This study offers an overview of crowdsourcing as a resource for development, crisis response and post-conflict recovery. The paper reviews the factors necessary for crowdsourcing success (vision, trust, human capital, among others) and the challenges. It provides examples from important crowdsourcing and interactive mapping phenomena and initiatives in Haiti, Libya, Sudan and ...» more
Library
This e-library contains more than 4500 external publications on governance, social development, conflict and humanitarian issues. It includes academic and grey literature selected for its basis in good quality research and coverage of a range of perspectives. Policy-oriented summaries of each document are provided, plus links to the full text.
The Role of Information and Communication Technologies in Postconflict Reconstruction
The report examines how policy-makers, the donor community and the private sector have prioritised and sequenced ICT initiatives in the aftermath of conflict. In addition, the report proposes a conceptual framework to understand how ICTs can contribute to improving service delivery and assisting with nation-building. In this summary report and a series of country case studies, ...» more
Crowd Capital in the Governance Context
How can crowdsourcing contribute to good governance? This research builds the first database of worldwide initiatives using crowd applications for governance. It contains 209 applications, found through secondary archival sources. Many individuals and organisations are using IT to engage crowds to create resources for the governance context. The authors find that there is a ...» more
Who will be the ‘Principled Principals’? The determinants of active opposition to corruption
This paper uses survey data from Transparency International's 2013 Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) to examine what determines people's willingness to act against corruption. It tested two main hypotheses suggested in recent literature: 1) The more a person perceives corruption to be pervasively practiced in society, the less willing they will be to engage in anti-corruption ...» more
Using Action Research and Learning for Politically Informed Programming
This Research Paper outlines preliminary findings about how action research can help build more politically informed development programs. It discusses action research being undertaken by the Pacific Leadership Program, the Coalitions for Change program in the Philippines, and DLP. This approach combines theory and practice to support development practitioners to think and ...» more
Shockwatch Bulletin. Global monetary shocks: impacts and policy responses in sub-saharan Africa
This Bulletin examines how global monetary shocks in 2013 affected a range of emerging and sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, and analyses potential policy issues in responding to these. These policies include the potential role of exchange rate policy as one of a range of policies that African countries can use to respond to global monetary shocks. It provides a ...» more
Challenges in humanitarian information management and exchange: evidence from Haiti
This paper analyses the implications of impediments to effective humanitarian information management and exchange (HIME) flows in the Haiti case, using a framework centring on eight factors that characterise humanitarian emergencies. While HIME offers the promise of timely access to relevant information, how such information is disseminated and utilised by decision-makers ...» more
Poverty and Crime: Evidence from Rainfall and Trade Shocks in India
This paper examines the mechanisms underlying the observed relationship between rainfall and crime. Using four decades of district level data from India, the study establishes a robust effect of rainfall shocks on different types of crime, with the strongest effects on violent crimes and property crimes. It then examines to what extent poverty is the main causal pathway between ...» more
Fragmented governance and local service delivery in Malawi
The aim of this paper is to help government and donors better understand how local government works in Malawi and how decentralisation affects local service delivery. The research set out to understand why local government and service delivery work the way they do, to explain variation across the country, and to assess whether the return of local councils is likely to improve ...» more
Africa’s Willing Taxpayers Thwarted by Opaque Tax Systems, Corruption
Findings from this paper suggest that governments need to improve the transparency and accountability of revenue authorities if they want to strengthen the foundations of a sound revenue system.Survey data, covering 29 countries in sub-Saharan Africa reveal widespread citizen commitment to the principle of taxation and to taking responsibility – by paying their taxes – for ...» more
Does the African middle class defend democracy? Evidence from Kenya
This paper uses the case of Kenya to investigate the attitudes and behaviours of the middle class. It uses Afrobarometer survey data to explore whether there is anything distinctive about the political attitudes of the Kenyan middle class. The paper measures class in four ways: education, employment status, poverty, and wealth (assets). It then tests whether these variables ...» more
Support for African Women’s Equality Rises: Education, jobs & political participation still unequal
Widespread support for equality, alongside approval of most governments' attempts to empower women, suggest that a majority of Africans have embraced gender equality and reject traditional norms that hold women back. However, women continue to be disadvantaged in critical ways, especially through lack of equal education – a gap that has long-term implications for women’s ...» more
What Drives Quality Of Schools In Africa? Disentangling Social Capital And Ethnic Divisions
In this paper data from the Afrobarometer is used to test the role of social capital and ethnic divisions in determining the quality of schools in Africa. The paper captures social capital by the average level of trust and ethnic divisions via an index of ethnic fractionalization. It then skirts reverse causality problems between trust and quality of public goods by using ...» more
Masculinities, conflict and peacebuilding: Perspectives on men through a gender lens
This paper aims to advance discussions about integrating a masculinities perspective into peacebuilding policy and practice. It examines existing programmes that promote non-violent and gender equitable masculinities and poses key questions about how these can be further developed to challenge the gender norms which drive conflict and insecurity.The paper consists of desk ...» more
Aid and the Islamic State
This crisis brief examines the flows of international aid into parts of Iraq controlled by militants from the so-called Islamic State (IS).Key findings:The group calling itself Islamic State (IS) has been present in Iraq in various incarnations for a decade or more. It made its first territorial claim in Iraq in early January 2014, seizing parts of the city of Fallujah in Anbar ...» more
Africa’s current and future stability
This paper first presents a summary of recent conflict trends in Africa, largely drawing on data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. Then, to provide a picture of the potential future impact of changes in Africa’s development and security prospects up to 2063 (a timeline that ties in with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 initiative). The paper models the ...» more
Towards effective violence mitigation: Transforming political settlements
This paper presents evidence from four case studies suggesting that contrary to the early post-Cold War accounts of ‘barbarism’ and ‘senseless bloodshed’ – the violence that can be observed in many countries and locales today is about something.The studies were carried out in Nigeria (Niger Delta), Sierra Leone, Egypt and Kenya (Marsabit County). Analysis of these studies shows ...» more
Strengthening Public Financial Management: Exploring Drivers and Effects
This study explores the relationships between country characteristics and PFM quality, and between the quality of PFM systems and expected outcomes. It finds that country characteristics do not have a strong predetermining effect on the quality of PFM for most countries. And it finds evidence that stronger performance results in better budget credibility, but not in lower ...» more
Development Co-operation Report 2014: Mobilising Resources for Sustainable Development
The Millennium Development Goals come of age in 2015, yet many development challenges remain and others are emerging. The current discussion of the post-2015 goals by the international community will integrate social, environmental and economic concerns into a single set of Sustainable Development Goals.This report asks what can be done to mobilise the resources needed to ...» more
The State of the World’s Children 2015: Executive Summary
As the world marks 25 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, The State of the World’s Children calls for brave and fresh thinking to address age-old problems that still affect the most disadvantaged children. The report calls for innovation and for the best and brightest solutions coming from communities to be taken to scale to benefit every child. It highlights ...» more
