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Home»Social Development

Social Development

Social Protection Topic Guide

Horizontal inequalities: reading pack

Literature review poverty, social analysis and the political economy of Tonga

Helpdesk Report
  • Siân Herbert
October 2013

Key findings: This rapid review examines evidence on poverty, social and political economy analysis published since 2010. The majority of the literature found through this review has been published by regional and international organisations, donors, and the Tongan government. There is substantial policy and practitioner literature that examines the Pacific as a region, or ...» more

Evidence on ‘rule of law’ aid initiatives

Helpdesk Report
  • Evie Browne
October 2013

This report reviews the contribution of rule of law to development and poverty reduction, with evidence from aid initiatives. The first section provides a brief overview of the evidence base on the links between rule of law and development and poverty reduction. The second looks at evidence from successful aid initiatives, focusing on how interventions have contributed to rule ...» more

Women’s access to finance in Mozambique

Helpdesk Report
  • Evie Browne
September 2013

Access to finance in Mozambique is very low across all sectors of the population; 77 per cent are deemed to be financially excluded. The most excluded are those with the lowest levels of education, lowest income and in the most remote locations. This report reviews the barriers for women's access to finance, their current use of financial services and products, and the specific ...» more

Ethnic minority public sector employment

Helpdesk Report
  • Evie Browne
August 2013

This report identifies initiatives in developing countries which seek to attract, develop and retain indigenous or ethnic minority employees in the public sector workforce. This is supported with a brief overview of lessons learned from similar programmes in Australia, which are largely considered successful. The paper concentrates on civil service and central government ...» more

Responding to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon – lessons learned

Helpdesk Report
  • Siân Herbert
August 2013

Three groups of lessons emerge from the literature: Political lessons include: understanding Lebanon’s historic refugee experience; understanding how sectarian divisions affect policy and decision-making; the limitations of excluding key stakeholders; and understanding historic relations between refugees and host communities. Strategic lessons include developing a medium-term ...» more

Democracy strengthening in Sudan

Helpdesk Report
  • Evie Browne
July 2013

This report summarises key points of development work and research conducted on democracy strengthening in Sudan. It excludes the nation-state of South Sudan, but does include some work covering the southern areas of Sudan before the secession in 2011. Most of the literature focuses on democratic elections, from voter education to election conduct, but this report also tries to ...» more

Impact of gender-responsive budgeting

Helpdesk Report
  • Emilie Combaz
July 2013

Gender-responsive budgeting has been applied by a few dozen developing countries since the mid-1980s, though to very different extents and in diverse forms. It is difficult to identify what its impact has been on gender outcomes and on resource distribution within government, due to a limited evidence base and to complexity in assessing and interpreting impact. Nevertheless, ...» more

Gender dimensions of conflict drivers and stabilisation in eastern DRC

Helpdesk Report
  • Emilie Combaz
July 2013

There are large knowledge gaps. Gendered evidence is very limited and problematic. The evidence available points to the following findings: On conflict drivers: - Gender is mostly discussed in relation to rape as a weapon of war (masculinity and instrumental use of gendered terror by armed groups). - Sexual and gender-based violence has led to traditional authority and ...» more

Tools for participatory analysis of poverty, social exclusion and vulnerability

Helpdesk Report
  • Róisín Hinds
June 2013

Among the tools reviewed are: Ranking: Commonly divided into three approaches: problem ranking, preference ranking, and wealth ranking, which enable practitioners to gain an understanding of local perceptions and preferences on a range of issues, including poverty. Seasonal Calendars: Visual tools which can be useful for identifying periods of stress and vulnerability ...» more

Livelihoods in fragile contexts

Helpdesk Report
  • Evie Browne
May 2013

There is strong literature on both livelihoods in general and livelihoods in fragile contexts, presenting conclusions and lessons from programmes and synthesising evidence from other contexts. This review draws mainly on lessons learned in the field, rather than rigorous evidence of impact. There are few impact studies conducted on programmes in fragile environments, as ...» more

