The three principal international conventions on child labour (Minimum Age to Employment Convention, 1973 (No. 138), Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989, together set the legal parameters for child labour and provide the legal foundations for national and international action against it. Whilst ...» 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).
Women and countering violent extremism
The experience of various women and CVE programmes confirms that women can and do play a significant role in P/CVE - but they need to be supported and empowered to do so. Key lessons emerging from experience to date include the following: Need for gender mainstreaming: It is important to consult women and involve them in programme design and implementation, carry out ...» more
Mapping of research on child labour in South Asia
This Help Desk Report aims to map out research on child labour in South Asia, specifically: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, as well as Myanmar (Burma). The report focuses on major projects being carried out by international organisations with an examination of their expenditure on research, as well as local partners. The report also highlights the research ...» more
Myanmar’s stabilisation challenges
The communities currently most at risk of, and affected by, conflict and violence are those living in the Kokang Self-Administered Zone and in other parts of northern Shan State. Other affected communities include those in Kachin, Rakhine, Chin and Kayin States. The community most affected by the threat of forced displacement is the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group, in Rakhine ...» more
Human rights and governance provisions in OECD country trade agreements with developing countries
Trade agreements increasingly feature governance and human rights provisions. Countries taking the lead in this are the United States and Canada (the EU was not covered in this review). However, they tend to be selective in their provisions, focusing in particular on labour rights, transparency and anti-corruption, as well as public participation and intellectual property ...» more
Child domestic work
The definition of Child Domestic Work (CDW) is contested. Whilst international law defines children as any person under the age of 18 years old, in some countries, the national minimum age to work can be as low as 14 years old. Furthermore, socio-cultural patterns and national level policies add an additional dimension to how CDW is viewed, measured and reported. Despite these ...» more
Data on child trafficking
This rapid review synthesises findings from rigorous academic, practitioner, and policy references published in the past fifteen years that discuss child trafficking and human trafficking more generally. The focus is on the most predominant data produced by OECD countries, reports produced by international organisations that collect data from OECD countries, as well as ...» more
Humanitarian results indicators and how they relate to the SDGs
Donor agencies use a number of indicators for humanitarian action. In June 2016, ECHO reduced the number of KRIs (Key Results Indicators) it uses from 113 to 35 (ECHO also permits partners to combine pre-defined key results indicators with additional custom indicators). In addition to the sectors covered in this report ECHO also has humanitarian indicators for mine action and ...» more
Data on the prevalence of the worst forms of child labour
This rapid review synthesises findings from rigorous academic, practitioner, and policy references published in the past fifteen years that discuss the prevalence of the worst forms of child labour. Globally, children are routinely engaged in paid and unpaid forms of work that are considered not harmful to them. They are classified as child labourers when they are either too ...» more
Changing gender and social norms, attitudes and behaviours
This annotated bibliography presents studies of programmes that aim to bring about changes in gender and social norms, and changes in wider attitudes and behaviours. Much of the literature and some programme designs recognise the need to change social norms in order to change behaviours, such as HIV/AIDs prevention and better sanitation and hygiene. The report looks at ...» more
Transparency and performance
This report presents and discusses the evidence on impact from greater donor transparency, particularly in terms of accountability. In this report we distinguish between two types of aid information: information collected and disseminated by donor agencies about the results of their activities (looking closer at results based management), and information open to the public ...» more
Transparency and accountability initiatives in the extractives sector
Research on the impact and effectiveness of transparency and accountability initiatives (TAIs) targeted at the extractives sector is hard to come by. With the exception of some more systematic evaluation of the impact of multi-stakeholder initiatives, in particular the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the existing evidence is weak. Indeed, beyond the ...» more
Parliamentary transparency and accountability
This report presents and discusses what evidence exists about initiatives to promote transparency among legislators, members of parliament (MPs), and legislative processes and what impact this has had on legislative accountability. In this report we distinguish between two types of accountability: vertical (in which citizens play a direct role in holding the powerful to ...» more
Lessons from peace processes
Lesson learning has played an important role in advancing peace processes across the globe.1 Although no two conflicts are alike there are a number of wider lessons and practices that can be transferred to other peace processes. However, it is important to understand the differences and similarities in order to develop the lessons within the dynamics of the particular case ...» more
Transparency and accountability in fragile and conflict-affected settings
Over the past 10 years, there have been numerous meta-studies and syntheses of the impact and effectiveness of transparency and accountability initiatives (TAIs), many of which attempt to incrementally add value to the existing evidence base or offer new perspectives on existing conclusions. These studies are almost unanimous in their conclusion that little of practical or ...» more
Effectiveness of working in consortia
The role of working in partnerships to address complex development challenges is gaining increasing attention. Development research suggests that collaboration might be the key to meaningful and practical solutions to complex real-world problems (Gonsalves 2014: 2). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) promote multi-stakeholder partnerships. Working in consortia is one ...» more
Role of business in tackling modern slavery in supply chains
Key findings: Not much research has been done on business supply chain management and modern slavery: The available literature is extremely limited. Pressures on companies to tackle modern slavery in supply chains are increasing: These include growing consumer concerns about the issue, fears of reputational damage, the potential for companies to charge more for ‘slave ...» more
Conflict and gender dynamics in Yemen
The current conflict in Yemen, which began in 2015, has resulted in a humanitarian catastrophe. As of March 2017, 18.8 million people are in need of humanitarian support, and 10.3 million are in acute need (Sikurajapathy and Al-Fotih, 2017). Women, men, boys and girls have been affected in different ways by the conflict. This rapid reviews looks at the impact of the conflict ...» more
Funding of anti-modern slavery interventions
This review looks at the availability of funds to tackle modern slavery1 and human trafficking2, and the availability of data in this regard. It seeks to move beyond the findings of Martina Ucnikova’s 2014 paper, OECD and Modern Slavery: How much aid money is spent to tackle the issue?, and identify updated (post-2013) data on funding by governments as well as private sector ...» more
Changes in economic activity during and after conflict
Conflict changes economic activity in a number of ways. This report looks at whether these changes in economic activity become entrenched after conflict has ended. The available evidence found within the scope of this report suggests that the extent to which changes in economic activity become entrenched after conflict depends on how developed a country was prior to conflict ...» more
