This report offers a survey of lessons learned and guidance for reforming governance and improving service delivery in environments similar to that of Sierra Leone. It is important to note what this ‘environment’ is: Sierra Leone is one of the 44 countries classified as ‘fragile states’ under the OECD DAC’s definition. The DAC characterises fragile states as countries which ...» more
Political Economy of Sierra Leone
Key findings: Political economy 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 (Collinson, 2003). Despite a large body of research on the Sierra Leone Civil War there is ...» more
Social Protection and Access to Education
Financial barriers can greatly limit access to education for the poor. The key financial burdens of schooling are direct costs (school fees), indirect costs (uniforms, stationary, other learning materials and transportation) and opportunity costs (time for household tasks and foregone wage labour). Macro-level barriers in situations of conflict and fragility (lack of ...» more
Participatory M&E and Beneficiary Feedback
A number of key lessons emerge from the literature on participatory monitoring and evaluation (PM&E) and beneficiary feedback: PM&E and beneficiary feedback approaches can improve effectiveness and sustainability and reduce the costs of monitoring, but these approaches also carry risks. These include generating unrepresentative results and increasing tensions ...» more
Political and social analysis for development policy and practice: An overview of five approaches
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
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
NGOs in the Palestinian Territories
From the small number of evaluations available, there is evidence to suggest that Palestinian NGOs have been effective in providing services and contributing to a variety of social, rural and private-sector development goals. Although smaller, locally-oriented organisations tended to be more effective at reaching the most marginalised groups and were deemed to be more ...» more
Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment
There is no standard definition of women’s economic empowerment and the term is often used loosely. From the literature reviewed for this report, it would appear that the majority of efforts to measure women’s economic empowerment programmes focus primarily on quantitative outcomes - such as increased access to credit or increased revenue - even where the stated objectives ...» more
Political Economy of Cash Transfers
Cash transfers are a form of social assistance in which money or cash-like instruments (e.g. vouchers) are distributed to vulnerable individuals or households. They can vary in targeting (eligibility requirements, such as age, poverty, and disability) or conditionality (specific actions required to receive payment, such as requiring children to attend school or a health ...» more
Development and Conflict Prevention in Nigeria
Although donors have increasingly utilised development as a tool for conflict prevention (CP), there has been little systematic reflection on the specific contribution made by development interventions in this area. This report reviews current research on development and conflict prevention, with a particular focus on Nigeria. It also examines research that has undertaken a ...» more
Financing and Cost-effectiveness of Cash Transfer Schemes
There is widespread agreement in the literature that cash transfers are effective in achieving a range of development objectives and that fears of creating dependency or enabling misuse of funds by recipients are groundless. While there are many impact evaluations of cash transfer programmes, there is very little hard data on cost-effectiveness, particularly compared with ...» more
Empowerment, Choice and Agency
Empowerment has been understood and operationalised in a variety of ways. There are over 30 definitions of ‘empowerment’ in current use amongst development scholars and organisations, with a similar tendency for ‘agency’. While some organisations leave the term undefined, other organisations lack a clear centralised definition, with different departments interpreting ...» more
Review of Justice Sector Support in Afghanistan
There have been extensive efforts to support the justice sector in Afghanistan with different donors specialising in different areas. While some have argued that through such specialisation donors have produced positive outcomes others argue that efforts have been piecemeal and devoid of an overall strategy. Support has been donor-driven rather than locally-owned, has focused ...» more
Conflict Prevention and Local Engagement
Conflict prevention refers to approaches to avoid, minimise, and/or contain potential violent conflicts, and to prevent violent conflict from re-emerging. Engagement with local actors such as civil society, politicians, and community groups can have an important positive impact on conflict prevention, both in situations that have not yet experienced violent conflict and in ...» more
Critique of Governance Assessment Applications
Governance assessments are based on subjective indicators (or measures), objective indicators or a combination of the two, known as composite indicators. Composite indicators are the most popular and are used by international organisations, donors, investors and the media (Arndt, 2008). Of these the most popular seems to be the World Bank’s World Governance Indicators (WGIs). ...» more
Evaluation of Governance Programme Indicators
Literature on performance indicators for governance programmes is sparse, and disparate in nature. In general such literature criticises the approach of applying quantitative indicators to governance programmes, or criticises the confusion of which aspects to monitor. The main weakness in the literature is a clear understanding of the relationship between governance projects ...» more
Land and Property Rights Interventions
The literature here provides a guide to existing concerns and approaches to the promotion of pro-poor outcomes through land and property rights. Generally, there is increasing emphasis on both the impacts upon women and the need for interventions to be designed and implemented with gender sensitivity. There is also a strong emphasis on the need to locate land and property ...» more
Truth Commissions
Political backing is integral to the success of a truth commission. It is often presumed that national governments that have themselves established truth commissions (either by presidential decree or through legislation) will be supportive of them. This, however, has not always been the case. Where political will is absent, the work and impact of the commission is frequently ...» more
Impact of ‘Resource Curse’ Mitigation
Initiatives to address the resource curse vary in the harms they address and in whether they operate at a national or trans-national level. They include attempts to: reduce corruption through the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI); counteract the ‘Dutch Disease’ using Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs); curb funding sources for militia through the Kimberly Process ...» more
Rule of Law Approaches
There is no universal definition for the term 'rule of law' or a common approach toward rule of law. There are, however, some universal key distinctions and principles.A key distinction that is generally accepted is between ‘rule by law’ and ‘rule of law’: Under rule by law, law is an instrument of government and government is considered above the law; Under rule of law, ...» more
