GSDRC

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Home»Governance

Governance

Safety, security & justice topic guide

Elections & democracy support reading pack

Crisis management models in Africa

Helpdesk Report
  • Brigitte Rohwerder
February 2015

The rapid review uncovered very little literature detailing general crisis management models in Africa. It found almost no literature on the experience of using such crisis management models in relation to crises such as public disorder, political unrest, and epidemics. However, some independent evaluations of crisis management models used to respond to food security crises ...» more

Multi-agency stabilisation operations

Helpdesk Report
  • Becky Carter
February 2015

While there is as yet limited empirical evidence of what works best in multi-agency – or ‘whole-of-government’ – approaches to stabilisation, the literature does identify some lessons learned and principles of good practice. These include: Overcoming common challenges: establishing transparent processes to identify and manage tensions and trade-offs between neutral humanitarian ...» more

Improving access to justice through information and communication technologies

Helpdesk Report
  • Siân Herbert
February 2015

Legal empowerment aims to enable citizens to actively use the law and shape it to their needs. Examples of awareness-raising and legal education initiatives using ICTs include: using television and radio talk shows to build links between the formal and informal justice systems; broadcasting documentaries on local television stations to promote gender equality; etc. Many ...» more

Social media and governance

Helpdesk Report
  • Evie Browne
January 2015

The literature suggests that social media has a lot of potential to be used for governance purposes, but that this is not capitalised on in most contexts. Many governments are using e-government strategies and disseminating information through online channels, but not soliciting citizen feedback. Where there are two-way channels, it is very unclear whether citizen feedback is ...» more

Policy approaches and lessons from working with non-state actors in security and justice

Helpdesk Report
  • Siân Herbert
January 2015

DFID has a rule of law policy approach. Programming decisions are made by a context-based, problem solving approach and therefore the policy does not identify overarching actors or themes for engagement. Is one of few donors to have published a briefing (DFID, 2004) entirely focussed on engaging with non-state security and justice actors. Engaging with non-state actors is also ...» more

Grievance Redress Mechanisms in Bangladesh

Helpdesk Report
  • Brigitte Rohwerder
January 2015

The rapid literature review identifies literature on types of grievance redress mechanisms (GRM) in Bangladesh. Many current and proposed grievance redress mechanisms in Bangladesh have a number of similar features including: An assigned focal point or grievance redress officer who manage the grievance redress mechanism. There are different focal points for different levels ...» more

Donor policy approaches to security and justice

Helpdesk Report
  • Siân Herbert
January 2015

This rapid policy mapping gives an overview of security and justice policies from the following donors and development agencies: DFID; European Commission; USAID; AFD; SIDA; World Bank; BMZ; and JICA. In terms of the differences and similarities to DFID’s approach, it finds that DFID is one of the only donors that conceptualises security and justice as a joint policy area, ...» more

Lessons from Female Engagement Teams

Helpdesk Report
  • Brigitte Rohwerder
January 2015

Evaluations of Female Engagement Teams (FETs) used by the military to engage with women in Afghanistan that are available indicate that: Female soldiers have had a deescalating effect as Afghan males generally accepted females being searched as long as it was done by other females. FETs have had positive engagement with both women and men and were viewed as a kind of ‘third ...» more

Examples of PFM impacts on gender equality

Helpdesk Report
  • Sumedh Rao
January 2015

Research for this report was unable to find conclusive cases where public financial management (PFM) reform led to impacts on gender equality. This is because PFM reform does not necessarily lead to gender equality impacts, and conversely improvements in gender equality do not always require, or follow on from, PFM reform. It may also be that gender impacts are rarely covered ...» more

Inclusive growth

Topic Guide
  • Kyle Alexander
January 2015

Absolute poverty has fallen substantially over the last 30 years, with most of this reduction attributable to rapid economic growth in developing countries. Yet growth often does not meet the needs of the poor. Economic growth in the absence of measures to ensure the sustained equitable distribution of its benefits has frequently perpetuated the concentration of wealth in the ...» more

Social media and conflict management in post-conflict and fragile contexts

Helpdesk Report
  • Brigitte Rohwerder
January 2015

Some of the roles social media has played in conflict management include: In some cases social media and other new media tools have been used to help hold governments accountable, bring citizens together to protest violence, coordinate relief efforts, empower citizens, provide information to reduce tensions, and build bridges of understanding across boundaries. In other cases ...» more

Policy objectives and evidence of impacts

Topic Guide
January 2015

Social protection can have a wide range of objectives and impacts, from food security, access to services, gender equality, and state-building, to social transformation. The emphasis in developing countries has been on poverty and vulnerability reduction, and human development, for which there is good evidence. There is less evidence on longer-term developmental impacts such as ...» more

Global issues and debates

Topic Guide
January 2015

Page contents Coverage, scale and systems Financing and affordability Political economy Targeting Conditionalities Shocks and risks Fragile and conflict-affected states State-building Coverage, scale and systems The last 15 years have seen a huge increase in social protection programmes, both the number of programmes and number of countries which have ...» more

Tax reform

Topic Guide
  • Sumedh Rao
December 2014

Tax reform can reduce tax evasion and avoidance, and allow for more efficient and fair tax collection that can finance public goods and services. It can make revenue levels more sustainable, and can promote future independence from foreign aid and natural resource revenues. There is increasing recognition of taxation’s role in state-building, in addition to greater ...» more

Social policy

E-Learning
  • Reading pack
  • Armando Barrientos
November 2014

The development of social policy as a discipline is associated with the emergence of welfare states in European countries. This reading guide provides the user with some key texts and narrative. The development of European countries involved the progressive extension of rights, civil rights in the 18th century, political rights in the 19th century, and…» more

Gender in development

E-Learning
  • Reading pack
  • Anne Marie Goetz
November 2014

Gender inequality matters to development for two reasons. First, it is a justice problem. Ideologies of women’s inferiority are used to justify serious human rights abuses including female infanticide, child marriage, female genital mutilation, sexual violence, and deprivation of equal access to health care, education, property, employment and pay. Second, gender inequality is developmentally inefficient….» more

Public service reform

E-Learning
  • Reading pack
  • Willy McCourt
November 2014

The focus in this Pack is on action: on the public service reform intervention, conceived as an exercise in helping. The readings included in this pack have been chosen to be interesting and fresh rather than comprehensive; that is, to stimulate thinking rather than necessarily to ‘cover all the bases’ in public service reform as…» more

Formal and informal policing in Iraq

Helpdesk Report
  • Sumedh Rao
December 2014

Within the literature there seems to be a number of common themes and recommendations: Supporting the judiciary and improving investigative capability: Greater security for the judiciary and improved legal education, improved capacity of lawyers, as well as greater support for investigative capability. Improving police-community relations: This can be through setting up joint ...» more

Impact and implications of the Ebola crisis

Helpdesk Report
  • Brigitte Rohwerder
December 2014

Political impact and implications: Initial analysis suggests that governments' poor management of the Ebola crisis has generated frustrations and exposed citizens’ lack of trust in their governments. The Ebola crisis is likely to play a very political role in the next election in Sierra Leone and there are predictions that the opposition will win as a result. Economic impact ...» more

Donor action on women’s employment in ASEAN countries – update

Helpdesk Report
  • Emilie Combaz
December 2014

This report updates on an earlier report on the same topic. It confirms that donor action on women’s employment and entrepreneurship has been limited or very recent in ASEAN countries. The ILO is the major aid entity involved. Other major ones include the Asian Development Bank, UN Women and the International Finance Corporation. Limitations and gaps in the literature are ...» more

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