This rapid literature review collates lessons from major evaluations and learning reviews from development, state-building and stabilisation programming in South Sudan since independence in 2011. Key findings include: Donors in South Sudan have had to transition from humanitarian to development aid and back and forth a number of times as conflict has broken out. Donors ...» more
Monitoring and evaluation
Doing research in fragile contexts
Research is critical to understanding and addressing the problems seen in fragile and conflict affected states (FCAS). The scale and impact of these problems is staggering: in 2016 about 1.8 billion people were living in fragile contexts but this is predicted to grow to 2.3 billion (28% of total world population) by 2030; poverty is also increasingly concentrated in fragile ...» more
Designing, Implementing and Evaluating Public Works Programmes
This helpdesk report aims to outline the scope, impact and challenges associated with public works programmes (PWPs) in development and humanitarian contexts. PWPs have been implemented in a broad range of countries to help working-aged poor people to cope with economic shocks or chronic poverty (McCord, 2012b). The majority of PWPs are effective in terms of increasing food ...» more
Indicators and Methods for Assessing Entrepreneurship Training Programmes
Entrepreneurship training programmes are an important component of demand-side job creation strategies in developing countries (Fox and Kaul, 2017). Assessments of such programmes are constrained by variations in the programme content, as entrepreneurship training is often combined with grants, life-skills training, internships and mentorship. The targets of these programmes ...» more
Aid Absorption: Factors and Measurements
Absorptive capacity refers to ‘the ability to use additional aid without pronounced inefficiency of public spending and without induced adverse effects’ (Bourguignon and Sundberg, 2007, 640). An absorptive capacity limit is a point at which a country can no longer absorb or spend aid efficiently and aid is then subject to diminishing returns (IES, 2017; Dornan and Pryke, ...» more
M&E methods for local government performance
A range of methods can be used to monitor and evaluate whether a programme/workstream has contributed to change in local governance, service delivery and economic development, and to generate understanding and knowledge that can be shared with others to support better governance, service delivery and economic development in a decentralised government system. This report ...» more
Humanitarian results indicators and how they relate to the SDGs
Donor agencies use a number of indicators for humanitarian action. In June 2016, ECHO reduced the number of KRIs (Key Results Indicators) it uses from 113 to 35 (ECHO also permits partners to combine pre-defined key results indicators with additional custom indicators). In addition to the sectors covered in this report ECHO also has humanitarian indicators for mine action and ...» more
Decentralisation of budgeting process
This literature review examines evidence about the impact of public financial management (PFM) interventions in the field of decentralisation of budgeting. It asks: What is the effectiveness of devolved budgeting models in relation to the efficiency of PFM systems, service delivery, budget allocation, citizen involvement, accountability and anti-corruption? What factors ...» more
Legislative oversight in public financial management
This Rapid Evidence Assessment examines the quality of the available evidence on the effectiveness of reforms aimed at improving legislative oversight to attain improved development outcomes, and summarises the available lessons from the literature. The specific research questions considered are: What is the effectiveness of the different public finance legislative ...» more
Indicators for conflict, stability, security, justice and peacebuilding
There are a range of indicators that have been used to measure progress in these themes, and increasing recognition of the merits of measuring achievements and progress toward goals. Global targets and indicators can play an important role in fostering collaboration, aiding prioritisation, and informing and directing flows of resources to particular contexts or problems. The ...» more
Transparency and participation in public financial management
The idea that citizens should have access to detailed information about how governments use public resources is not a new one. In fact, it has a long and distinguished history. As far back as 350 BC, Aristotle’s Politics suggested that ‘… to protect the Treasury from being defrauded, let all money be issued openly in front…» more
Designing and monitoring PFM reform programmes
The PEFA framework is the most comprehensive assessment instrument. It provides indicators to measure all dimensions of a PFM system. While PEFA assessments are now in wide usage, other diagnostic instruments and tools – like the IMF Fiscal Transparency Code and various World Bank and OECD tools – are used alongside them for more specific purposes. Alternatively, ...» more
Public financial management
PFM: Why does it matter and how best to improve it? What is Public Financial Management (PFM)? PFM refers to the set of laws, rules, systems and processes used by sovereign nations (and sub-national governments), to mobilise revenue, allocate public funds, undertake public spending, account for funds and audit results. It encompasses a broader set…» more
Lessons from Female Engagement Teams
Evaluations of Female Engagement Teams (FETs) used by the military to engage with women in Afghanistan that are available indicate that: Female soldiers have had a deescalating effect as Afghan males generally accepted females being searched as long as it was done by other females. FETs have had positive engagement with both women and men and were viewed as a kind of ‘third ...» more
Social media and conflict management in post-conflict and fragile contexts
Some of the roles social media has played in conflict management include: In some cases social media and other new media tools have been used to help hold governments accountable, bring citizens together to protest violence, coordinate relief efforts, empower citizens, provide information to reduce tensions, and build bridges of understanding across boundaries. In other cases ...» more
Community-driven development and indigenous, ethnic minority, and disability issues
Few CDD programmes explicitly address minority issues. Many programmes target vulnerable groups such as women, youth, disabled, ethnic minorities, but as one group rather than distinguishing their differing needs. Few programmes are targeted specifically at vulnerable groups alone. Many programmes focus on reducing poverty and vulnerability, with the implicit assumption that ...» more
Evaluations of scaling up
Factors that affect the success of scaling up include: Politics: A number of evaluations suggest that political support is a key success factor, and offer recommendations on how to build this support. Demonstrating how the programme will help achieve key government goals, as well as building personal connections with government officials. Decentralisation can make scale up ...» more
Evidence of impact of emergency cash transfers on gender and protection
Key messages: The major trends and gaps in the evidence in this report are: On the whole, ‘gender’ is used to refer to women. More recent papers include more analysis of how CTs impact men, especially on if they find it disempowering for women to be favoured as beneficiaries. Gender analysis is not deeply ingrained into emergency CT programme evaluation. Many papers include a ...» more
Gender in community-driven development
Elite capture is a significant concern. The evidence is clear that 'uncontrolled' CDD will not necessarily benefit women, the poor and other disadvantaged groups. Women's participation is a central problem as they do not usually have the time and/or confidence to contribute to village planning processes. To reach women and other disadvantaged groups, CDD needs to have explicit ...» more
Measuring disaster resilience
Several agencies have developed guidance for measuring disaster resilience. One of the most comprehensive and widely-cited frameworks is Twigg’s (2009) ‘characteristics of resilience’ framework. Based on five dimensions of resilience identified in the Hyogo Framework for Action (governance, risk assessment, knowledge and education, risk management and vulnerability reduction, ...» more
