Protracted crises can have a significant impact on youth transitions into adulthood, both by delaying and accelerating them. Waithood is a term commonly used to describe the state in which youths find themselves when their transitions to adulthood are delayed. There is a significant body of literature on youth transitions into adulthood in developing countries, with heavy ...» 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).
Subnational disaster risk management involving communities in Nepal
In a bid to better tackle risk (exposure and vulnerabilities) and its management (capacities and resilience), domestic and foreign actors have promoted disaster risk management (DRM) that involve communities at the levels of regions, districts, municipalities, wards, or smaller-scale units such as schools. Key findings of the literature review include: Successful ...» more
Women in politics and the public sector in Tanzania
The body of literature on women’s engagement in politics in Tanzania is relatively small, consisting of journal articles and government and NGO reports. Key topics covered by the literature include: Special seats for women: A quota system was introduced in 1985 to increase the number of women in parliament. Two journal articles by the same author look at this system in ...» more
External support for retention allowances
Retention allowances can come in the form of separate payments or salary top-ups. Donors have generally been reluctant to support retention allowances because they feel salaries are a government responsibility and because of concerns over the sustainability of such support. However, the scale of the crisis has sometimes been so great that they have stepped in to provide ...» more
Regional progress of the world’s girls and women
What regions have made the most progress in achieving gender equality, and where has progress being slow? Key findings include the following: As the world’s poorest region, Sub-Saharan Africa is performing poorly on many gender equality indicators. For example, it has the highest rates of maternal and newborn mortality, and also the lowest proportion of deliveries attended ...» more
Global progress of the world’s girls and women
Globally, remarkable progress has been made in achieving gender equality in some areas, while progress has been slow and stagnant in other areas. Findings include the following: Substantial progress has been made in closing the gender gap in primary enrolment, with two thirds of all countries in the developing world achieving gender parity in this area. Considerable ...» more
Refugee return in protracted refugee situations
Voluntary repatriation/return is seen as one of the durable solutions to protracted refugee situations and is the ‘preferred’ solution of the international community. Successful or sustainable return processes require the reintegration of refugees, which can be complicated by their protracted refugee experience and conditions in the country of origin. Evidence from case ...» more
Engaging stakeholders in areas of cross-border infrastructure investment
This rapid review of the literature identifies a number of best practices for engaging with a range of stakeholders in contexts where trans-boundary infrastructure investment occurs. It outlines general guidelines and best practices identified by internationally recognised bodies, and presents specific evidence from the sectors of water infrastructure and energy (e.g. ...» more
Improving access to menstrual hygiene products
The market for menstrual hygiene products in developing countries is expanding rapidly, driven both by private demand and by public efforts to improve girls’ educational outcomes and women’s health and dignity. However, many women and girls cannot consistently afford the monthly cost of disposable menstrual products and revert to less hygienic solutions when facing cash ...» more
State-citizen relations in North Africa since 2011
There is a limited evidence base on the changes after the Arab uprisings. A great deal of literature focuses on democratisation. Literature from the first few years after 2011 tends to be optimistic about potential change, while the later literature often notes reversals or unfulfilled opportunities. Key findings include: The expected democratic changes have largely not ...» more
Facts about security and justice challenges
Some of the global statistics included in this report are: A gap in access to justice exists for a majority of the people in the world, perhaps even as many as two thirds, according to an estimate by the Hague Institute for the Internationalization of Law. Preventing and redressing violence against women and girls is now on the public policy agenda, but abuse and violence ...» more
Extremist radicalisation towards non-state political violence in Jordan
Within available evidence, there are a number of knowledge gaps on issues, social structures (such as gender), and geographic areas. To reflect this state of knowledge and to be precise about the sources of specific findings, this report presents references in the form of an annotated bibliography. Key findings and themes include: There has been little non-state ...» more
Drivers of irregular migration in North Africa
Irregular migration is the movement of people that takes place outside the regulatory norms of the sending, transit and receiving countries (IOM definition). A complex array of factors drives irregular migration. Most literature states that economic and conflict-related reasons, along with social networks and social support, are the major factors influencing migration. Economic ...» more
Restricting space for civil society
There is consensus in the literature reviewed for this rapid query that the space for civil society to act has been increasingly restricted in the past decade. This is a global phenomenon – occurring in different ways and not in all countries – but in all regions of the world. It is occurring in all regime types – not just authoritarian countries. However, at the same time, in ...» more
Poverty eradication in Iraq
Despite being an oil-rich, lower-middle income country, poverty remains prevalent in Iraq. This rapid review looks at the recent literature on poverty in Iraq and identifies the barriers to, and opportunities for, poverty reduction and eradication. The literature indicates that: 3.9 per cent of people in Iraq are living in extreme poverty (2012). 18.9 per cent live below ...» more
Lessons learned for national state entities for recovery and reconstruction
Key indicative lessons learned for national state entities from the literature reviewed include: Structure Develop national recovery frameworks in advance of disasters. Appoint a lead agency with a built-in end date, a clear legal mandate and an experienced politically aware leader. Integrate the immediate humanitarian action into the government-coordinated recovery ...» more
Increasing youth participation in accountability mechanisms
The literature argues that empowering, organising, capacity-building and partnering with young people can contribute to good governance and improved accountability of governments (DANIDA, 2007; UNDP, 2006; Walton, 2010). To this end, governments, donors and NGOs have supported a variety of interventions that encourage youth participation both formally and informally. The extent ...» more
Impact of multilateral organisations on humanitarian outcomes
Even with strong evidence on programme impact, it is hard to attribute humanitarian results directly to multilateral organisations’ (MLOs) or specific forms of aid architecture. In an emergency context, there tend to be many actors and interventions and it is difficult to show a direct chain of causality between specific funding streams or organisations and results. The key ...» more
Conflict dynamics and potential for peacebuilding in Iraq
This report is an update of the information available in the October 2014 GSDRC Contemporary conflict analysis of Iraq. Since the beginning of 2014, the extreme jihadist group ISIL, who are also active in Syria, has gained control of territory in the mainly Sunni and contested areas of Iraq, although government forces, the Kurdish Peshmerga, and the Shia dominated Hashd ...» more
Incentives from donor funding mechanisms for civil society organisations
This review examines the evidence on some of the outcomes of donor funding to civil society organisations (CSOs). However, it is difficult to attribute causality to specific funding mechanisms, and few evaluations look directly at this issue. Scattered evidence in donor evaluations does reveal some commonalities and lessons: The literature presents a strong message from ...» more
