Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) first gained control of territory in 2011 when it took advantage of political chaos; it once again managed to take control of territory following the current civil war, which began in early 2015. AQAP’s aim is to create a number of smaller emirates, which will eventually link to form a caliphate when they deem the time is right. AQAP ...» more
UK Department for International Development (DFID)
The GSDRC has provided research services to DFID since 2001, initially serving governance advisers, and gradually expanding to also cover social development, conflict, and humanitarian issues. The following GSDRC publications were commissioned by DFID.
Flexibility in funding mechanisms to respond to shocks
In order to better and more rapidly respond to shocks such as sudden onset disasters, there have been increasing efforts to build flexibility into humanitarian or development funding arrangements, as current emergency responses are often slow to arrive and/or unresponsive to forecasts of disasters (Start Network, 2017; Rüth et al, 2017, p. 2). This rapid reviews looks at ...» more
Improving gender outcomes for regional trade programmes
Global trade and regional integration have gender-specific outcomes: in developing countries and specifically in South Asia, women do not have the same access as men to benefits of trade. This report reviews the gender outcomes of trade and describes policies and initiatives tackling the three main gender-based barriers to benefiting from trade: (i) sociocultural norms, (ii) ...» more
Resources on governance and inclusion
Inclusion is a prominent concept – some say “buzzword” – in current international development thinking and debates. The recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) promote inclusion – to “leave no one behind” – and place governance at the heart of achieving this. For example, SDG 16 aims to “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide ...» more
Impact of lifting economic sanctions on poverty and growth
This rapid review synthesises findings from rigorous academic, practitioner, and policy references, focusing on recent and seminal works with the aim of highlighting the impact of lifting sanctions on poverty and economic development. There is a further aim of helping to inform policymakers in Sudan in the event of sanctions being fully lifted. Therefore, an analysis of the ...» more