Inclusion is a prominent concept – some say “buzzword” – in current international development thinking and debates. The recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) promote inclusion – to “leave no one behind” – and place governance at the heart of achieving this. For example, SDG 16 aims to “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide ...» more
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).
Donor support for post-conflict elections
Well-timed elections can contribute to conflict resolution and help to consolidate a peace agreement or power-sharing deal among elites. But elections also have the potential to reignite hostilities. This report examines the following key factors, and how they have played out in recent post-conflict elections in Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Nepal: The content and ...» more
Impact of lifting economic sanctions on poverty and growth
This rapid review synthesises findings from rigorous academic, practitioner, and policy references, focusing on recent and seminal works with the aim of highlighting the impact of lifting sanctions on poverty and economic development. There is a further aim of helping to inform policymakers in Sudan in the event of sanctions being fully lifted. Therefore, an analysis of the ...» more
Barriers to youth work opportunities
There is growing evidence that youth unemployment is becoming a bigger issue and challenge than adult unemployment (Manpower group, 2012). While young labour participants and adult participants can be affected by similar opportunities and barriers to work, youth may experience these barriers to a greater degree and may also face additional constraints. This report ...» more
Economic Situation in Jordan
Jordan has one of the smallest economies in the Middle East, and its lack of natural resources and water scarcity make it heavily dependent on foreign aid and foreign investment. Following the global financial crisis of 2008 growth slowed significantly; the deteriorating regional situation since 2011 and subsequent mass influx of Syrian refugees has made recovery difficult, ...» more
Criminal networks and the illicit wildlife trade
This five day help desk review provides an overview of academic, policy and practitioner literature that examines the illicit wildlife trade and criminal networks. Whilst there is a broad consensus that the illegal wildlife trade is a pressing and growing concern, there is much debate as to what this trade entails and who the key actors are. It is important to highlight that ...» more
The political economy of the illegal wildlife trade
This review is based on a rapid assessment of academic, donor and grey literature. A large part of recent scholarship in this area has been produced by international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), or else can be found in peer-reviewed academic journals. Authors do not appear to have engaged with the gender implications of IWT in the context of PEA. Most recent ...» more
Three-tier federalism: examples and lessons
In most federal systems, municipalities are integrated into the state governments. Yet Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Switzerland have adopted a three-tier federal structure in which exclusive legislative powers are granted to local government, below state and provincial government. While decentralisation has the potential to improve accountability and give greater ...» more
Social capital in Yemen
Social capital in Yemen is informed primarily by tribal affiliation, particularly in rural areas and in the north. Other important sources including faith based institutions, local community solidarity initiatives, civil society organisations and support from the diaspora. While social capital has been eroded due to political, social and economic changes in recent years, the ...» more
Effectiveness of programmes supporting migrants in Africa
Despite a growing body of research on migration and development, the literature highlights the limited empirical evidence available on the effectiveness of migration programmes. The aid-spending departments of the UK government are in the process of identifying how UK aid contributes to tackling the “root causes of mass migration” and developing new, targeted programmes. A ...» more
Stabilisation in Syria
The Syrian conflict is now in its seventh year and involves a wide range of both national and international parties. Crucially, no party is in a position to establish control over the entire country. This has implications for efforts at stabilisation. There is increasing recognition that the Assad regime cannot be displaced and hence efforts to find a political solution are ...» more
The impact of mines and explosive remnants of war on gender groups
Global and country-specific gender-disaggregated data on casualties is made available through the annual Landmine Monitor produced by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines – Cluster Munition Coalition (ICBL-CMC). However, there appears to be little in the way of granular analysis and research to interrogate the underlying reasons behind yearly fluctuations in casualty ...» more
Impact of economic sanctions on poverty and economic growth
Key findings are as follows: Economic sanctions lead to an increase in the poverty gap and deprived sections of the population feel the most impact. For the most part sanctions fail to achieve their aims and elites manage to negotiate the adverse effects to a far greater level than poorer citizens. Sanctions have a damaging effect on income inequality and impact ...» more
Emergency humanitarian response to longer-term development in refugee crises
This report provides a rapid literature review of the evidence on emergency humanitarian response to longer-term development in refugee crises. While the scope of the report did not allow for complex judgements to be made about the quality of the body of evidence, or of the strength of individual pieces of evidence, an evidence table is provided in Annex A to enable the reader ...» more
Developmental impacts of interventions to support legal migration
There is very little impact evaluation evidence of the developmental outcomes of interventions to support regular migration. The review identified only one migration intervention (the New Zealand Recognised Seasonal Employment Programme) which had had rigorous impact evaluations conducted: the scheme was found to have positive impacts on employers, migrants and origin countries ...» more
Sustainable livelihoods for refugees in protracted crises
Much of the literature in this area acknowledges the widespread constraints to livelihoods development in refugee settings. These include a disabling policy environment, low levels of social capital, poverty, and weak baseline levels of training and skills. Measures to support self-sufficiency are often severely hampered by restricted freedom of movement, weak tailoring of ...» more
Psycho-social support for children and school staff in protracted conflict situations
Whilst the provision of psychosocial activities is regularly mentioned in documents referring to the humanitarian response to education, there is a dearth of literature that refers to exactly what these programmes consist of, and how effective they are. There is, however, widespread recognition of the importance of providing psycho-social interventions to counter the impact of ...» more
International humanitarian law and human rights violations in Syria
All parties involved in the Syrian conflict have carried out extensive violations of international humanitarian law and human rights. In particular, all parties are guilty of targeting civilians. Rape and sexual violence have been widely used as a weapon of war, notably by the government, ISIL and extremist groups. Reports by the International Independent Commission of Inquiry ...» more
Evidence and experience of procurement in health sector decentralisation
Improving the efficiency, effectiveness, equity and responsiveness of supply chains and procurement processes for pharmaceuticals, vaccines and other health products, which make up a large share of total health expenditure in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), has important implications for health system performance and population health. Decentralised governance of ...» more
Governance in Syria
Over the past six years the civil war in Syria has evolved into a multifaceted conflict with numerous actors both internally and externally. As a result a complicated framework of governance has emerged with fragmented arrangements operating across the country. Therefore, although there are policies that can be implemented across the board and centralised institutions can be ...» more
