Topic Guides
Aid instruments & aid effectiveness
New aid instruments, such as SWAps and budget support, have been developed to overcome the shortcomings of both projects and structural adjustment lending in supporting poverty reduction. Common to these new approaches is a focus on trying to build national ownership of poverty reduction policies, and an attempt to create a government-led partnership among aid donors and other stakeholders.
Civil service reform
Civil Service Reform (CSR) refers to interventions that affect the organisation, performance and working conditions of employees paid from central, provincial or state government budgets. This topic guide outlines the issues currently facing reform efforts and introduces the key technical aspects of CSR.
Conflict
As well as the direct impact of human rights violations on individuals, violent conflict also creates political and economic instability, weakens or destroys governance structures, disrupts development initiatives, aggravates poverty and exacerbates social problems, such as exclusion.
Drivers of change
The development community increasingly recognises that effective programmes must be grounded in an understanding of the economic, social and political factors that either drive or block change within a country. The Drivers of Change (DoC) approach has emerged within DFID as a way of applying political economy analysis to the development of donor strategy.
Fragile states
'Fragile states' is one of many terms that have been used to describe states that are weak in their institutional capacity, control of territory and ability or willingness to provide services to their people. Central questions explored in this guide are 'what do we know about fragile states?' and 'how can this knowledge be used so that the international community can best engage in fragile states?'
HIV and AIDS
The impact of HIV and AIDS in the world's poorest regions is extensive and extreme, constituting both an emergency and a chronic threat to development and governance. As the impacts of HIV and AIDS are well documented, this topic guide aims to be solution focused, providing ideas for policy and action.
Human rights
Human rights are increasingly visible in international development language, policies and programmes. Human rights, and the principles they are based on, are not only argued to improve the effectiveness of development programmes, but also a human rights framework is seen as essential for poverty reduction.
Indicators
Governance is a complex and multi-dimensional concept, and effective governance measurement raises a host of methodological and conceptual difficulties. A number of indicators for measuring governance have been produced and there is considerable debate about the merits of different approaches.
Institutional development
Institutional development is as yet not a precisely defined or thoroughly researched area. This page is intended to serve as an introduction to why institutional development matters for poverty reduction in developing countries. In addition to introducing the institutional framework and approach, it also outlines tools for diagnosis, design and evaluation of institutional development programmes.
Justice
As well as being an important aim in itself, an accessible and effective justice sector is essential for development in a number of ways. Security of property and protection of assets are vital to support the livelihoods of the poor and access to legal protection can help secure rights to engage in political processes. In addition, effective justice institutions can form part of the enabling environment for economic growth.
Measuring governance
Over recent years the international development community has increasingly acknowledged the importance of 'good governance' for development. This topic guide looks at how the quality of governance can be assessed. What constitutes a reliable and objective indicator of ‘good governance’? What operational and methodological challenges are involved in measuring governance?
Monitoring and evaluation
How can the impact of development programmes be assessed with a view to improving their efficiency and effectiveness? What particular challenges are involved in monitoring and evaluating development interventions, and how should these be addressed?
Political systems
Part of Department for International Development's strategy for “making government work for poor people” is to build political systems that provide opportunities for all, including the poor, to organise and influence state policy and practice. This has wide implications such as ensuring equal access to information, enabling strong representation for all and establishing robust accountability structures.
Pro-poor growth
There is increasing agreement that better governance is important for economic growth and that economic growth needs to be combined with social policies to maximise poverty reduction. These issues though are complex, and the links between economic growth, poverty, and inequality are widely debated.
Public financial management and accountability
PFMA encompasses government capacity to raise revenues, set spending priorities, allocate resources and to effectively manage the delivery of those resources. Effective public financial management is central to governments' ability to deliver services to their citizens and can also be a key area of civil society and citizen involvement
Security and development
The inter-relationship between security and development has grown in profile from the early 1990’s onwards, as donors and development practitioners have realised that it is impractical to consider development without taking security and conflict issues into account.
Service delivery
How can we ensure that basic services reach the poorest? What is the best way of involving service users and ensuring that providers are accountable to them? Are non-state service providers pro-poor, and how should the state engage with them? What are the particular challenges for delivering services in conflict or fragile environments? This guide provides an introduction to a few of the key recent debates for development practitioners involved in the provision of basic services, particularly health, education, water and sanitation.
Social exclusion
Social exclusion describes a situation where certain groups within a society are systematically disadvantaged because they are discriminated against. Social exclusion can be official or unofficial and can take place in a number of arenas, from the legal, health and education systems to the household and community.
Social protection
Recent research emphasises that social protection schemes are an investment in the future as they have the potential to promote growth and improve long-term poverty-reduction. Social protection includes longer-term mechanisms designed to combat chronic poverty as well as short-term interventions to reduce the impact of shocks.
Voice and accountability
Poor people are often excluded from participating in policy design and programmes that have direct impact on their lives, and central and local government institutions are often neither responsive nor accountable to the poor.
New additions
Document library
Afghanistan Local Governance Assistance Project (ALGAP) - Lessons Learned Review
West Africa's Trouble Spots and the Imperative for Peace-Building
Democratization of a Dependent State: The Case of Afghanistan
From Project to Program: Effective Programming for Security and Justice
From Violence to Voting: War and Political Participation in Uganda
Helpdesk
Multi-donor Funding for Elections in Fragile States: Please provide examples of good practice ...
Long-term Economic Planning: What formal and informal processes have been used for long-term ...
Community Participation in Disaster Rehabilitation and Recovery: Please identify literature on ...
