Key findings: Community peacebuilding initiatives have been developed in several conflict-affected countries. In fragile and (post)conflict-affected settings, community-led processes to peacebuilding can complement state structures and institutions that are often weak in capacity or political will.Most community peacebuilding initiatives in South Asia are relatively new. As ...» more
Women’s Participation in Elections in Afghanistan
This review attempts to synthesise the available literature addressing women’s election participation in Afghanistan, spanning a period of 6 years. Press coverage around the recent presidential elections in Afghanistan emphasised the low turnout of women voters, the perceived lack of security at voting stations, and election fraud. However, things are clearly changing in ...» more
Community Empowerment Outcomes – South Asia
Key findings: The vast majority of the literature focuses on the empowerment of women in the community. Of these, some evaluate the contribution of the underlying activity (e.g. micro-finance) in promoting empowerment outcomes, rather than assessing the outcomes of empowerment programmes, more generally. Nonetheless, outcome findings do overlap for both and there is value in ...» more
Climate Change, Empowerment and Accountability
This helpdesk research looks at how climate change policies and programmes (particularly for adaptation) can best respond to the needs of the most vulnerable. The general consensus appears to be that this requires a combination of greater investment in community-based adaptation, more decentralised planning and stronger mechanisms to link community-level decision-making with ...» more
Global Drivers of Conflict and Instability
The security-development discourse combines a concern with poverty and economic growth with that of national, regional and global security. It incorporates country-level analyses within a broader framework of transnational issues that impact on conflict dynamics. Issues of poverty and inequality reflect power relations framed by international forces. It is generally thought ...» more
Donor Experience Working with Traditional and Religious Institutions
Donor experience with traditional and religious institutions is poorly documented. Donors generally seem reluctant to engage directly with religious institutions, with the notable exception of USAID. Where donors do work with traditional and religious institutions this tends to be through local or international NGOs. When working on women’s issues in an Islamic context this is ...» more
Political Economy and Governance in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
This report is based on some of the recent literature on governance and political economy in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It should be read in conjunction with the helpdesk research report on ‘New Literature on Conflict in the DRC’, which includes a section on political issues. The report outlines the following key governance and political economy issues discussed in ...» more
Development Assistance and Social Capital
Most studies on social capital examine the impact of social capital variables on particular development outcomes. There are few studies that provide evidence of the impact of development assistance on social capital, and even less that focus specifically on Sudan and more widely on Central and East Africa. A common theme among the available studies from the regions is the ...» more
Gender Equality in Fragile States
To date, the debate on state fragility has failed to take into account gender dimensions; and policy-makers have often ignored issues of gender in state-building approaches and interventions. The vast majority of the literature on gender and state-building is critical of donor approaches and interventions. Gender is typically seen as a luxury that should be left aside until the ...» more
Staff Retention in African Public Service
This helpdesk report identifies lessons learned on retaining staff in the public service in Africa, with a focus on external auditing (Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) and Offices of the Auditor General (OAG)). However, because documented experience from these institutions is scarce, it also includes literature on internal auditing in public bodies as well as experience from ...» more
Evidence for the Supporting Investment Climate in FCASs
The investment climate is the set of factors that shape firms’ incentives to invest. Relevant factors include regulations, laws, infrastructure, and levels of corruption. This report assesses the evidence of low levels of investment in fragile and conflict-affected states (FCASs). It then examines the evidence of a link between an improved investment climate (IC) and economic ...» more
Access to Economic Opportunities and Changes in Power Relations
The range of interventions relevant to this question is extremely broad, and this review therefore presents a limited number of examples in the following areas: microfinance, cash transfers, technology and skills development, labour market interventions, and land and inheritance rights. Research into the impacts of interventions aimed at increasing access to economic ...» more
Monitoring and Evaluating Civil Service Performance
There continues to be debate as to how best to monitor and evaluate civil service performance. This debate relates to what to measure, the best indicators to use, whether such a framework is appropriate and how best to implement a chosen framework. ...» more
New Literature on Conflict in the DRC
This report provides an overview of some of the recent academic, policy and practitioner literature on conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It focuses on literature produced since mid-2007, when the DFID Strategic Conflict Assessment was published. It is also limited to an assessment of the English language literature. The report highlights a number of key ...» more
Role of Aid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Aid has played a significant and complex role in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPt). Total foreign aid stood at $2.6 billion in 2008, which represented a 1,350 per cent increase on 1993 levels. The literature focuses on the following areas:the role of aid in fostering developmentthe complex political effects of humanitarian aidthe impact of aid on the peace process and ...» more
Impact of Anti-Trafficking Programmes
Across all types of anti-trafficking programmes the evidence of impact is limited. A large number of studies highlight the paucity of data on trafficking, which many argue makes it difficult to conduct evaluations of anti-trafficking programmes. The absence of baseline data on levels of trafficking, and the failure to interview victims or survivors are particular problems. ...» more
Development Finance Institutions and Development Outcomes
Evidence about the development impacts of DFIs is limited. DFIs carry out evaluations of their investments, but these are generally limited to examining direct outputs and economic impacts; comprehensive evaluation of impacts is complicated and expensive, and is very rarely undertaken. DFIs argue that financial performance and development outcomes go hand-in-hand, as ...» more
Private Investment Constraints in the Poorest Countries
The private sector in the poorest countries faces many constraints of which poor access to affordable capital is one. It is not the case that there is no access to capital for many entrepreneurs in the poorest countries. Rather the cost of borrowing may be too high, the institutional environment may make formal borrowing seem onerous or potential borrowers may be unaware of the ...» more
Trust Funds to Pay Security Forces Salaries
While there is much literature on aid modalities, including MDTFs; and on police reform – there is little that discusses the use of trust funds to pay security forces salaries. This helpdesk research report focuses primarily on the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan (LOTFA), which is profiled most frequently in the literature that does address this area.LOTFA was set up ...» more
Local Government Capacity and Leadership in Fragile Areas
There are a range of tools and methods available to measure, assess and monitor local governance, based on assessment by citizens (single stakeholders), by local government institutions, or by multiple stakeholders. In terms of specifically assessing capacity there are tools which produce capacity assessments for the purposes of Capacity Development (CD). For example ...» more
