Equitable access to essential public services is vital for human development, inclusive growth, and tackling persistent inequality. This topic guide provides an overview of the best available evidence on inclusive service delivery. It includes lessons from cases where aid has been effective at addressing weak front-line incentives, where services have been delivered in very ...» more
Performance Related Pay
There are very few recent resources addressing performance related pay (PRP) in the central government administrations of developing countries. Several of the experts contacted emphasised that PRP has not been widely implemented in the developing world, and none were able to suggest a case where PRP had been implemented successfully. Most of the work in this area has instead ...» more
Reintegration Best Practice
The following ‘lessons learned’ in relation to reintegration are repeated across the literature:Reintegration is a long process and programmes must be part of a wider security sector reform strategyReintegration should be nationally led and take a participatory approach, including various stakeholders.Planning for reintegration should begin early.Clear selection criteria should ...» more
Political Economy of Civil Service Reform
Much of the recent literature on civil service reform (CSR) emphasises that reforms have tended to fail and that political factors are critical to the success or failure or reform efforts. Political contextual factors and the impact of bureaucrats’ and politicians’ personal interests are most frequently discussed. Regional and ethnic political factors were generally not ...» more
Budget Support and Civil Society
The following points are repeatedly made in the literature with regard to civil society engagement in the context of budget support: The key role for civil society in PRBS is in holding government to account, along with parliament. Donors providing budget support to governments have tended to simultaneously provide support to civil society to strengthen their capacities ...» more
‘Voices of the Poor’ in Southern Africa
No recent 'voices of the poor' type studies for the SADC (Southern African Development Community) region have been identified during the research for this query. Additionally, none of the experts who contributed to the research knew of such a report or of similar research projects currently underway. Several Africa-wide studies published by Afrobarometer, which include ...» more
Methodologies for Measuring the Value of Civil Society
The rise of social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy has led to an explosion of interest in the area of measuring value and calculating the impact of non-profits and social organisations. There is enormous interest in generating and developing rigorous quantitative tools to assist in accurate measurement of impact and value and a significant number of organisations are ...» more
Gender and Growth in China
The first half of this helpdesk research report provides case studies examining the links between economic growth and gender equality in China. Most resources focus on the economic reforms associated with WTO accession and examine their gendered impacts. They all find that China’s impressive economic growth has failed to benefit men and women proportionately. Several authors ...» more
Poverty and Vulnerability Monitoring
It is very difficult to compare the specific tools and methodologies used for poverty monitoring (PM) with those used for vulnerability monitoring (VM), as they are so diverse. However, it is possible to make some general observations in relation to differences between the 2 broad approaches:In essence, the 2 approaches are monitoring different concepts. Poverty can be seen as ...» more
Southern perspectives on technical cooperation
Technical assistance and technical cooperation (hereafter referred to as TC) are forms of foreign aid, where expertise is provided to developing countries in the form of personnel, training, research, and associated costs. Typically, it is associated with the placing of consultants in positions where they can advise and support counterparts in developing countries. The ...» more
Constitutions and minorities
Whilst there is a large body of literature that focuses generally on participation in constitution-making processes and handling diversity of opinion, no resources were found that exclusively discussed effective inclusion of minority groups. However, practical recommendations for promoting the inclusion of minority groups include the following:Create an independent commission ...» more
Child-centred Research and Advocacy
Since the 1970’s there has been a shift from projects that focus ‘on’ children, through to projects that operate ‘with’ children in the 1990s, to the current focus on research and advocacy projects ‘by’ children. The following key findings are reiterated across several of the resources: Adults tend to be highly sceptical and suspicious of child -centred projects Power ...» more
Politics of Justice Sector Reform
There are a wealth of case studies available that discuss the impact of politics on justice reform, with less available on how justice reform impacts politics. Most of the resources identified demonstrate how the macro-political environment impacts on the justice sector or explore political dynamics within the sector that affect reform. Less material was found that discusses ...» more
Climate change and social exclusion
Whilst there is a body of research on ‘climate change vulnerability’ which tends to conclude that poor people in developing countries are most vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change, very little research attempts to disaggregate ‘the poor' and look in detail at specific issues and implications for socially excluded groups.Children: The literature generally ...» more
Climate change and conflict
There is very little academic research on the links between climate change and conflict. Of the few studies that are available, the findings are mixed. Most authors argue that whilst climate change may well result in increased conflict, this path is not certain. The most commonly discussed scenarios are that climate change causes resource scarcity, which prompts violent ...» more
SWAps and Justice
There is a good range of material on lessons learned from SWAPs, primarily from the health and education sectors. Most of the resources mention the need for country ownership of the SWAP, gender mainstreaming and long-term support that is tailored to the country context. Other repeated advice is to ‘go slowly’, focus on capacity building and to involve the Ministry of Finance ...» more
