The evidence considered in this report suggest that women lack access to particular financial services, and that accessing financial services has the potential to lead to economic empowerment. The literature indicates that men have better access to formal services such as formal credit loans or formal savings accounts. However, there is also strong evidence that informal ...» more
Women’s Participation in Elections in Afghanistan
This review attempts to synthesise the available literature addressing women’s election participation in Afghanistan, spanning a period of 6 years. Press coverage around the recent presidential elections in Afghanistan emphasised the low turnout of women voters, the perceived lack of security at voting stations, and election fraud. However, things are clearly changing in ...» more
Global Drivers of Conflict and Instability
The security-development discourse combines a concern with poverty and economic growth with that of national, regional and global security. It incorporates country-level analyses within a broader framework of transnational issues that impact on conflict dynamics. Issues of poverty and inequality reflect power relations framed by international forces. It is generally thought ...» more
Access to Economic Opportunities and Changes in Power Relations
The range of interventions relevant to this question is extremely broad, and this review therefore presents a limited number of examples in the following areas: microfinance, cash transfers, technology and skills development, labour market interventions, and land and inheritance rights. Research into the impacts of interventions aimed at increasing access to economic ...» more
Governance Reform and Service Delivery
This report offers a survey of lessons learned and guidance for reforming governance and improving service delivery in environments similar to that of Sierra Leone. It is important to note what this ‘environment’ is: Sierra Leone is one of the 44 countries classified as ‘fragile states’ under the OECD DAC’s definition. The DAC characterises fragile states as countries which ...» more
Land and Property Rights Interventions
The literature here provides a guide to existing concerns and approaches to the promotion of pro-poor outcomes through land and property rights. Generally, there is increasing emphasis on both the impacts upon women and the need for interventions to be designed and implemented with gender sensitivity. There is also a strong emphasis on the need to locate land and property ...» more
Promoting the Economic Participation of Women
Facilitating the participation of women in economic life is seen to provide financial gain at both household and national level, as well as having long-term impacts upon poverty reduction through creating changes in the intergenerational transmission of poverty processes. However, enabling women to participate in economic life is subject to both formal and informal constraints: ...» more
Gender and Conflict Assessments
Guidance for carrying out gender and conflict assessments is not well-developed; conflict assessments and gender assessments exist as separate types of analytical documents but there are comparatively few examples of gender and conflict assessments, and no established methodologies for doing them. Guidance for undertaking such assessments is drawn from three broad sources: a) ...» more
Impact of Radicalisation/Violent Extremism on Poverty and Development Outcomes
Identifying the impact of violence arising from radicalisation processes and extremism upon poverty and development outcomes is difficult due to the lack of literature which deals with the subject matter specifically. The discussion concerning radicalisation and extremist violence tends to focus on the following areas: 1) Islamic extremism and religious fundamentalism; 2) ...» more
Conceptualising Inequality
Intra-country inequality, part of the wider concern with inequality between countries or global regions, can be understood in three broad and interlinking ways: Economic inequality, which is what much of the existing conceptualisation of inequality discusses and is indeed the origin of international development concerns with inequality of income, consumption and distribution ...» more
Mainstreaming Peace and Conflict Prevention in Zimbabwe
There are few resources detailing how peacebuilding, conflict prevention and conflict resolution have practically been integrated into developing and humanitarian programming in Zimbabwe. However the Zimbabwe literature is in-keeping with the general literature in that it talks about: a) governance; b) education; and c) developing the capacities of staff within these sectors. ...» more
Support to Public Administration Reform in Central and Eastern Europe
In general MDTFs are a popular way of organising donor support for public administration reform (PAR) in difficult transition environments. The perceived benefits are: lower transaction costs for donors coordination of donor priorities and approaches attracting a wide range of donors to contribute facilitating easier harmonisation with country strategies and ...» more
Public Financial Management and Frontline Service Delivery
A review of the literature suggests that in designing PFM reform programmes it is essential to consider the following:PFM reforms must be understood as part of a more general public sector reform process.PFM reforms should have poverty reduction as a central objective.PFM reforms need to be designed at sector level in order to accommodate the needs, capacities and willingness ...» more
Civil Service Reform in Rwanda
It is generally asserted that the Government of Rwanda has embarked on an impressive array of public sector reforms, with little criticism of their commitment or political willingness to support change. Public sector reform is discussed in the following policy contexts: human resource development; good governance and institutional strengthening; decentralisation to district- ...» more
Research on Social Movements
A number of specific research programmes and projects are using a multidisciplinary approach to probe the questions surrounding the dynamics, influence and prospects of social movements (as variously defined). The prominent programmes are located in the United Kingdom, but operate through international partnerships with other universities and research centres. Social movement ...» more
African Regional Governance Institutions
There are vast literatures on regional integration and the role of regional institutions in Africa, ranging from official documentation to academic commentary. There are fewer evaluations or assessments of the attempts by regional institutions to promote good governance in Africa.Notwithstanding, the following challenges are identified in the literature:lack of political will ...» more
Civil Society Funding Mechanisms
Two general points emerge in the literature on civil society funding mechanisms. The first is that support to civil society actors is desirable and should be continued or scaled-up. Civil society is considered to play a key role in development and the theme of ‘partnership’ is widespread in the literature. Secondly, capacity building is an essential component of all support to ...» more
