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
Governance
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
Promotion of Freedom of Religion or Belief
Freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) is a fundamental human right. However, the general global the trend in recent years is towards increased FoRB violations by both government and non-government actors. Notable exceptions are Sudan and Uzbekistan, which have shown significant improvement in promoting FoRB, while smaller-scale positive developments have been seen in a number ...» more
