How can state building strengthen women's citizenship in fragile states? This seminar report from the Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior explores the opportunities offered by state building processes to enhance women's political participation, rights and ability to hold the state to account. State building strategies must: include strengthening ...» 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.
Implications of climate change for armed conflict
This paper identifies three climate change processes could cause conflict and social instability: increasing resource scarcity; intensifying natural disasters; and bringing about a sea level rise. Risks associated with these processes are primarily destruction of infrastructure, increased health risks, and loss of livelihoods. Other ways climate change could affect conflict ...» more
Unpacking ‘participation’
‘Participation’ has entered the development mainstream and is used by a variety of institutions, but what it means can vary enormously between different actors. This article explores some of the meanings and practices associated with participation, in theory and in practice. It suggests that it is vital to pay closer attention to who is participating, in what and for whose ...» more
Violence Against Women and Girls: A Compendium of Monitoring and Evaluation Indicators
At the request of the USAID East Africa Regional Mission in collaboration with the Inter-agency Gender Working Group, MEASURE Evaluation developed this compendium with a technical advisory group (TAG) of experts. The TAG was comprised of specialists from a variety of international donor agencies, NGOs and prominent researchers and programmatic experts in the field. The ...» more
Lessons learned from Norway’s support for decentralisation and local government reform in developing countries
This paper looks at lessons learned on Norwegian support for decentralisation and local government reform. It includes lessons learned from projects and programmes funded mainly through bilateral state-to-state development cooperation and through the UN system.Support to decentralisation started through support to integrated rural development programmes in the 1970s. The paper ...» more
Decentralization in Client Countries: An Evaluation of World Bank Support, 1990–2007
This report assesses the effectiveness of Bank support for decentralization between fiscal 1990 and 2007 in 20 countries, seeking to inform the design and implementation of future support. Given the difficulties of measuring the results of decentralization, the evaluation used intermediate outcome indicators—such as strengthened legal and regulatory frameworks for ...» more
Making Reproductive Rights and Sexual and Reproductive Health A Reality for All
The reproductive rights and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) framework has been developed to provide overall guidance for implementing the Reproductive Health and Rights elements of the UNFPA Strategic plan 2008-2011. The framework builds on the goals established by previous international conferences and presents the conceptual and operational basis for UNFPA to achieve ...» more
Project on a Mechanism to Address Laws that Discriminate Against Women
The aim of the project was to examine the advisability of creating a new mechanism to address laws that discriminate against women. The first key objective was to overview existing UN mechanisms to ascertain the extent to which they addressed the issue of discriminatory laws. This involved interviewing UN human rights and agency officials working in both Geneva and New York and ...» more
The World Bank in Fragile and Conflict-affected Countries: “How”, Not “How Much’
This study considers why conflict and fragility matter—for the World Bank and for bilateral donors that are contributing larger than ever amounts to its budgets. It outlines the particular development challenges confronting international actors in fragile and conflict-affected countries, and gives a summary of the Bank’s evolving approach to those challenges.The study then sets ...» more
Comprehensive Approach: Trends, Challenges and Possibilities for Cooperation in Crisis Prevention and Management
This report provides a basis for discussing pragmatic ways and means of developing flexible and adaptive mechanisms, tools and processes for comprehensive crisis management that ultimately benefit the people suffering from crises and conflict.The report gives an overview of the international community’s efforts as a whole – both international organisations’ and national ...» more
Assessing Progress on the Road to Peace: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluating Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding Activities
Within the field of conflict prevention, there is still a quest to find appropriate methods and ways in dealing with planning, monitoring and evaluation. This issue paper brings together the experiences of academics and practitioners dealing with planning, monitoring and evaluating conflict prevention activities. It evolved out of the experiences of Global Partnership for the ...» more
Conflict, Arms, and Militarization: The Dynamics of Darfur’s IDP Camps
What factors cause Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps to become militarised? This paper looks at the case of Darfur and finds that different contexts of its IDP and refugee gatherings determine the extent and nature of militaristic activity within them.The paper draws on information from a wide range of sources including human rights reports, humanitarian overviews and ...» more
Religious Networks in Post-conflict Democratic Republic of the Congo: A Prognosis
Religion has emerged as a strong socio-political factor in galvanising people and is assuming greater importance in many countries irrespective of their level of economic development. One of the importance of religion is reflected in the public domain (especially in countries that have a weak state apparatus) where faith-based actors are co-opted into crucial local and national ...» more
Afghan Hearts, Afghan Minds: Exploring Afghan Perceptions of Civil-Military Relations
This report addresses Afghan concerns and unpacks some of the commonly held assumptions about Afghan engagement with and within the main areas of the civil-military (civmil) debate. It provides an evidence base for advocating to donors, policymakers and the military for assistance that can be appropriately, safely and effectively implemented in Afghanistan.The report also ...» more
Iraq’s Cultural Heritage: Preserving the Past for the Sake of the Future
What can be done to prevent such looting in future conflicts? How do we respond to crisis and prevent future catastrophes? This paper presents policy plans by a panel of experts who convened at the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) on September 8, 2008 to address these issues.The looting of Iraq’s museums and archaeological sites is an overlooked consequence of the 2003 ...» more
Integrating socio-economic recovery into post-conflict stabilization programmes
This brief states that economic development and violent conflict are closely interconnected. As such, socio-economic recovery should be integrated into existing post-conflict recovery strategy and policy.The brief looks at the relationship between conflict and development, outlining socio-economic consequences of conflict common to post-conflict countries. It stresses that in ...» more
Scoping a long-term research programme on conflict, state fragility and social cohesion
This scoping study provides evidence on the need for research on conflict, state fragility and social cohesion. It also provides recommendations on the scope and focus of a long-term research programme in this area. It builds on the consultation for DFID’s research strategy (2008-2013) undertaken in 2007 as well as initial consultations undertaken in August 2008 with DFID staff ...» more
From Emergency to Recovery: Rescuing Northern Uganda’s transition
This paper examines the returns process, new challenges that are arising as a result of it, and efforts on the part of the government and its partners to address the changing needs of the people of northern Uganda.It is based upon interviews with representatives of central and local government, UN agencies, donor governments, and NGOs, and on the findings of a series of focus ...» more
Human Rights and Gender Components of UN and EU Peace Operations: Putting Human Rights and Gender Mandates into Practice
This paper provides practical insights into the functioning of human rights and gender components by describing how they are put into practice, drawing on best practice examples. The best practice examples included in this study are programmes, projects, and activities that have immediately contributed to the promotion and protection of human rights in host countries or ...» more
Unpacking the mystery of mediation in African peace processes
The essence of negotiations is for the parties to work together to solve a problem. For negotiators, this means they must focus on an objective, look to the future, rather than to the past. For mediators, it is essential to establish one's ethics, and keep them.This study is a collection of 11 cases of mediation work with diverse conflicts, parties and mediators. The study ...» more
