on transport and sanitation infrastructure in Ethiopia slated to end in early 2020.

Click here to find out more about the "Rubbish, Resources and Residues" research project.