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Home»Helpdesk Reports

Helpdesk Reports

These rapid-response reports provide digests of key research findings, lessons and expert thinking on specific questions from development practitioners and policymakers. If your question is not already covered below, ask us for a report (free for staff of agencies that we have existing arrangements with).

Gender, countering violent extremism and women, peace and security in Kenya

Helpdesk Report
  • Iffat Idris
January 2021

Kenya ranks 109 out of 153 countries in the Global Gender Gap Report 2020, with a score of 0.671. There are significant inequalities between males and females in education attainment, health outcomes, representation in parliament, and labour force participation. This Factsheet outlines some of the top-line information on gender, countering violent extremism and women, peace and ...» more

Border Disputes and Micro-Conflicts in South and Southeast Asia

Helpdesk Report
  • William Avis
December 2020

This rapid literature review presents the key literature on border disputes and micro-conflicts in South and Southeast Asia. The focus is on recent ideas that are prevalent in literature from post2010. The literature review draws on both academic and grey literature. The report finds that conflicts have become more complex and protracted often linked to global challenges ...» more

Donor Support for Climate Change Initiatives in the Middle East and North Africa

Helpdesk Report
  • Rachel Cooper
November 2020

Donors in the Middle East and North Africa’s (MENA) climate and environment space include both bilateral donors such as France and Germany, multilateral development banks and multilateral climate funds. France and Germany are key bilateral donors to the region, supporting both single country and regional programmes. Many donors, including the EU, France, Germany, the ...» more

Gender and countering violent extremism (CVE) in the Kenya Mozambique region

Helpdesk Report
  • Iffat Idris
November 2020

This evidence synthesis drew on a mixture of academic and grey literature. While the literature on Kenyan women and Al-Shabaab was quite extensive (albeit with gaps, e.g. on returnees), nothing was found on women and Ansar al-Sunnah/violent extremist groups operating in northeastern Mozambique and the Mozambique-Tanzania cross-border region. This report should be read in ...» more

Interventions in LICs and LMICs to improve air quality and/or mitigate its impacts

Helpdesk Report
  • William Avis and Suzanne Bartington
October 2020

This rapid literature review summarises evidence on air quality interventions in LICs and LMICs to improve air quality and/or mitigate its impacts. The review found limited evidence derived from such countries and instead draws on evidence from reviews and compilations compiled by bodies such as Public Health England (PHE) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). In particular, ...» more

Monitoring Air Quality in Low- Income and Lower Middle-Income Countries

Helpdesk Report
  • William Avis and Suzanne Bartington
October 2020

This rapid literature review surveys academic and grey literature on air quality monitoring in low-income (LICs) and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). It draws heavily on three key sources of information. The World Bank (Awe et al., 2017) led report ‘Filling the Gaps: Improving Measurement of Ambient Air Quality in Low and Middle-Income Countries’, the Health Effects ...» more

Prevalence of health impacts related to exposure to poor air quality among children in Low and Lower Middle-Income Countries

Helpdesk Report
  • Suzanne Bartington and William Avis
October 2020

This rapid review provides an assessment of the contemporary health impacts arising from the household (indoor) and ambient (outdoor) air pollution exposure in low income (LIC) and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs), with a specific focus upon children aged under 5 years. The review synthesises findings of key systematic reviews, as well as international and national ...» more

Risk of Capital Flight Due to a Better Understanding of Climate Change

Helpdesk Report
  • Rachel Cooper
September 2020

The physical risks of climate change, including both gradual global warming and an increase in extreme weather events, are likely to cause increasing financial and economic losses. Lower and middle-income countries may be more vulnerable to physical risks due to their reliance on climate-sensitive economic sectors and their limited capacity to absorb economic losses. However, ...» more

Lessons for coherent and integrated conflict analysis from multilateral actors

Helpdesk Report
  • Siân Herbert
September 2020

This rapid literature review collates lessons from multilateral organisations on their efforts to conduct and apply conflict analysis in fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS) in a coherent and integrated way. It contains substantial information about the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) and much less about the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and ...» more

Institutions, approaches and lessons for coherent and integrated conflict analysis

Helpdesk Report
  • Siân Herbert
September 2020

This rapid literature review explores the new institutional structures and approaches that have emerged to ensure that conflict analysis and action in fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS) is coherent and integrated across the many actors that now engage in this broadened field of work. This query focuses on the institutions and approaches of, and lessons from, six ...» more

