Since the 1990s, there has been a movement away from viewing elections and electoral assistance as one-off events, towards viewing them as an integral component of democratic transition and governance. Much of the literature notes that whilst electoral assistance has generally been successful in establishing and promoting the technical aspects of elections, such technical ...» more
State-society relations
Social Assessment in Disaster Reconstruction
A ‘social assessment’ has broadly two functions: to assess the social impact of the disaster itself; and to analyse and manage the social consequences of reconstruction interventions. There seems to be relatively little material on the latter in post-disaster contexts. This query therefore focuses on the two related components of such an assessment.The first is meaningful ...» more
Multi-donor Funding for Elections in Fragile States
Basket funds have to date often been administered by UNDP, as was the case in Congo, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Togo. The main activities they have supported have been: technical assistance to the Electoral Management Body (EMB), voter registration, voter education, election monitoring, and support for civil society. Basket funds usually operate with a two-tiered ...» more
Community Participation in Disaster Rehabilitation and Recovery
Much of the literature on participation in emergencies focuses on the role of community engagement in disaster preparedness. However, the literature that does address participatory approaches in disaster-affected contexts highlights the advantages, which include better analysis, effective programming and implementation, and increased accountability. In addition, such ...» more
Child-centred Research and Advocacy
Since the 1970’s there has been a shift from projects that focus ‘on’ children, through to projects that operate ‘with’ children in the 1990s, to the current focus on research and advocacy projects ‘by’ children. The following key findings are reiterated across several of the resources: Adults tend to be highly sceptical and suspicious of child -centred projects Power ...» more