Parliamentary stengthening: Attempts to assess the effectiveness of parliamentary strengthening programmes need to go beyond monitoring changes within parliament, to measuring changes in parliament’s influence on government. Moreover, the political nature of legislatures, the particular types of functions for which they are responsible, and the constant evolution in membership ...» 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).
Reviews of Decentralisation and Subnational Government Support Programmes
DFID, the World Bank and GTZ have recently undertaken multi-country reviews of their support to decentralisation and sub-national governance. The EU has also produced a set of guidelines based on its experience. A great number of country-level evaluations are now available online, the majority of which conclude with lessons learned and recommendations. Recommendations vary ...» more
Decentralisation and Assistance to Sub-national Governments in Fragile Environments
There is considerable disagreement about whether and how decentralisation should be pursued in fragile or post-conflict environments. Many argue that strengthening sub-national governance in fragile situations is vital, particularly for delivering basic services where the state is weak or absent, for addressing ethnic/regional inequalities, and for conflict management. The ...» more
Mapping Research on Migration
This query aims to identify research organisations with long-term programmes on the links between migration and development. There are a large number of institutes working on the issue of migration in the UK, US, and particularly Europe. Most of their work focusses on national and European migration trends, and the integration, exclusion, and citizenship of migrants within host ...» more
Participation of Excluded Groups in Local Governance
There are various methods of ensuring and allowing the participation of excluded groups in local governance. They fall under two broad categories: 1) promoting the representation of excluded groups in local government, including in leadership positions, and 2) promoting the participation of excluded groups in local meetings to discuss planning, budgeting and development ...» more
Prevalence as an Indicator for Anti-forced labour and Anti-sex Trafficking Projects
Prevalence does not seem to be currently used to measure the impact of anti-forced labour, anti-sex trafficking or other anti-slavery projects, although there is no evidence to suggest that it is not a suitable indicator. Instead, the following types of indicators have been used or suggested by experts for measuring the impact of justice interventions: changes in knowledge or ...» more
Research on Tribal Governance in Yemen
From the information that is readily and publicly available it seems that a great deal of research on tribal structures in Yemen was undertaken in the 1980s, and primarily from an ethnographic perspective. The research for this query was able to find far less recent work, especially being undertaken at an organisational level. However, there do seem to be a number of individual ...» more
M&E of Participation in Governance
There is generally very little information available on evaluating the effectiveness of the inclusive/participatory aspects of governance programmes. A particular difficulty is that there is a limited understanding of what improvements in governance actually look like. Nevertheless, some common principles identified in the literature include the need for both quantitative and ...» more
Policy Transfers and Learning
Actors involved in the policy transfer process can include governments officials, civil servants, pressure groups, policy entrepreneurs and experts, transnational corporations, international, regional and non-governmental organisations, think-thanks, and consultants. Approaches to policy transfer include ‘lesson-drawing’; ‘policy band-wagoning’; ‘emulation’; ‘harmonisation’; ...» more
Election-related Conflict
Election-related conflict or violence can occur at any stage of the electoral process – from pre-election registration, candidate nomination and campaigning to election day balloting to post-election results. Although election-related conflict is an under-researched area, there is a small body of literature that addresses its potential causes and methods of prevention and ...» more
Climate Change and State Fragility
There is very little literature available that explicitly discusses the interplay between climate change and state fragility. The general assumption is that the social and economic impacts of climate change are likely to generate demands which they will be unable to meet and may be overwhelmed by. In fact, increased demand for adaptation and mitigation activities may divert ...» more
Demand Driven Technical Assistance
The most common demand-driven technical assistance (TA) mechanism discussed in the literature is the Capacity Building Grant (CBG) or Capacity Building Fund (CBF) - a form of discretionary budget support which gives local authorities the flexibility to determine, finance, and manage training and technical assistance according to their needs. This assistance has thus far ...» more
Poverty Reduction Actors in the MENA Region
Development actors in the MENA region have been the subject of scholarly attention for some years. This report prioritises literature from 2000 onwards. Much of the recent literature seems to focus on the role of Islamic organisations. Many analysts highlight the large number of these that are already operational in many countries of the region, mostly providing services to ...» more
Electoral Assistance Lessons
Since the 1990s, there has been a movement away from viewing elections and electoral assistance as one-off events, towards viewing them as an integral component of democratic transition and governance. Much of the literature notes that whilst electoral assistance has generally been successful in establishing and promoting the technical aspects of elections, such technical ...» more
The Hawala System
The Hawala system is an informal funds transfer system with a vast gobal reach, most prevalent in South Asia, the Middle East, and some parts of Africa. The increase in immigration levels in recent years, and consequently, migrant worker remittances to developing countries, has resulted in a resurgence of Hawala. Hawala systems remain popular because they provide financial ...» more
Women in Business in the Pacific Islands
There is a dearth of data and statistics on women’s economic activity in the Pacific Islands. Part of the problem is that women’s economic activity has predominantly been in the informal sector or within households, and has thus been either poorly remunerated or not at all. Much of the literature stresses the need for gender-disaggregated data to allow policy-makers to factor ...» more
Social Assessment in Disaster Reconstruction
A ‘social assessment’ has broadly two functions: to assess the social impact of the disaster itself; and to analyse and manage the social consequences of reconstruction interventions. There seems to be relatively little material on the latter in post-disaster contexts. This query therefore focuses on the two related components of such an assessment.The first is meaningful ...» more
Mapping Research Programmes on Conflict and Social Cohesion
This query aimed to map long-term research programmes on the links between conflict, state fragility and social cohesion. However, there appear to be few programmes which link the three together. Most of the current work being undertaken centres either on the link between conflict and state fragility; or between conflict and social cohesion. This query focuses on the latter. ...» more
Gender Issues in the Pacific Islands
Certain gender issues cut across many Pacific Island countries. These include low levels of women’s political representation; poor working conditions; violence against women; increased risk of HIV/AIDS and STIs; declining access to customary land rights and low levels of legal literacy about rights to land and property; and culturally-enforced discrimination and inequality of ...» more
Multi-donor Funding for Elections in Fragile States
Basket funds have to date often been administered by UNDP, as was the case in Congo, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Togo. The main activities they have supported have been: technical assistance to the Electoral Management Body (EMB), voter registration, voter education, election monitoring, and support for civil society. Basket funds usually operate with a two-tiered ...» more