Water Finance and Nature-based solutions

Helpdesk Report
  • Dr John H. Matthews,
  • Rachel Cooper
August 2020

Nature-based solutions (NbS) for water security can address a number of challenges simultaneously and deliver co-benefits. Broadly, NbS protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems to address societal challenges (Cohen-Shacham et al., 2016). NbS approaches for water security include source water protection, watershed management, sustainable drainage ...» more

Key Drivers of Modern Slavery

Helpdesk Report
  • William Avis
August 2020

This rapid literature review provides evidence of key drivers of modern slavery. It draws on a mixture of academic and grey literature from multinational and bilateral institutions as well as non-government organisations (NGOs) and think tanks. Given the rapidly developing global context, it also draws on emerging opinions from blog posts and journalistic reports to provide ...» more

War Economy in North East Nigeria

Helpdesk Report
  • William Avis
July 2020

This rapid literature review collates academic and grey literature pertaining to the war economy in North-East Nigeria. The review finds the evidence base on this subject to be limited and disjointed. There are few regional analyses focussed on this issue, with those that exist approaching the subject from different thematic or sectoral positions. Sub-national (i.e. ...» more

Impact of COVID-19 on Child Labour in South Asia

Helpdesk Report
  • Iffat Idris
June 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has not (to date) hit South Asia as badly in terms of infections and deaths as some other parts of the world (notably Europe). However, it is having a profound negative economic impact on the region. Experience of previous epidemics/financial crises suggests that the current crisis will lead to a rise in child labour across the developing world, including ...» more

Nature-based solutions and water security

Helpdesk Report
  • Rachel Cooper
June 2020

Water security is important for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development. It involves safeguarding sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable water as well as protection against water risks. Achieving water security depends on a number of elements including natural processes, infrastructure, institutions, and governance. Water ...» more

Faith-based organisations and current development debates

Helpdesk Report
  • Rachel Cooper
June 2020

This report provides a brief synthesis of the role of faith-based organisations in civil society. Faith-based organisations (FBOs) became more prominent in donor agendas, international development and academic research in the 1990s. There has been an increase in the number of FBOs from the 1980s onwards in response to neo-liberal policies in many countries, which resulted in ...» more

Developing More Inclusive Politics Through Sub-national Electoral Processes

Helpdesk Report
  • William Avis
June 2020

In post-conflict environments, the international community plays an important role in supporting successful planning, delivery, and embedding of elections within a wider context of support to political systems and democratisation. This rapid review provides an overview of lessons on developing more inclusive politics through sub-national electoral processes in recent academic, ...» more

Conflict analysis of Bangladesh

Helpdesk Report
  • Siân Herbert
June 2020

This rapid literature review examines the root causes and dynamics of conflict and (in)stability in Bangladesh. Key findings include: Conflict Profile: Bangladesh has a violent political culture, and has experienced widespread political violence, especially around elections – this is a feature of its increasingly authoritarian democracy Social, ethnic, and ...» more

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Response on Violent Extremist Recruitment and Radicalisation

Helpdesk Report
  • William Avis
May 2020

This rapid evidence review provides evidence on the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and response on violent extremist recruitment and radicalisation. It draws on a mixture of academic and grey literature from multinational and bilateral institutions as well as nongovernment organisations (NGOs) and think tanks. Given the rapidly developing global context, it also ...» more

Mitigating the economic impacts of epidemics and financial crises: Focus on middle-income countries

Helpdesk Report
  • Huma Haider
May 2020

As governments around the world seek to respond rapidly and appropriately to the impacts of COVID-19, it can be beneficial to look back at responses to similar global systemic shocks. This can reveal relevant lessons, ranging from public health measures to policies for reducing the economic costs. This rapid literature review looks at lessons learned from efforts to mitigate ...» more

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Outputs supported by FCDO are © Crown Copyright 2021; outputs supported by the Australian Government are © Australian Government 2021; and outputs supported by the European Commission are © European Union 2021
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Outputs supported by FCDO are © FCDO Crown Copyright 2021; outputs supported by the Australian Government are © Australian Government 2021; and outputs supported by the European Commission are © European Union 2021

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