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Home»Governance»State-society relations

State-society relations

Faith-based organisations and current development debates

Helpdesk Report
  • Rachel Cooper
June 2020

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

Helpdesk Report
  • William Avis
June 2020

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

Helpdesk Report
  • Iffat Idris
April 2020

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

Helpdesk Report
  • Iffat Idris
December 2019

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

Helpdesk Report
  • Zenobia Ismail
August 2019

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

Helpdesk Report
  • Zenobia Ismail
February 2019

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?

Helpdesk Report
  • Rachel Cooper
January 2019

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

Helpdesk Report
  • Zenobia Ismail
January 2019

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

Helpdesk Report
  • Siân Herbert
July 2018

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

Helpdesk Report
  • Zenobia Ismail
July 2018

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

Helpdesk Report
  • Anna Orrnert
March 2018

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

Helpdesk Report
  • Dylan O’Driscoll
March 2018

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

Helpdesk Report
  • Iffat Idris
March 2018

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

Helpdesk Report
  • Dylan O’Driscoll
February 2018

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

Helpdesk Report
  • Brigitte Rohwerder
January 2018

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

Women’s participation in peacebuilding and reconciliation in Iraq

Helpdesk Report
  • Dylan O’Driscoll
November 2017

This rapid review synthesises data from academic, policy and NGO sources on women’s participation in peacebuilding in Iraq. Peacebuilding will be defined as a ‘range of measures targeted to reduce the risk of lapsing or relapsing into conflict by strengthening national capacities at all levels for conflict management and to lay the foundation for sustainable peace and ...» more

Rohingya refugee crisis: impact on Bangladeshi politics

Helpdesk Report
  • Iffat Idris
November 2017

The huge Rohingya refugee influx into Bangladesh is seen in the literature as likely to strengthen the position of the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League party. However, there are concerns that it will lead to further authoritarianism in the country, as well as fuel extremist sentiment. The Bangladeshi public are generally supportive of the ...» more

Higher education, developmental leadership and good governance

Helpdesk Report
  • Giuditta Fontana
September 2017

The last decade has witnessed a renewed interest in the social benefits of higher education, with recent research suggesting that universities have a role in nurturing developmental leaders who enable positive change and better governance in low-income and conflict-affected countries (Brannelly et al, 2011b). This review summarises available evidence on the relationship ...» more

Social capital in Yemen

Helpdesk Report
  • Becky Carter
June 2017

Social capital in Yemen is informed primarily by tribal affiliation, particularly in rural areas and in the north. Other important sources including faith based institutions, local community solidarity initiatives, civil society organisations and support from the diaspora. While social capital has been eroded due to political, social and economic changes in recent years, the ...» more

Transparency and accountability initiatives in the extractives sector

Helpdesk Report
  • Andy McDevitt
April 2017

Research on the impact and effectiveness of transparency and accountability initiatives (TAIs) targeted at the extractives sector is hard to come by. With the exception of some more systematic evaluation of the impact of multi-stakeholder initiatives, in particular the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the existing evidence is weak. Indeed, beyond the ...» more

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Outputs supported by FCDO are © Crown Copyright 2021; outputs supported by the Australian Government are © Australian Government 2021; and outputs supported by the European Commission are © European Union 2021
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Outputs supported by FCDO are © FCDO Crown Copyright 2021; outputs supported by the Australian Government are © Australian Government 2021; and outputs supported by the European Commission are © European Union 2021

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