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
State-society relations
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
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
Trends in Conflict and Stability in the Indo-Pacific
This report looks at trends in conflict and instability in the Indo-Pacific region, focusing on climate change effects and a number of civil liberties. The Indo-Pacific region is both highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and already facing significant security risks and challenges, many of which will be exacerbated by the impact of climate change. There are ...» more
Faith-based organisations and current development debates
This report provides a brief synthesis of the role of faith-based organisations in civil society. Faith-based organisations (FBOs) became more prominent in donor agendas, international development and academic research in the 1990s. There has been an increase in the number of FBOs from the 1980s onwards in response to neo-liberal policies in many countries, which resulted in ...» more
Developing More Inclusive Politics Through Sub-national Electoral Processes
In post-conflict environments, the international community plays an important role in supporting successful planning, delivery, and embedding of elections within a wider context of support to political systems and democratisation. This rapid review provides an overview of lessons on developing more inclusive politics through sub-national electoral processes in recent academic, ...» more
Responding to popular protests in the MENA region
This review looks at government responses to violent protests in a selection of countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Focusing on the 2011 Arab Spring protests, it finds that the initial response of most regimes was violent repression – Tunisia where the president stepped down, and Morocco and Jordan where the respective monarchies promised reform, are the only ...» more
Support for civil society engagement in peace processes
There is a widespread acknowledgement of the importance of civil society engagement in peace processes (Inclusive Security, 2013; Peace Direct, 2019). This is reflected in the wide range of interventions being carried out by various donors to support such engagement. This review looks at the effectiveness of interventions specifically aimed at supporting civil society groups ...» more
Government Communication Capacity and Media Freedom
The aim of this rapid literature review is to examine the relationship between government communication services and media freedom. However, this relationship receives little mention in the literature on media development and media freedom. Hence, it is very difficult to reach a consensus on the relationship between government communication services and media freedom due to the ...» more
Civil Society and Accountability in Rwanda
Donors became interested in government accountability after the release of the World Development Report in 2004. Subsequently, the World Bank and international donors supported interventions that were designed to increase transparency which in turn was expected to promote accountability in developing countries. The limited evidence from impact assessments of such interventions ...» more
What is Civil Society, its Role and Value in 2018?
Civil society is widely understood as the space outside the family, market and state (WEF, 2013). What constitutes civil society has developed and grown since the term first became popular in the 1980s and it now signifies a wide range of organised and organic groups including nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), trade unions, social movements, grassroots ...» more
Implementation Frameworks for International Summits or Conferences
International summits and conferences bring together a variety of stakeholders including high-level government actors, to discuss and agree on resolutions to tackle global problems. However, the extent to which the resolutions are implemented varies. Likewise, the extent to which governments and other stakeholders can be held accountable for the commitments that they make at ...» more
Who are the Elite Groups in Iraq and How do they Exercise Power
The 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq transformed Iraq’s political settlement by ejecting the previous elites from power and by initiating state-building processes with previously marginalised elites and different governance principles. Iraq’s current day elites and institutions are the inheritors of that process. This review summarises the post-2003 processes that structure the ...» more
Strengthening the Financial Independence of Independent Media Organisations
This report is a review of the literature on interventions and business models which can help independent media organisations to become financially sustainable. The overall finding is that independent media in developing countries are primarily reliant on grant funding. Some independent media organisations in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East are generating revenue from ...» more
Youth initiatives supporting citizen engagement with government
There is a large volume of literature on youth participation in development, including on the benefits of involving young people in local, national, regional and global governance initiatives. Although not as voluminous, there is also a significant body of work on youth participation in civic life, though much of this focuses on issues of education and employment (Oxfam 2016) ...» more
Communication interventions supporting positive civic action in Lebanon
This rapid review synthesises data from academic, policy and NGO sources on the role media can play in creating/easing tensions between refugees and the host community, and within the host community itself. Acknowledging the importance media can play in perceptions, and considering the confessional and political nature of the media, the review also maps the media/social media ...» more
Threats to and approaches to promote freedom of religion or belief
Violations of religious freedom are increasing globally in scale, depth and blatancy. Carried out by both government and non-state actors, they range from the mundane (e.g. administrative restrictions) to the extreme (e.g. genocide). A multi-layered, multi-actor approach is needed to protect and promote freedom of religion or belief. The literature stresses that approaches to ...» more
Civil Society in Authoritarian Regimes
This rapid review synthesises findings from rigorous academic, practitioner, and policy references on the role of civil society in promoting social accountability in authoritarian regimes and the ways donors can support them. The main geographic focus of this report is East Africa, with a secondary focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. In the African context civil society is best ...» more
Disability in Somalia
People with disabilities have been identified as a particularly marginalised and at risk group within Somali society as a result of the numerous attitudinal, environmental, and institutional barriers they face, and the lack of concerted efforts to include them. This rapid review identifies available evidence on the experiences of people with disabilities living in Somalia. ...» more
