What is the role of public trust in government and political institutions? What strategies can help restore and rebuild trust in different contexts? This chapter provides a conceptual framework to look at the relationship between trust and governance. The rest of the book examines how governments in the Asia-Pacific region have tried to improve electoral and parliamentary ...» 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.
Political Economy Analysis with a Legitimacy Twist: What is it and why does it matter?
How can a 'legitimacy lens' enhance political economy analysis? This guidance introduces political economy analysis as a powerful tool for increasing understanding, and improving the effectiveness, of aid. It argues that consideration of state legitimacy can add value to such analysis by enhancing understanding of what citizens expect from the state, and of how those in control ...» more
Warlords and the Liberal Peace: State-building in Afghanistan
This article highlights contradictions in the liberal peace that have become apparent in post-Taliban state-building in Afghanistan. It focuses on how warlords have been incorporated into a government unable to achieve a monopoly of violence without their support, noting that some of Afghanistan's warlords have benefited from both state weakness and state-building. It suggests ...» more
No Rights without Accountability: Promoting Access to Justice for Children
How can policy interventions help in securing children's access to justice? Widespread acceptance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) implies a profound change in attitudes to children, but obstacles remain for children in accessing justice. This chapter analyses initiatives targeting the 'demand-side' of justice for children. It highlights principles such as ...» more
Criminal Justice: Security and Justice Thematic Paper
How can criminal justice be strengthened in countries at risk of violent conflict? This paper examines criminal justice sector reform, relating it to research on the causes of violence. It argues that rather than focusing exclusively on state institutions – or blindly rushing to support informal systems – reform must be based on an understanding of actual demand for justice ...» more
A Window of Opportunity: Making Transitional Justice Work for Women
How can transitional justice processes serve women more effectively? Among the guiding principles of UN engagement in transitional justice activities is the need to 'strive to ensure women's rights'. This report examines gender equality issues in relation to prosecutions, truth seeking, reparations, national consultations and institutional reforms. It argues that post-conflict ...» more
A Delicate Balance: Building Complementary Customary and State Legal Systems
This paper argues that, given the empirical evidence on the high level of recourse to customary law, customary legal systems are integral to development, and that both customary and state legal systems have a role to play in a functional justice sector. It sets out a framework of policy options for programmes that seek to harness the respective strengths of customary and state ...» more
Political Settlements: Implications for International Development Policy and Practice
This paper presents a 'political settlements framework' that involves consideration of political settlements in conflict-affected and fragile areas; of how settlements are maintained; of how they change; of their historical evolution; and of settlements at subnational levels. It suggests that development organisations need to use such analysis to adapt their strategies. These ...» more
The Justice Balance: When Transitional Justice Improves Human Rights and Democracy
Evidence from the Transitional Justice Data Base shows that specific combinations of mechanisms – (1) trials and amnesties, and (2) trials, amnesties and truth commissions – improve human rights and democracy. These findings suggest a 'justice balance' approach to transitional justice – that trials provide accountability and amnesties provide stability. Truth commissions alone ...» more
Associations, active citizenship, and the quality of democracy in Brazil and Mexico
To what extent does participation in associations increase active citizenship? How does associationalism impact on the quality of citizenship? Civic engagement theory suggests that associations empower members to engage in public politics and improve the quality of democracy. Empirical demonstration of this argument outside affluent countries is rare, however, and so this paper ...» more
Accountability, Participation and Foreign Aid Effectiveness
How does accountability affect foreign aid effectiveness? Does increased participation lead to more accountability in the design of aid programmes? Foreign aid involves a chain of accountability relationships stretching from international donors through to end users. This paper summarises evidence that accountability increases aid effectiveness, specifies mechanisms that ...» more
Local Voices on Community Radio: A Study of ‘Our Lumbini’ in Nepal
Do community radio stations achieve the levels of representation and community engagement that they claim? This article describes the experience of the Hamro Lumbini ('Our Lumbini') series in Nepal, developed in response to differing local views on the development of the Buddhanagar World Heritage Site (WHS). The programme received positive feedback for its inclusion of local ...» more
Problematizing ‘Media Development’ As a Bandwagon Gets Rolling
What does 'media development' mean? This article argues that the concept of media development is marred by lack of definition and conflation of means and ends. A better understanding involves the concepts of 'media density' and 'media mobilisation' and consideration of new media. If media development interventions are to impact journalism, democracy and development, clarity is ...» more
Review of Impact and Effectiveness of Accountability and Transparency Initiatives: Synthesis Report
This report distils findings from reviews of transparency and accountability initiatives (TAIs) in the areas of public service delivery, budget processes, freedom of information, natural resource governance and aid transparency. The evidence base on these initiatives' effectiveness is weak, uneven, and sometimes contradictory. While few meta-level studies exist, micro-level ...» more
Make it Theirs: The Imperative of Local Ownership in Communications and Media Initiatives
This paper analyses media reform programmes as part of wider peace-building interventions in the Balkans, the Middle East, and Africa. It concludes that the most effective interventions were those where local populations participated and took ownership of the projects, ensuring that the media initiatives were culturally relevant and demand-driven. The impact of projects can be ...» more
States of Mobilisation?
In what circumstances is citizen mobilisation to claim rights and entitlements responded to by democratic states in ways that deepen democracy? This book explores the interaction between citizen mobilisation and the state in India, Brazil and South Africa. It finds that the gains won through mobilisation are often selective and partial, and sometimes non-existent. Mobilisation ...» more
Measuring the Impact and Value for Money of Governance Programmes
How can value for money best be measured in governance and conflict programming? This study reviews options for a VFM approach in relation to governance programmes, including those in conflict-affected and failed states, for the UK's Department for International Development. VFM involves examining economy, efficiency and effectiveness, identifying the links between them and ...» more
Quality Standards for Development Evaluation
The OECD-DAC Quality Standards for Development Evaluation, built through international consensus, provide a guide to good practice. They are not intended to be used as a development evaluation manual, but they outline the key quality dimensions for each phase of a typical evaluation process: defining purpose, planning, designing, implementing, reporting, and learning from and ...» more
Policy Responses to the Spatial Dimensions of Poverty
How should public policy address the spatial dimensions of poverty? This paper reviews policy documents and eight country cases to identify how the spatial dimensions of poverty are reflected in development policies. Lessons include the need to: 1) balance universalism and targeting; 2) manage the form and processes of integration in the economy; 3) use both short-term and ...» more
The Role of the Health Sector in Wider State-Building
This paper surveys examples of interaction between the health sector and wider state-building in fragile states. It focuses on the sub-national level where citizens and service-providers interact. It concludes that health sector interventions can and should play an important part in the process of state-building, but that further research is needed to build up a body of ...» more
