How do transitional justice mechanisms perceive the role of women and men in conflict and post-conflict situations? How might a gendered approach to transitional justice apply to the situation of female combatants in Colombia? Transitional justice mechanisms fail to be gender inclusive when they neglect the multiple gendered roles that men and women play in conflict 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.
Women’s Entrepreneurship Development in Vietnam: Learning from Good Practices
What lessons can be learned from the experience of entrepreneurship development in Vietnam? This report argues that providing support through women's groups and other collaboration groups helps to create an enabling environment for business development. This enables women to learn and share good experiences, thereby building links among individuals and groups, and bringing both ...» more
Gender Differences in Employment and Why They Matter
This chapter looks beyond gender differences in labour market participation to gender differences in productivity and earnings across different sectors and jobs. It shows that, despite significant progress in female labour force participation over the past 25 years, pervasive and ongoing gender differences remain in productivity and earnings. It argues that the interaction of ...» more
Girls Grow: A Vital Force in Rural Economies
This report finds that women and girls living in rural areas of the developing world play a vital yet unrecognised role as agricultural producers and hold the potential to be agents of food and nutritional security and economic growth. It argues for a special focus on rural adolescent girls, integrated into a well-supported rural economic development strategy. In sub-Saharan ...» more
The Role of Gender and Caste in Climate Adaptation Strategies in Nepal
This study analyses the situation of Dalit and Lama households in the Humla district of Nepal. Their livelihoods have been adversely affected by a shift in the monsoon season, a decrease in snowfall and longer dry periods. The study finds that Dalits are pushing caste boundaries, but that gender boundaries are remaining resilient even during crisis. Gendered, and caste-related, ...» more
Gender and Citizenship at the Grassroots: Assessing the Effect of NGO Initiatives in Social Mobilization and Political Empowerment in Kenya and Bangladesh
Can women's participation in associations and civil society initiatives reduce gender inequality? This study assesses the extent to which social mobilisation and political empowerment initiatives led by NGOs have influenced gender dynamics in Kenya and Bangladesh. It focuses on gender dynamics in everyday expression of citizenship at community level. It concludes that the NGO ...» more
What are the Opportunities to Promote Gender Equity and Equality in Conflict-affected and Fragile States? Insights from a Review of Evidence
This article examines women's political and economic empowerment and women and girls' access to quality services in conflict-affected and fragile states. It finds that there has been some success in relation to women's participation in elections and formal politics and engagement in small-scale economic enterprise. It argues, however, that inequitable gender power relations ...» more
Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its Causes and Consequences
This report analyses the causes and consequences of multiple forms of discrimination as regards violence against women. It also considers inter-gender and intra-gender differences, arguing that a one-size-fits-all programmatic approach is insufficient for combating gender-based violence. A holistic approach is critical for addressing the interconnections between violence ...» more
The ICC and Community-Level Reconciliation: In-country Perspectives
What impact do International Criminal Court (ICC) interventions have on community-level reconciliation processes? How can the capacity of African organisations be enhanced to promote community-level reconciliation? These were among the questions addressed by this regional consultation involving seven African countries. The ICC is a court of last resort and ideally national ...» more
Budget Support in Fragile Situations
This study examines the rationale, challenges of and conditions applied to budget support to fragile states; the effects of budget support on spending and the delivery of social and agricultural services; and the ability of parliaments and civil society to hold governments and donors to account for public spending. It highlights the current volatility of General Budget Support ...» more
Political Economy Studies: Are They Actionable? Some Lessons from Zambia
This paper examines political economy diagnostics carried out in Zambia and their influence on the World Bank's support to programmes in that country. It concludes that, while PE analyses are valuable, they need to provide more practical recommendations for approaching change. Country-level PE analysis provides useful background information, but recommendations from sector ...» more
Tracking Adaptation and Measuring Development
This paper presents a framework for climate change adaptation programming, including potential indicators, or indicator categories/types, for tracking and evaluating the success of adaptation support and interventions. The framework assesses: a) how well climate risks to development are managed by institutions ('upstream' indicators); and b) how successful adaptation ...» more
Inclusive Elite Bargains and the Dilemma of Unproductive Peace: a Zambian case study
This paper offers a theoretical framework of elite bargains and draws on the case of Zambia to show that the priorities of peacebuilding can conflict with those of economic development. In Zambia, elite bargains have helped to avoid civil war but they have also constrained the economy, resulting in an unproductive peace. The study argues that while inclusive power structures ...» more
Avoiding the Fragility Trap in Africa
Why do some countries remain fragile states? How can they get out of what is known as 'the fragility trap'? The study suggests that three features – political instability and violence, insecure property rights and unenforceable contracts, and corruption – conspire to create a slow-growth-poor-governance equilibrium. It argues that, even if aid is seemingly unproductive in these ...» more
Is there a Role for Cash Transfers in Climate Change Adaptation?
This article argues that cash transfers are likely to contribute to adaptive capacity by: (1) meeting basic needs; (2) helping the poor respond to climate-related shocks; (3) helping vulnerable households manage risk and consider investment innovations that increase their adaptive capacity; (4) transferring money for investment in long-term adaptive capacity development; and ...» more
Ten Years of Fragile States: What Have We Learned?
This paper critiques the prevailing international approach to fragile states. It highlights three errors contained in the influential report of the World Bank task force on Low-income Countries under Stress (2002) that need to be addressed: 1) low income as a condition of fragility; 2) the existence of country trajectories that enable states to be categorised according to type ...» more
The Politics of Dispute Resolution and Continued Instability in Afghanistan
The international community increasingly talks about transfer of governance and security responsibility to Afghans and about the sustainability of both. It is therefore important to have an accurate understanding of disputes that drive local instability. This paper argues that corrupt officials, local strongmen and general instability have often undermined the informal, ...» more
Transitional Justice and Reconciliation: Theory and Practice
Transitional justice is prominent in academic debates on democratisation, nation-building and state reconstruction, and has gained widespread support from international organisations. This chapter examines these debates and their practical relevance for conflict transformation and peacebuilding. It argues that not enough research has been done into the impact of transitional ...» more
Interactions in Transition: How Truth Commissions and Trials Complement or Constrain Each Other
How do truth commissions and human rights trials interact to facilitate or constrain transitional justice efforts? How might these interactions be affected by different sequencing choices and by legacies of violence and its termination? This article outlines a theoretical framework, and suggests that holding simultaneous truth commissions and trials could offer the advantages ...» more
Social Protection, Efficiency and Growth
This paper considers the evidence on the cost of social protection to reduce poverty, and its contribution to efficiency and growth. It finds that social protection is one mechanism for making growth pro-poor. It offers a direct and simple means of redistributing some of the gains from growth, and ways to ensure that shocks do not reverse gains. While it is not a driver of ...» more
