Mali and Somalia have both suffered Islamist-inspired insurgencies, and in both African Union-led peace operations have been a central pillar in political and security stabilisation efforts. This article argues that, despite challenges in transferring lessons between unique situations, the AMISOM experience can offer some useful lessons for Mali. Factors that helped to drive ...» 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.
Africa’s illiberal state-builders
This paper suggests that in Angola, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Sudan there are important similarities in the projects ruling elites are pursuing. Their projects are statist and illiberal, even when engaging piecemeal with a costless mimetic liberalism. Their elites originate from narrow social bases and belong to relatively well-organised and politicised former liberation movements, ...» more
Evaluating governance indexes: Critical and less critical questions
Recent years have seen a proliferation of ‘composite indicators’ or ‘indexes’ of governance, but some are better tools than others and some are better suited to certain purposes than others. This paper provides a framework of ten questions to help users and producers of governance indexes to evaluate them and consider key components of index design. The paper argues that:more ...» more
Buying Votes vs. Supplying Public Services: Political Incentives to Under-Invest in Pro-Poor Policies
This paper uses unique survey data to provide, for the first time in the literature, direct evidence that vote buying in poor economies is associated with lower provision of public services that disproportionately benefit the poor. Various features of the data and the institutional context allow the interpretation of this correlation as the equilibrium policy consequence of ...» more
Double Dividends: Exploring how Water, Sanitation and Hygiene programmes can contribute to peacebuilding and statebuilding
The evidence base for precisely how, and to what extent, basic service delivery, and in particular water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), can contribute to peacebuilding and statebuilding (PBSB) is extremely limited. To address this lack of evidence, DFiD funded Tearfund and ODI to assess the implications of this new thinking for Tearfund’s WASH work in the Democratic Republic ...» more
The foundations of financial inclusion: understanding ownership and use of formal accounts
Financial inclusion—defined here as the use of formal accounts—can bring many welfare benefits to individuals. Yet we know very little about the factors underpinning financial inclusion across individuals and countries. Using data for 123 countries and over 124,000 individuals, this paper tries to understand the individual and country characteristics associated with the use of ...» more
Beyond attraction and retention: Indigenous career advancement in the public sector.
Institute of Public Administration Australia – Victoria (IPAA) engaged PwC to undertake a research project examining the links between professional development and career advancement for Indigenous people in the Victorian public sector. The purpose of the project was to generate recommendations for IPAA Victoria and its member organisations aimed at increasing Indigenous ...» more
Access to Finance in Sub-Saharan Africa: Is There a Gender Gap?
This article undertakes an empirical analysis of enterprises which confirms that firms with female ownership participation are unconditionally less likely to use formal bank credit than firms with male ownership, however this gap disappears when controlling for observables firm’ characteristics (i.e., industry, size, ownership type, age, export orientation, foreign ownership, ...» more
Social Contracts, Networks and Security in Tropical Africa Conflict States: An Overview
This article introduces an issue of the IDS Bulletin on Post-conflict Security in an Africa of Networked, Multilevel Governance. The special issue presents fieldwork from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Somalia to show that assumptions derived from the classical social contract theorists frequently lead the international ...» more
What can experiments tell us about how to improve governance?
In recent years, randomized controlled trials have become increasingly popular in the social sciences. In development economics in particular, their use has attracted considerable debate in relation to the identification of ‘what works’ in development policy. This paper focuses on a core topic in development policy: governance. It aims to address two key questions: (1) ‘what ...» more
The effectiveness of foreign aid to women’s equality organizations in the MENA: Does aid promote women’s political participation?
This paper addresses the question of whether official development assistance promotes gender equality in the Middle East and North Africa region. The paper examines the effects on women’s political empowerment of aid to Women’s Equality Organizations and Institutions, measured by the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments. The paper uses panel data (covering ...» more
The Logic of Child Soldiering and Coercion
Why do armed groups recruit large numbers of children as fighters, often coercively? The international community has tried to curb these crimes by shaming and punishing leaders who commit them—in short, making the crimes costlier. Are these policies effective and sufficient? The answer lies in more attention to the strategic interaction between rebel leaders and recruits. This ...» more
Travelling together: improving the access of people with disability to road infrastructure in Papua New Guinea
Despite the fact that an estimated 10 to 15 per cent of the population, or 520,000 people, are living with a disability in PNG, people with disability are often excluded from community development activities. Road infrastructure is a recognised approach to poverty reduction in developing countries, through improving community access to essential services, social networks and ...» more
Triple Jeopardy: Gender-based violence and human rights violations experienced by women with disabilities in Cambodia
Cambodian women with disabilities experience multiple disadvantages resulting from the interplay between gender, disability and poverty. This participatory research project, developed collaboratively between Australian and Cambodian partners, investigated prevalence and experiences of gender-based violence of women with disabilities in comparison to women without disabilities; ...» more
Poverty and Support for Militant Politics: Evidence from Pakistan
Policy debates on strategies to end extremist violence frequently cite poverty as a root cause of support for the perpetrating groups. There is little evidence to support this contention, particularly in the Pakistani case. Pakistan’s urban poor are more exposed to the negative externalities of militant violence and may in fact be less supportive of the groups. This paper tests ...» more
Violence in Yemen: Thinking About Violence in Fragile States Beyond the Confines of Conflict and Terrorism
This article examines the different forms of criminal violence that affect fragile states, with special reference to Yemen. The article is particularly interested in analysing the relationship between violent offending with no clear political motive, underdevelopment and conflict. It does so by conducting an in-depth evaluation of conflict and crime in Yemen, using publically ...» more
Holding Cash Transfers to Account: Beneficiary and Community Perspectives
This report presents qualitative and participatory research findings on beneficiary and community perceptions of five unconditional cash transfer programmes in the Middle East and North Africa and in sub-Saharan Africa. It finds that cash transfers are not only critical to meeting basic consumption costs but are also key to increasing people's sense of self-worth, dignity and ...» more
Feminist Mobilisation and Progressive Policy Change: Why Governments Take Action to Combat Violence Against Women
This study analyses policies on violence against women in 70 countries from 1975 to 2005. It finds that the most important and consistent factor driving policy change is feminist activism. This plays a more important role than left-wing parties, numbers of women legislators, or national wealth. It also finds that strong, vibrant domestic feminist movements use international and ...» more
Do Elected Councils Improve Governance? Experimental Evidence on Local Institutions in Afghanistan
Using data from a field experiment in 500 villages, this paper studies how local institutions affect the quality of governance, as measured by aid distribution outcomes. It finds that in villages where elected councils exist and manage distributions, aid targeting improves. However, if the distribution is not clearly assigned to either the council or customary leaders, the ...» more
The Impact of Cash Transfers on Food Consumption in Humanitarian Settings: A review of evidence
Humanitarian agencies are increasingly using cash-based responses to meet the food needs of households affected by crisis. This literature review concludes that cash transfers can be appropriate and effective in improving food consumption in humanitarian settings. Cash and vouchers specifically have often performed better than food aid at improving measures of diet diversity, ...» more
