Social safety nets in fragile and conflict-affected states often include cash and in-kind transfers, school feeding programmes and public works programmes (O’Brien, Scott, Smith, Barca, Karden, Holmes, Watson & Congrave, 2018). Programmes often target vulnerable households, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in order to reduce their exposure to shocks and ...» more
Development Pressures
Livestock and Conflict in South Sudan
Livestock are critically important in South Sudanese society1 and this is reflected in the role livestock play in the country’s conflict, both serving as drivers of conflict and being negatively impacted by the conflict, with the two often reinforcing each other in a vicious cycle. This review drew largely on a mixture of academic and grey literature to assess the ...» more
Rebuilding Pastoralist Livelihoods During and After Conflict
The impacts of different approaches to protecting and promoting/rebuilding pastoralist livelihoods during and after conflict is mixed, complicated by the evolving nature of the conflict (including its different forms), the range of pastoral groups operating across African contexts and the supranational nature of their activities. This rapid review synthesises findings from a ...» more
Legislation and Policy Addressing Inequality and Redistribution in Rwanda
This report is one of three related K4D helpdesk reports on inequality in Rwanda. The other two examine links between poverty, inequality and exclusion (Carter 2018) and provide data on inequalities (Orrnert 2018). This review summarises key national policies and legislation related to inequality and redistribution in Rwanda. Where available, this review provides insights ...» more
Approaches to remote monitoring in fragile states
Provide an update to the 2013 GSDRC report ‘Remote management of projects in fragile states’, focusing on new remote monitoring approaches, tools and examples that are being used, specifically on third party monitoring approaches. In complex environments, where the root causes of conflict are often entrenched and dynamic, ensuring that the right information from multiple ...» more
Humanitarian interventions for food/nutrition support in Ethiopia
There are many evidence gaps in the delivery of humanitarian food/nutrition aid. Evaluation of the relative cost‐effectiveness of dietary response projects is confounded by the fact that different projects can have different objectives (USAID, 2015). Ethiopia has made progress in meeting emergency needs, including through the Government of Ethiopia-led Productive Safety Net ...» more
Effectiveness of programmes supporting migrants in Africa
Despite a growing body of research on migration and development, the literature highlights the limited empirical evidence available on the effectiveness of migration programmes. The aid-spending departments of the UK government are in the process of identifying how UK aid contributes to tackling the “root causes of mass migration” and developing new, targeted programmes. A ...» more
Migration, forced displacement and social protection
The purpose of this paper is to set out a common framework, language and understanding of the relevance of social protection to different groups of migrants and forcibly displaced people. There are an estimated 244 million people currently living in a country other than that of their birth. This group of people includes wealthier migrants, able to access high levels of ...» more
Emergency humanitarian response to longer-term development in refugee crises
This report provides a rapid literature review of the evidence on emergency humanitarian response to longer-term development in refugee crises. While the scope of the report did not allow for complex judgements to be made about the quality of the body of evidence, or of the strength of individual pieces of evidence, an evidence table is provided in Annex A to enable the reader ...» more
Developmental impacts of interventions to support legal migration
There is very little impact evaluation evidence of the developmental outcomes of interventions to support regular migration. The review identified only one migration intervention (the New Zealand Recognised Seasonal Employment Programme) which had had rigorous impact evaluations conducted: the scheme was found to have positive impacts on employers, migrants and origin countries ...» more
National climate change governance
Without the rapid implementation of pro-poor, climate-informed development policies, climate change impacts could result in 100 million more people in extreme poverty by 2030. Development policies need to consider climate risk scenarios while expanding ‘no-regrets’ social protection programmes that provide benefits to vulnerable populations under different climate ...» more
Evidence on education as a driver for migration
This report synthesises two previous reports on drivers of migration1, and focuses on the evidence on education’s role. The previous reports focused on education and migration in fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS), and youth employment and education in low and middle income countries. The papers presented below reflect these original criteria, but reframe the studies ...» more
Drivers of Syrian refugee onward migration from Jordan to Europe
This helpdesk report discusses the main drivers of Syrian refugee onward movement from Jordan to Europe. They include: Limited livelihood opportunities: Syrian refugees were largely prevented from accessing Jordan’s formal labour market from 2011 to 2015 (Lenner and Schmelter, 2016). Lack of livelihood opportunities has contributed to poverty and hardship (DRC, 2016; REACH, ...» more
Syrian refugee onward migration from Jordan to Europe
There has been a massive influx of Syrian refugees into Jordan since the Syrian conflict began: the official figure is over 650,000 but the actual number is likely to be much higher (ACAPS, 2016: 1). Only 21.5 per cent of registered Syrian refugees are living in camps; 78.5 per cent are in urban areas, distributed as follows: Amman (26.4 per cent), Mafraq (23.9 per cent), Irbid ...» more
Urban governance
What is urban governance and why does it matter? How can key urban policy issues be addressed? This topic guide introduces the literature on urban governance and its relationship to growth and poverty reduction. It considers the key debates and issues, and sets out some implications for practice on specific urban governance challenges. ...» more
National climate governance and politics
In the wake of the Paris Agreement on climate change, multilaterals and aid agencies are shifting significant attention to the national arena, where the fulfilment of climate commitments will depend upon new legal and regulatory frameworks, supporting institutions, and the political support within and outside the government. The characteristics of climate change—complexity, uncertainty, irreversibility, and…» more
Organised crime, violence and development
Organised crime ranges from protection economies and extortion rackets to cybercrime, oil theft, money laundering, counterfeiting, maritime piracy and the trafficking and/or smuggling of people, firearms, illicit drugs, and wildlife. It is sometimes associated with violence, but there is no strong correlation between them. Conventional law enforcement and security approaches to ...» more
Urban governance in fragile cities
The planet is urbanising at a rapid pace. There is no agreed definition of what constitutes a city, however the world’s new geography includes dozens of super cities (population of 40 million+), hyper-cities (population of at least 20 million), conurbations and more. While a number of the world’s largest cities still reside in North America…» more
Webinar: Urban governance
On July 13 2016, Dr Robert Muggah (Igarapé Institute), and Dr Jaideep Gupte (IDS) joined GSDRC Research Fellow Dr William Avis to discuss key issues on urban governance, including urban governance in fragile cities. An audio-only version is available here.
Climate change and social development
This topic guide synthesises literature on the links between climate change and social development, and includes evidence of their interactions, lessons, approaches and tools. It considers climate change impacts and climate-relevant interventions in the following areas: five sectors: agriculture and food security, health, water, energy, and low-carbon transport; three ...» more
