Preliminary estimates by the ILO indicate that in 2009 unemployment in Asia-Pacific could increase by between 7 and 23 million workers. The countries experiencing the greatest impact will be those with slowing economies and rapid labour force growth, such as Cambodia, Pakistan and the Philippines. Emerging economies whose growth depends heavily on exports to the United States ...» 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).
French Financial Crisis (2008-2009)
There is very little academic literature available about the current economic crisis and its social impacts in France. This report includes some relevant articles from the news media. More literature is available relating to the unrest seen in 2005, and as some of that material may be relevant to the current situation a small selection has been included.Unemployment and ...» more
Economic Crisis and Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa was largely insulated from the initial stages of the financial crisis. With the worsening of the crisis, however, the region as a whole has now been exposed to the downturn. The countries most affected are those whose economies are highly specialised in the affected industries, especially when combined with pre-existing poor governance and weak state ...» more
Argentine Financial Crisis (2001-2002)
The 2001-2002 Argentine financial crisis culminated in the collapse of the 1991 Convertibility Plan, the freezing of bank deposits, and the biggest foreign debt default in world economic history. By May 2002, 40% of the total workforce was either unemployed or underemployed.Social unrest during and following the financial crisis principally took the form of social protests. ...» more
Religion and Democracy in Secular States
The literature notes that various approaches have been adopted by democracies in dealing with the relationship between religion and the state. These range from excluding religion as a political force altogether (such as in Turkey); to constitutionally privatising religion (such as in France and the US); through to recognising the communal nature of religion (such as in Israel). ...» more
Indonesian Financial Crisis (1997-1998)
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Indonesia along with other Asian countries experienced strong economic growth which produced reductions in poverty and improvements in social indicators. The financial crisis of 1997 undid many of these improvements as GDP dropped, unemployment rose, wages eroded, and prices increased dramatically. The rapid descent into economic hardship ...» more
Equality and Human Rights Commission
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is a non-departmental public body established under the Equality Act 2006. It began its operations on 1 October 2007. It brings together the work of the three previous equality commissions - the Disability Rights Commission (DRC), Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and Commission for Racial Equality (CRE). The EHRC also takes ...» more
The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Conflict and Social Stability
While there seems to be little academic research which addresses the impact of economic crises on conflict, fragility and social stability, it has been widely discussed in the media recently. According to a recent US Senate intelligence briefing, almost a quarter of all countries have already experienced low-level instability, such as changes in government and anti-state ...» more
Voice and Accountability Indexes
Because ‘voice and accountability’ is a broad term comprising several areas of donor intervention - including civic education, rights awareness, empowerment, democracy promotion and support to civil society and the media - the literature on tools and indicators for measuring the impact of development interventions on voice and accountability is highly fragmented. With the ...» more
Identity Politics in Nepal
In 1990, the 30 year-old Panchayat regime was overthrown, a new Constitution written and a multiparty system re-established. Although these reforms did not properly address the exclusion of marginalised groups and ethnic centralisation continued, they did provide the space for such grievances to be mobilised and heard – resulting in the emergence of ‘identity politics’.There ...» more
Non-State Providers of Health Services in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States
Most mechanisms that use NSPs to deliver services are only being applied at a very small scale in fragile states. There is some evidence that the most widely used mechanism - contracting - can increase service utilisation, increase service quality, improve efficiency, reduce service fragmentation, and support strengthening of national capacity. The basic package of health ...» more
Non-State Providers of Education in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States
NSPs are generally viewed as key service providers and as more pragmatic, flexible and adaptable than state structures in fragile states. By allowing communities to identify their own priorities they are often seen as having the potential to empower communities, set up local governance structures and strengthen social accountability mechanisms. Some of they key advantages of ...» more
Service Delivery and Stabilisation
There is very little evidence on the impact of stabilisation service delivery initiatives on producing a peace dividend, or providing the basis for longer-term sustainable reform.Nevertheless, the most commonly cited potential benefits of service delivery in post-conflict environments are that visible delivery enhances state legitimacy, strengthens the social contract and ...» more
Donor Approaches to Extractive Industries
Donor approaches to extractives management fall broadly under two categories: (1) individual donor strategies; and (2) multi-stakeholder initiatives (in particular the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)). Before EITI was established in 2002, donor strategies on EI were scarce. Donors tended to conduct their work in isolation and principally through funding ...» more
Reintegration in Aceh/Post-conflict Environments
The situation in Aceh differs from other conflict environments in that most combatants have remained close to their communities during the conflict, with some never having left their villages. As such, minimal tensions are reported between former combatants and ‘receiving communities’. Reintegration measures have thus focused more on economic reintegration rather than social ...» more
Post-conflict Rehabilitation of Education Services
Education systems can contribute to conflict. In Rwanda, for example, the education system was used as an instrument in fomenting exclusion and hate. In many post-conflict settings, rehabilitation of the education sector requires not re-establishing the system that existed prior to the conflict but rather reforming the whole system. Education rehabilitation goes beyond ...» more
Lessons Learned on Parliamentary Strengthening
Several agencies have recently conducted stocktakes, retrospectives or reviews of their parliamentary strengthening programmes at agency-level. By far the most common lesson/recommendation relates to the necessity of understanding and adapting to the political context within which parliament is situated and undertaking good political analysis in the planning phase. Several ...» more
Lessons Learned on Cooperatives
Cooperatives can help overcome some of the barriers to poor people’s access to markets by generating economies of scale; opening up access to information through better market networks; pooling resources and improving individual bargaining power through collective action. They promote social as well as economic goals, have been used to educate local citizens about health ...» more
Donor Activity on Parliamentary Strengthening and Electoral Support
Parliamentary strengthening is becoming an increasingly important part of governance work in international development, and many bilateral, multilateral, and non-governmental organisations (including political parties) are involved in parliamentary strengthening. According to a recent ODI study, the World Bank Institute, the Parliamentary Centre (Canada), United Nations ...» more
Gender Equality in Parliamentary Strengthening and Electoral Support
Many countries around the world have recognised the under-representation of women in politics and started to adopt measures to help women enter politics and national legislatures. However, most of the research to date has focussed on explaining the process of women’s entry into politics, rather than whether and how they can make a difference once they enter parliament.Some of ...» more
