Jo Howard Institute of Development Studies, UK

Jo Howard is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, where she leads the IDS Participation, Inclusion and Social Change Research Cluster, and convenes the MA programme in Power, Participation and Social Change. After working with an NGO for six years in Central America, she trained as a researcher and has worked in the UK, Latin America, Africa and Asia. She uses participatory action research methods with community groups to promote and support processes of accountability, empowerment, citizenship and inclusion; she also convenes short courses and tailored learning processes with NGOs, INGOs and government departments, to enable them to use participatory approaches, reflective practice and increase knowledge exchange. Through a focus on participatory methodologies as enablers of social justice, she has supported peer-peer and other participatory research processes in the UK, India, Ghana, Egypt, Uganda, South Africa and Nicaragua. She is a member of the editorial board of the Community Development Journal, and co-edited their special issue (2020) on ‘Intersecting inequalities and prospects for community development’.