This K4DD Rapid Evidence Review looks at the evidence for political culture influencing development outcomes, specifically economic growth. It focuses on two indicators of political culture removed from the revised Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI): satisfaction with democracy (SWD) and consensus building. There is strong correlation between levels of SWD and ...» more
Governance
GESI Dimensions of Human Smuggling and Trafficking in East Africa
This K4DD Rapid Evidence Review looks at the gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) dimensions of human smuggling and trafficking in five countries in East Africa: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan (in their role as source countries), and Kenya (as a transit/destination country). It finds consistent evidence that women/girls and refugees/IDPs, in particular, as well as ...» more
Innovative Programmes in the Governance Sector
This K4DD Rapid Evidence Review gives examples of effective and innovative governance programmes, which move away from ‘traditional’ donor-driven approaches. The examples have been selected to be diverse in terms of geographic region and aspect of governance (access to justice, citizen participation, accountability, etc.). Other considerations were: large-scale (ideally ...» more
Enablers for the Effective Adoption of AI at the National and City Level
This rapid evidence review collates available evidence on key enablers for the effective adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at national and city level in low- and middle-income countries. The review draws upon an expanding evidence base that includes academic and grey literature. The evidence base is evolving with an increasing range of countries and cities rapidly ...» more
Case Studies on Progressive Taxation in Low-Income Countries
This rapid evidence review draws on a set of country case studies to examine how low-income countries have sought to make their tax systems more progressive. It looks at concrete examples of tax reforms aimed at improving fairness in how the tax burden is distributed and at strengthening domestic revenue mobilisation. By examining different policy approaches and reform ...» more
Varieties of state capture
Zenobia Ismail Abstract: The literature on state capture is growing and encompasses more countries and contexts. This paper argues that it is time to consider varieties of capture that have different trajectories and outcomes. Two factors, the level of democracy and the strength of institutions, are proposed as starting points for thinking about varieties of capture. Using ...» more
Successful Collaboration Models in Science, Technology and Innovation Ecosystems
This K4DD Rapid Evidence Review collates available evidence on successful collaboration models in science, technology and innovation ecosystems between India and other countries. The review draws upon an eclectic evidence base that includes grey literature, press announcements and Memoranda of Understanding as wall as the outputs of multi- and bilateral development actors. ...» more
Serious and Organised Crime in Tanzania
This K4DD Rapid Evidence Review explores the main serious and organised crime (SOC) markets, actors and dynamics in Tanzania. The review draws largely on grey literature, notably reports by think tanks and practitioners. Literature and data is limited due to the illicit nature of the subject. Given this and the limited timeframe for this work, this review should be ...» more
Scaling plastic reuse models in LMICs
To read the full article Click Here This Rapid Evidence Review synthesizes the current evidence base on the design and scalability of “refill on the go” and “return on the go” plastic reuse models in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). With plastic pollution rising sharply, transitioning from single-use to reuse systems presents a significant opportunity to reduce ...» more
Financing the Africa we want? Reflections from the 2025 Ibrahim Governance Weekend
Arol Dut* The Ibrahim Governance Weekend (IGW) is an annual event organized by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, with this year’s event held in Marrakech. Under the theme ‘Financing The Africa We Want’, the participants included Now Generation Network members, civil society representatives, current and former African leaders, university professors, among others, who are ...» more
Is state capture coming to the United States? Americans can learn to recognise it from the experiences of other countries
Zenobia Ismail* Corruption involving the state, such as neopatrimonialism, clientelism and crony capitalism, are generally perceived to occur mainly in emerging democracies in the Global South or Eastern Europe. The so-called mature democracies tend to be seen as largely immune from extensive corruption. However, the unprecedented influence of business elites like Elon ...» more
Participatory methods for community consultation
This annotated bibliography identifies literature about specific participatory methods and tools for community consultation. Key findings Some donors have used particular participatory methodologies to inform country level strategy – such as Participatory Poverty Assessments by the World Bank and a donor staff immersion approach by the Swiss Agency for Development and ...» more
Community Monitoring of Service Delivery
Community involvement in the systematic collection of information to assess the quality of public services can take many forms. Mechanisms include citizen report cards (survey-based quantitative assessments of services) community scorecards (quantitative surveys combined with qualitative meetings), social audits (combination of the two) or participatory expenditure tracking. ...» more
Donor Support for the Human Rights of LGBT+
This rapid review synthesises evidence on the bilateral and multilateral donors promoting and protecting the human rights of LGBT+ people on a global scale. It focusses on those donors that have policies, implementation plans and programmes on LGBT+ rights. This review also examines the evidence on the impact of their work. The bilateral donors providing the most ...» more
Interventions to Address Discrimination against LGBTQi Persons
Most of the programmes and interventions that are mentioned in the literature address LGBTQi rights by ensuring that men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people have access to healthcare that is funded by international aid. The other main conduit of support is to use aid funds to provide financial and technical support to organisations and activists who advocate for ...» more
Increasing Birth Registration for Children of Marginalised Groups in Pakistan
This review looks at approaches to promote birth registration among marginalised groups, in order to inform programming in Pakistan. It draws on a mixture of academic and grey literature, in particular reports by international development organizations. While there is extensive literature on rates of birth registration and the barriers to this, and consensus on approaches to ...» more
Maintaining basic state functions and service delivery during escalating crises
This rapid literature review explores how to maintain essential state functions and basic service delivery during escalating conflict situations. It draws on literature and ideas from various overlapping agendas including development and humanitarian nexus; development, humanitarian and peacebuilding nexus (the “triple nexus”); fragile states; state-building; conflict ...» more
Donor Support to Electoral Cycles
This rapid literature review explains the stages of an election cycle, and how donors provide support to electoral cycles. It draws mainly on policy guidance websites and papers due to the questions of this review and the level of analysis taken (global-level, donor-level). It focuses on publications from the last five years, and/or current/forthcoming donor strategies. The ...» more
COVID-19, governance, and conflict: emerging impacts and future evidence needs
This paper reviews emerging evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on governance and conflict, using a “governance and conflict first” approach in contrast to other research and synthesis on COVID-19 in the social sciences that tends to be structured through a public health lens. It largely focuses on evidence on low- and middle-income countries but also includes a number of ...» more
Water in Sustainable Agriculture Standards
Sustainable agricultural standards, hereafter standards, is a broad term encompassing certification schemes, tools, and programmes. The International Trade Centre’s Sustainability Standards Map includes 166 agricultural standards. However, there is a smaller number of prominent standards that are popularly used by major retailers or for particular commodities. Two studies ...» more
