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Home»Literature Reviews

Literature Reviews

These rapid literature reviews aim to orient policymakers to key debates, evidence and emerging issues. They provide more in-depth analysis than Helpdesk Reports, and usually draw on between 15-25 days of desk-based research. They are peer reviewed by external experts.

Security and justice evidence mapping

Literature Review
  • Shivit Bakrania
September 2015

This report identifies empirical evidence on the outcomes of security and justice (S&J) interventions, and provides a visual overview of its findings in an evidence gap map. The evidence gaps appear where outputs and outcomes are less tangible and more difficult to operationalise and measure. The evidence is scarce for a number of justice-specific output and outcome ...» more

Social protection, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction

Literature Review
  • Evie Browne
October 2014

This rapid literature review presents and synthesises the conceptual underpinnings and evidence on the relationship between social protection, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Social protection instruments have been shown to be effective mechanisms for coping with shocks. The recent growth of social protection systems has shown that having systems in ...» more

Gender in fragile and conflict-affected situations

Literature Review
  • Evie Browne; Huma Haider; Freyja Oddsdóttir; Brigitte Rohwerder; Anna Louise Strachan
April 2014

This rapid literature review, in annotated bibliography format, collates a large amount of literature published in 2013 and 2014 (up to April 2014) on the topic of gender in fragile and conflict-affected situations. It is not a systematic or exhaustive review, but does provide a comprehensive overview of the literature available. It includes all types of available written ...» more

Libya: border security and regional cooperation

Literature Review
  • Shivit Bakrania
January 2014

This rapid literature review examines security-related developments that determine Libya’s relationships with its neighbours – Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Niger, Sudan and Tunisia. The report also looks at the incentives for neighbouring countries to maintain or develop regional relationships or cross-border mechanisms with Libya and the main challenges in implementing them. It also ...» more

Lessons from implementing peace agreements: what next for Colombia?

Literature Review
  • Siân Herbert
November 2013

Conflict in Colombia has deep roots, with over 50 years of armed conflict between state and non-state armed forces, more than 220,000 people estimated dead, and five million internally displaced people (ICG, 2013). Since the 1980s, there have been many formal and informal peace negotiations between the state and the different non-state armed groups. But no agreement to date has ...» more

Key actors mapping: Somalia

Literature Review
  • Evie Browne; Jonathan Fisher
November 2013

This report provides an overview of power-holders in Somalia. It finds that power is heavily concentrated in individuals rather than formal institutions. Though Somalia now features a nascent central government as well as regional polities and one secessionist government, government institutions are not the sole or even primary locus of power. Most power continues to reside in ...» more

Islamic radicalisation in North and West Africa: drivers and approaches to tackle radicalisation

Literature Review
  • Róisín Hinds
October 2013

This paper synthesises literature on Islamic radicalisation in North and West Africa, with a particular focus on the drivers of radicalisation and evidence on approaches that have attempted to tackle radicalisation. There is significant debate in the academic literature concerning the definition of ‘radicalisation’. For the purposes of this report, the definition of Islamic ...» more

The dynamics of social movements in fragile and conflict-affected states

Literature Review
  • Lucy Earle
August 2011

This literature review assesses the available academic and policy-oriented literature on social movements in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. It examines who becomes involved in collective action and why, the barriers to mobilisation and, where social movements do emerge, how these are able to sustain mobilisation and broaden their membership base to reflect the ...» more

Political and social analysis for development policy and practice: An overview of five approaches

Literature Review
  • Huma Haider; Sumedh Rao
September 2010

Political economy (PE) analysis is concerned with the interaction of political and economic processes in a society: the distribution of power and wealth between different groups and individuals, and the processes that create, sustain and transform these relationships over time. PE analysis elucidates how power and resources are distributed and contested in different ...» more

Youth, armed violence and job creation programmes

Literature Review
  • Oliver Walton
September 2010

In response to growing evidence from the social science literature about the links between youth unemployment and armed conflict, donors have increasingly used youth job creation programmes as a tool with which to address armed violence. Many donors now identify addressing youth unemployment as an urgent priority, both in the field of peacebuilding and in efforts to foster ...» more

Assessing the evidence of the impact of governance on development outcomes and poverty reduction

Literature Review
  • Lucy Earle; Zoe Scott
March 2010

This paper synthesises academic and donor research on the impact of governance work on poverty reduction and development outcomes. There is a large body of work on the critical importance of good governance in developing countries which argues that good governance has both intrinsic and instrumental developmental value. The introduction charts the historical emergence of ‘the ...» more

The impact of the financial crisis on conflict and state fragility in sub-saharan Africa

Literature Review
  • Shiv Bakrania; Brian Lucas
July 2009

Sub-Saharan Africa was largely insulated from the initial stages of the financial crisis as the majority of the countries in the region are de-linked from the international financial markets. However, with the worsening of the global financial and economic crisis, the region as a whole has now been exposed to the downturn, and growth estimates have been continually lowered from ...» more

Southern perspectives on technical cooperation

Literature Review
  • Zoe Scott
July 2009

Technical assistance and technical cooperation (hereafter referred to as TC) are forms of foreign aid, where expertise is provided to developing countries in the form of personnel, training, research, and associated costs. Typically, it is associated with the placing of consultants in positions where they can advise and support counterparts in developing countries. The ...» more

Political settlements

Literature Review
  • Jonathan Di John; James Putzel
June 2009

Why do similar sets of formal institutions often have such divergent outcomes? An analysis of political settlements goes some way to answering this question by bringing into focus the contending interests that exist within any state, which constrain and facilitate institutional and developmental change. It provides a framework to analyse how the state is linked to society and ...» more

Quantitative and qualitative methods in impact evaluation and measuring results

Literature Review
  • Sabine Garbarino; Jeremy Holland
March 2009

There has been a renewed interest in impact evaluation in recent years amongst development agencies and donors. Additional attention was drawn to the issue recently by a Center for Global Development (CGD) report calling for more rigorous impact evaluations, where ‘rigorous’ was taken to mean studies which tackle the selection bias aspect of the attribution problem. This ...» more

State capacity and non-state service provision in fragile and conflict-affected states

Literature Review
  • Richard Batley; Claire Mcloughlin
February 2009

How can governments effectively engage with non-state providers (NSPs) of basic services where capacity is weak? This paper examines whether and how fragile and conflict affected states can co-ordinate, finance, and set and apply standards for the provision of basic services by NSPs. It explores ways of incrementally engaging the state, beginning with activities that are least ...» more

Increased religiosity among women in muslim majority countries

Literature Review
  • Sarah Ladbury; Seema Khan
November 2008

It has hitherto been assumed, at least by western development practitioners, that women's rights are best attained through secularist liberal interpretations of equality, of the sort reflected in conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Yet what does increasing use of the veil and greater religious observances ...» more

Literature review on state-building

Literature Review
  • Zoe Scott
May 2007

This literature review, prepared by Zoe Scott for the UK Department for International Development, provides a comprehensive synthesis of theories, concepts, critiques, and case analyses related to state-building. Drawing on interdisciplinary sources—spanning development studies, international relations, political science, economics, and security studies—the review highlights ...» more

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