Extensive risk is defined by UNISDR as ‘The widespread risk associated with the exposure of dispersed populations to repeated or persistent hazard conditions of low or moderate intensity, often of a highly localized nature, which can lead to debilitating cumulative disaster impacts’. Examples of types of extensive disasters are given in the literature as floods, landslides, ...» 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’s and girls’ benefits from market-oriented agriculture in Uganda
Knowledge about women’s and girls’ benefits from commercial agriculture is limited but sufficient to form the basis of this report. Internal obstacles include: ownership, tenure and access in relation to land; a gendered division of labour and time; unequal domestic decision-making power; interactions between poverty, the harvest cycle and the food market; and changing ...» more
Social inclusion in productive safety net programmes
Evidence is scattered and quite limited, with a heavy slant towards Ethiopia. Multi-country literature offers the following on social inclusion: Lessons for projects, programmes and policies: - Community participation: beneficiary outreach is key. Participatory targeting, project selection and monitoring are useful, though attention needs to be paid to exclusion, ...» more
Post-2015 governance and peace indicators
The post-2015 High Level Panel (HLP) produced a report in May 2013 which outlined their recommendations for moving the development agenda beyond the Millennium Development Goals. The report contained 11 illustrative goals which the UN might consider for adoption. This report considers potential indicators for the new Goals 10 and 11, which are: 10. Ensure Good Governance and ...» more
National databases of the poor for social protection
There is very scant literature on creating or unifying registries to make up a national database of poor households or individuals to be used for social protection programmes (expert comments). Literature on registries tends to relate to the benefits of civil registration (i.e. the registering of births and deaths), or how better to target and register the poor. This report ...» more
Mapping breastfeeding programmes in low and middle-income countries
Most of the programmes are intended to increase the rate of children that receive exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) up to the age of six months, as per recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO). Other measures such as increasing the rate of early initiation of breastfeeding, as well as training and education initiatives, ultimately aim to achieve the same goal of EBF ...» more
Literature review poverty, social analysis and the political economy of Tonga
Key findings: This rapid review examines evidence on poverty, social and political economy analysis published since 2010. The majority of the literature found through this review has been published by regional and international organisations, donors, and the Tongan government. There is substantial policy and practitioner literature that examines the Pacific as a region, or ...» more
Democratic governance initiatives civic education and media
This rapid review synthesises the findings of successful democratic governance interventions supporting civic education and a free and independent media. The choice of cases to include has been limited as not many evaluations of civic education and media initiatives are publicly available. Moreover it has been challenging to find evaluations that explore the link between these ...» more
Evidence on ‘rule of law’ aid initiatives
This report reviews the contribution of rule of law to development and poverty reduction, with evidence from aid initiatives. The first section provides a brief overview of the evidence base on the links between rule of law and development and poverty reduction. The second looks at evidence from successful aid initiatives, focusing on how interventions have contributed to rule ...» more
Community policing in fragile and conflict-affected states
Community policing is the idea of policing in partnership with community, and the strategy for implementing this partnership. Beyond this rudimentary definition, there is no common agreement on what community policing entails. Experience of various forms of community policing in different fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS) have had mixed results – there have been some ...» more
Evaluation Capacity Development
While donors’ efforts to support evaluation capacities of developing countries have increased over the last 20 years, this rapid review of the literature finds a limited evidence base on evaluation capacity development (ECD) approaches and their effectiveness. There are more reports of innovative and good practices than rigorous evidence on what has worked. Nevertheless, the ...» more
Donor support of African parliaments
Parliamentary strengthening can be focused on MPs, parliament or other aspects of the political system. One way of looking at the activities undertaken is to divide them into direct support or indirect support. Indirect support is the support of specific policy issues, such as health and education, which subsequently strengthens the parliamentary process. Direct support is work ...» more
Transitional justice lessons for Syria
Literature on transitional justice (TJ) experiences in the Arab world is limited, but there is some emerging analysis. This report found the literature highlights factors common in the region that have implications for TJ processes. These include: weak state legitimacy and capacity; decades of authoritarian rule and deep societal divisions; deep-seated socio-economic ...» more
Women’s access to finance in Mozambique
Access to finance in Mozambique is very low across all sectors of the population; 77 per cent are deemed to be financially excluded. The most excluded are those with the lowest levels of education, lowest income and in the most remote locations. This report reviews the barriers for women's access to finance, their current use of financial services and products, and the specific ...» more
Disaster risk governance at national and sub-national levels
Though the term disaster risk governance is rarely used, there is a large body of literature that relates to the governance of disaster risk in low- and middle-income countries with a focus on national or sub-national levels. This brief helpdesk research report identifies some of the most notable literature in this area and attempts to identify common conclusions. ‘Disaster ...» more
Ethnic minority public sector employment
This report identifies initiatives in developing countries which seek to attract, develop and retain indigenous or ethnic minority employees in the public sector workforce. This is supported with a brief overview of lessons learned from similar programmes in Australia, which are largely considered successful. The paper concentrates on civil service and central government ...» more
Addressing high rates of public service absenteeism
Absenteeism affects a number of different sectors, but literature on public service absenteeism focuses predominantly on health and education. Notably, in recently published literature, there are a number of studies using randomised control trials to test interventions designed to address absenteeism. This helpdesk research report identifies and synthesises the findings of key ...» more
Responding to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon – lessons learned
Three groups of lessons emerge from the literature: Political lessons include: understanding Lebanon’s historic refugee experience; understanding how sectarian divisions affect policy and decision-making; the limitations of excluding key stakeholders; and understanding historic relations between refugees and host communities. Strategic lessons include developing a medium-term ...» more
Effectiveness of African regional professional associations
This report provides examples of professional and academic associations that work across three or more African countries, and that have some evidence of success. Types of impact are varied, but are usually identified as strong membership, attendance at national or international meetings, awareness of the organisation in the wider sphere, dissemination and uptake of ...» more
Recent literature on instability and intrastate conflict in Zimbabwe
There is consensus in the recent (2011-13) literature on Zimbabwe that although the country has stabilised considerably since the last elections in 2008, the risk of internal conflict during the period surrounding the 2013 elections is high. The principal factors underpinning the potential for conflict are: The bitter divisions among the main political parties, the apparent ...» more
