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Home»Governance»State-society relations

State-society relations

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

Parliamentary transparency and accountability

Helpdesk Report
  • Linnea Mills
April 2017

This report presents and discusses what evidence exists about initiatives to promote transparency among legislators, members of parliament (MPs), and legislative processes and what impact this has had on legislative accountability. In this report we distinguish between two types of accountability: vertical (in which citizens play a direct role in holding the powerful to ...» more

Transparency and accountability in fragile and conflict-affected settings

Helpdesk Report
  • Andy McDevitt
April 2017

Over the past 10 years, there have been numerous meta-studies and syntheses of the impact and effectiveness of transparency and accountability initiatives (TAIs), many of which attempt to incrementally add value to the existing evidence base or offer new perspectives on existing conclusions. These studies are almost unanimous in their conclusion that little of practical or ...» more

Implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in Libya

Helpdesk Report
  • Iffat Idris
January 2017

The literature on gender equality, development and security suggests that sustainable peace and successful long-term development are linked to gender equality policies (Selimovic & Larsson, 2014: 5). UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (SCR 1325), approved in 2000, reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace-building, and in ...» more

Civil society organisations and accountability in cash transfer programmes

Helpdesk Report
  • Brigitte Rohwerder
November 2016

Cash transfer programmes, like most social protection programmes, are vulnerable to fraud, errors, corruption and misuse of funds, which undermine their achievements1 (Perron, 2012: 1; Bhargava and Raha, 2015: vi). Effective mechanisms for transparency, accountability and participation help minimise those in need being wrongfully excluded from programme rolls; discourages ...» more

Branding and communication of development assistance

Helpdesk Report
  • Edward Laws
November 2016

In recent years, international donors and non-governmental organisations have placed increasing emphasis on prominently branding the development interventions that they fund. Spreading knowledge about the identity of an aid project sponsor is one mechanism by which donor governments conduct local level diplomacy with direct beneficiaries and through which they hope to influence ...» more

Urban governance

Topic Guide
  • William Robert Avis
November 2016
Seoul sunrise panorama

What is urban governance and why does it matter? How can key urban policy issues be addressed? This topic guide introduces the literature on urban governance and its relationship to growth and poverty reduction. It considers the key debates and issues, and sets out some implications for practice on specific urban governance challenges. ...» more

CSOs supporting accountability in cash transfer programmes

Helpdesk Report
  • Brigitte Rohwerder
November 2016

Cash transfer programmes, like most social protection programmes, are vulnerable to fraud, errors, corruption and misuse of funds, which undermine their achievements.  Civil society organisations (CSOs) have supported, or provided, accountability mechanisms in countries around the world: working to improve transparency to help citizens hold authorities accountable; checking ...» more

Dominant party systems and development programming

Helpdesk Report
  • Edward Laws
October 2016

There is a lack of applied thinking or rigorous empirical investigation into how donors and the international community can work with dominant party systems to promote more responsive state-society relations, or other forms of development progress. Frequently cited examples of existing research are not based on recent, systematic comparative research and focus mainly on ...» more

Social movements

E-Learning
  • Reading pack
  • Alina Rocha Menocal
September 2016

Social movements as contentious politics Social movements are large, often informal groupings of people who come together against power holders around a common cause, in response to situations of perceived inequality, oppression and/or unmet social, political, economic or cultural demands. At their core, social movements are not about “polite debate” or “invited spaces” of interaction between…» more

Open data, transparency and accountability

Topic Guide
  • Liz Carolan
September 2016

Open data involves the release of data so that anyone can access, use and share it. One of the main objectives of making data open is to promote transparency. For open data and transparency initiatives to lead to accountability, the required conditions include: getting the right data published; enabling actors to find, process and use information, and to act on any outputs; ...» more

Social movements

Topic Guide
  • Aditi Bhonagiri
August 2016

Social movements express social, cultural, political or economic concerns locally, nationally or transnationally, and they are found in both democratic and repressive states. A variety of actors use social movements to champion a cause and direct, promote or resist change. This topic guide introduces some of the key literature and debates on social movements and collective ...» more

Priority gender issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine

Helpdesk Report
  • Pamela Pozarny; Brigitte Rohwerder
June 2016

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Despite some progress being made towards achieving gender equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), gender stereotyping and discrimination against women remain widespread. Key findings include: Awareness and implementation of the Law on Gender Equality (LGE) is weak. Gender stereotypes are prevalent in the media. Few women serve as ...» more

Power, politics and popular mobilisation

E-Learning
  • Reading pack
  • Patta Scott-Villiers
May 2016

In his book, the Rebirth of History (2012), Alain Badiou observed that “we find ourselves in a time of riots”. Paying attention to contemporary popular uprisings allows us to take the pulse of the street; homing in on people’s grievances and desires, how they conflict and temporarily converge, and how they counter or correspond with…» more

Media and governance

E-Learning
  • Reading pack
  • James Deane
May 2016

In fast-changing media and communication environments more people are connected than ever before. While most acknowledge that the influence and impact of changing media and communication on governance outcomes is growing, the degree to which new media landscapes are contributing to more informed, peaceful and accountable societies remains in question.  For some, increasingly networked young,…» more

State-society relations and citizenship

Topic Guide
  • Huma Haider with Claire Mcloughlin
April 2016

State-society relations, citizenship and socio-political cohesion are areas of great importance to statebuilding and peacebuilding and are crucial to an integrated approach. State-society relations are defined by DFID as ‘interactions between state institutions and societal groups to negotiate how public authority is exercised and how it can be influenced by people. They are ...» more

Analysis of the Arab Spring

Helpdesk Report
  • Iffat Idris
April 2016

There has been much analysis of the causes and rapid spread of the 2011 Arab Spring (or Arab uprisings). General consensus emerges on a combination of political, economic and social factors as being critical. These can be divided into: a) structural, long-standing, underlying factors that led to a build-up of popular anger and frustration in Arab countries; and b) proximate, ...» more

Citizen voice and action

E-Learning
  • Reading pack
  • Andrea Cornwall
March 2016

No democratic government can afford not to listen to the voices of its citizens. There a three reasons for this. First, it is a matter of common sense. Involving people in discussions about how to tackle a problem that affects their lives is much more likely to generate successful solutions. If opportunities are made to…» more

Infomediaries and accountability

Helpdesk Report
  • Becky Carter
March 2016

The term “infomediaries” – or information intermediaries – is used to refer to actors who “synthesize, translate, simplify and direct information on behalf of others”. There appears to be strong evidence of the link between free media and better governance and government responsiveness on a range of issues (e.g. public spending on education and health). A DFID review on ...» more

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