Safe spaces for girls: six-country mapping

Helpdesk Report
  • Evie Browne
May 2013

This review presents a broad overview of the most prominent and well-evidenced programmes providing safe spaces for girls in six selected countries. Key findings The criteria for defining a ‘safe space’ followed the Population Council’s guidance, and the following programmes all contain these elements: A physical space where adolescent girls (10-19 years old) meet regularly An ...» more

Child-friendly spaces for adolescent girls in emergency settings

Helpdesk Report
  • Evie Browne
April 2013

The evidence base on this issue is small. Few programmes provide safe spaces exclusively for girls, although many child-friendly spaces run sessions by age and gender. Married girls and adolescent mothers are particularly under-served. Within emergency contexts, the provision of safe spaces tends to focus on psychosocial care and on developing social skills and social networks. ...» more

Theories of change for cash transfers

Helpdesk Report
  • Evie Browne
April 2013

This report gathers together examples from the literature which attempt to explain how and why change happens as a result of cash transfers (CTs). While there is a large body of literature examining social protection and cash transfers’ impacts on poverty reduction and development, there is much less on understanding the mechanisms and pathways by which this happens. The report ...» more

Incentivising governments to improve service delivery

Helpdesk Report
  • Siân Herbert
April 2013

Although there is substantial research on service delivery, empirical research into how development activities incentivise better service delivery is fragmented (Tavakoli 2012; Joshi 2010). It is increasingly recognised that increasing technical or financial capacity does not automatically translate into improved service delivery performance or better development results (World ...» more

Women and violent extremism

Helpdesk Report
  • Becky Carter
March 2013

While gender has tended to be ignored in the literature on terrorism and political violence, a gender perspective of violent extremism has started to receive media and academic attention. However, experts identify the need for more systematic research on gender implications in terrorism and counter-terrorism studies. This rapid review of the literature finds that: Women’s roles ...» more

Violence against women and girls in Haiti

Helpdesk Report
  • Claire Mcloughlin
March 2013

No official government statistics are available on the prevalence of violence against women and girls in Haiti. Experts acknowledge that reports by non-governmental organisations and small-scale, isolated surveys reveal only a partial picture. Moreover, much of the available analysis is focused on urban areas, and in particular Port-au-Prince; fewer studies document the ...» more

Violence against women and girls in Afghanistan

Helpdesk Report
  • Róisín Hinds
March 2013

Violence against women and girls in Afghanistan is endemic, widespread and an undeniable reality. Though there have been some quantifiable improvements for women and girls since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, significant challenges remain in securing women’s rights in the country. Literature on gender-based violence (GBV) in Afghanistan is comprehensive and rich with ...» more

Poor people’s rights and successful legal actions

Helpdesk Report
  • Emilie Combaz
February 2013

Key finding: Landmark rulings by South Africa’s Constitutional Court in favour of poor people’s social and economic rights since the 1990s have drawn widespread attention to the law as a tool for realising poor people’s rights and tackling the underlying systemic problems in a way that empowers individuals and communities. But while there has been broad support for using the ...» more

Women’s economic role in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Helpdesk Report
  • Claire Mcloughlin
February 2013

Key finding: Recent data illustrates that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continues to rank lowest overall in the world on measures of women’s economic participation and opportunity (Global Gender Gap Index, 2012). However, MENA economies are not homogenous and variation does exist among countries, with fragile and conflict-affected states recording lower rates ...» more

Evidence about the effectiveness of child protection programmes in developing countries

Helpdesk Report
  • Emilie Combaz
January 2013

Key findings: There is little evidence on the effectiveness of child protection programmes in developing countries. Furthermore, some of the available evidence does not provide information on links between specific practices on the one hand and improved outcomes and impact for children on the other hand. There are, however, some targeted insights into what works and what does ...» more

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      • Informal social protection
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