Most Somalis share the same ethnic group, genealogy, language, customary law, culture and religion. Despite possessing many characteristics of national identity, clanship and contract are fundamental for Somali political units. Somalia has many of the traits of what is defined as a nation, and also of national identity. However, the failure of the central state to provide and ...» more
Development Pressures
Border insecurity in North Africa
The literature on border security in North Africa has several key themes: security and terrorism; migration; and goods trafficking. These issues are all intertwined. Migration and trafficking tend to follow the same geographical routes, which or may not also include weapons smuggling for extremist groups. In addition, radicalists’ movements across borders frequently interact ...» more
Livelihoods in fragile contexts
There is strong literature on both livelihoods in general and livelihoods in fragile contexts, presenting conclusions and lessons from programmes and synthesising evidence from other contexts. This review draws mainly on lessons learned in the field, rather than rigorous evidence of impact. There are few impact studies conducted on programmes in fragile environments, as ...» more
Child-friendly spaces for adolescent girls in emergency settings
The evidence base on this issue is small. Few programmes provide safe spaces exclusively for girls, although many child-friendly spaces run sessions by age and gender. Married girls and adolescent mothers are particularly under-served. Within emergency contexts, the provision of safe spaces tends to focus on psychosocial care and on developing social skills and social networks. ...» more
Aid to national human rights institutions
National human rights institutions (NHRIs) are institutions with a constitutional and/or legislative mandate to protect and promote human rights – they often take the form of human rights commissions, ombudsmen or specialised institutions that protect the rights of a particular group (UNDP-OHCHR 2010). Key findings Most NHRIs have been established over the past 20 years - and ...» more
Remote management of projects in fragile states
This report examines examples of the use of remote management of projects in fragile and conflict affected states (FCAS). Remotely-managed projects are the primary mode of practice for many development actors in countries where security risks are high. The use of remote management in development cooperation has increased significantly in recent years, with projects in many ...» more
Perception surveys in fragile and conflict affected states
Perception surveys are widely used in OECD countries, and are increasingly used in developing countries and in fragile and conflict affected states (FCAS). Some results of these surveys have been published, and are publicly available. However, many perception surveys are not published due to sensitivities around the questions and data collected. Perception surveys measure ...» more
Poor people’s rights and successful legal actions
Key finding: Landmark rulings by South Africa’s Constitutional Court in favour of poor people’s social and economic rights since the 1990s have drawn widespread attention to the law as a tool for realising poor people’s rights and tackling the underlying systemic problems in a way that empowers individuals and communities. But while there has been broad support for using the ...» more
Conflict and Stabilisation in Mali and the Sahel Region
The report covers factors including: Islamist terrorism; criminal networks and trafficking (of arms, drugs, cigarettes, and vehicles); and Tuareg rebellions against the Malian government. It also considers state weakness, including the weakness of state security structures in the north, and the role of neighbouring countries, ECOWAS, the AU and other international actors. ...» more
‘Triggers’ to scale up assistance in advance of shocks
A growing literature advocates the use of triggers for action as part of an early warning and response system for humanitarian assistance, although there is as yet little discussion of approaches to defining such triggers. Triggers based on humanitarian need can include particular triggers for different levels of crisis. The literature also notes that both 'entry' and 'exit' ...» more
Preventing conflict between refugees and host communities
This report includes programme examples from 13 countries. It highlights three main types of programme designed to tackle tensions and conflicts between refugees and host communities:Integrated humanitarian and development programmes – these seek to balance assistance to both refugee and host communities, or integrate services provided to them. Conflict resolution programmes – ...» more
Distortionary economic impacts of aid interventions in fragile states
Key findings: There is a wide range of literature that touches on the issues of economic impacts related to humanitarian and development interventions, including analyses and evaluations on different types of projects or programmes that have had impacts on the local economy. Within this literature the area of most relevance to conflict and post-conflict environments is that ...» more
Theory of Change Approaches to Post-conflict Governance Programming
In its simplest form, Theory of Change (ToC) can be defined as, ‘the description of a sequence of events that is expected to lead to a particular desired outcome’ (Davies 2012). This research report considers the application of ToC to governance programmes in post-conflict and fragile states. It should be noted that, because of what information is available, the examples ...» more
Impact of telecommunications reform on service delivery
Telecommunications have been shown to have a range of direct, indirect and intangible benefits on development and poverty reduction goals (Bhavnani et al, 2008). Where the literature allows, the report includes examples of how telecommunications reform has enabled better service outcomes in fragile and conflict-affected states, and some of the challenges of implementation in ...» more
UN Peace Support Mission Transitions
This report provides an overview of the available analysis on UN peace support transitions. The term transitions refers to situations where peace support operations withdraw and hand over responsibility to national authorities, another UN body such as a UN country team, an alternative international presence, or other regional and local actors. The available literature is mostly ...» more
UN Peace Support Mission Transitions – Sierra Leone
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) began in 1999. At its height in 2001 it consisted of some 17,500 personnel. The mission had a strong influence on how the integrated mission concept is understood and applied today, particularly with regard to integrating humanitarian politico-military efforts and the UN system in the country, operating under the ...» more
Urbanisation and Growth
The proportion of a country’s population living in urban areas is highly correlated with its level of income. The correlation between urbanisation and economic growth in developing countries can be explained largely by the fact that economic development involves the transformation of a country from an agricultural economy to an industrial-service economy. Production of ...» more
Police reform evaluations
Police reform often comes under the remit of broader security sector reform (SSR). The two are increasingly promoted in post-conflict, transitional and fragile states as a means of providing a stable environment within which wider social, economic and political development can take place. Despite this, however, researchers and practitioners argue that there is very little ...» more
Peacebuilding support in West Africa
This report identifies the major government and donor programmes that aim to contribute to peacebuilding in four West African nations – Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea. It begins by providing an overview of major partnerships and programmes, particularly those that are present in two or more of the countries. The main types of partnerships for peacebuilding in ...» more
Alternative livelihoods
The literature on ‘alternative livelihoods’ focuses primarily on efforts related to countering illicit drug crop cultivation. Links between illicit drug crop cultivation and armed conflict are noted in various contexts. Efforts to counter illicit drug crop cultivation are thus considered important to stability and security. The ‘alternative livelihoods’ approach is a ...» more
