GSDRC newsfeed on Africa

Development Assistance, Institution-Building and Social Cohesion after Civil War: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Liberia

James Fearon, Macartan Humphreys, Jeremy M. Weinstein — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Can brief, foreign-funded efforts to build local institutions have a positive effect on governance, cooperation and well-being? This paper from the Center for Global Development reports on a project carried out by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in northern Liberia. This community-driven reconstruction (CDR) project attempted to build democratic, community-level institutions for making decisions about local public goods. The project was successful in increasing social cohesion, with some evidence that it reinforced democratic political attitudes and confidence in local decision-making. Evidence on improved material well-being was weak.

Public Sector Capacity Reform in Ethiopia: A Tale of Success in two Ministries?

Getachew Hailemariam Mengesha, Richard Common — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

How successful has Public Sector Capacity reform been in Ethiopia? This article from Public Administration and Development assesses the outcomes of the Public Sector Capacity reform in the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) and the Ministry of Education (MoE). It finds a remarkable transformation of service delivery in both organisations. The introduction of business process reengineering (BPR) brought high levels of user satisfaction and spectacular improvements in performance. However, the government will need to maintain the momentum of reform and extend it. Incentive schemes and a monitoring system could prevent regression.

Nigeria: The Political Economy of Reform - Strengthening Incentives for Economic Growth

Pat Utomi, Alex Duncan, Gareth Williams — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

How does reform take place within the constraints of political and economic processes? What has driven recent policy and institutional reforms in Nigeria, and how can Nigeria's reform process be sustained and extended? This briefing paper from the Policy Practice argues that the failure to achieve sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction in Nigeria is linked to institutional and incentive problems. Efforts are needed to strengthen incentives for economic growth and public accountability in Nigeria. All stakeholders must recognise the realities and risks to sustainable reform, as well as the long time-scale required.

Political Economy

World Bank — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

What hinders growth-supporting policy reform in Ghana, and how can these obstacles be addressed? In recent years, Ghana has experienced relative macroeconomic stability and growth. However, accelerating and sustaining growth requires significant policy change across a range of areas. This extract from the World Bank�s Country Economic Memorandum of Ghana examines the political incentives of policymakers to pursue such change. Clientelism undermines progress in pro-growth reforms. Reform should focus on: education; improving the collection of and access to government information; and ensuring that policy does not favour particular ethnic groups.

Peacebuilding in Eastern DRC: Improving EU Support for Economic Recovery

International Alert — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

How can economic activities help to address the factors that undermine sustainable peace? This report from International Alert centres on economic recovery in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Efforts are needed to promote job creation and shared income-generating opportunities, as well as to address the drivers of conflict and fragility, if long-term economic recovery is to be realised. In order to ensure that assistance contributes positively to transformational peacebuilding, donors must be prepared to bear high transaction costs, particularly in terms of staff on the ground and longer time frames.

Ethno-Religious Conflicts: Exploring the Role of Religion in Conflict Resolution

S. A. Kadayifci-Orellana — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How can the religious texts, values and beliefs used to incite conflict be harnessed to promote peace-building and reconciliation? What contributions can faith-based actors make to conflict resolution? This chapter from the SAGE Handbook of Conflict Resolution examines the ways in which religion can be used to inspire both war and peace. The revival of religiously motivated conflicts, and the increasing involvement of religious actors in resolving them, requires understanding of their dynamics.

Examining Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes: A Role for Increased Social Inclusion?

Benedicte de la Briere, Laura B. Rawlings — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Conditional Cash Transfer programmes (CCTs) provide money to poor families, contingent on specific verifiable actions such as children's school attendance or preventative health care. How successful are CCTs in addressing social inclusion and inter-generational poverty? What is their impact on social accountability relationships between beneficiaries, service providers and governments? This summary focuses on the Social Inclusion section in a World Bank paper. While CCTs hold promise, they are not a panacea against social exclusion. They should form part of comprehensive social and economic policy strategies and be applied carefully in different policy contexts.

Building a Peace Economy in Northern Uganda: Conflict-sensitive Approaches to Recovery and Growth

International Alert — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

How can policymakers create and support an effective economic recovery strategy in northern Uganda? This first issue of 'Investing in Peace' from International Alert recommends that policy-makers and implementers adopt more conflict-sensitive approaches to their efforts to contribute to the economic recovery of the region as a part of the overall peacebuilding strategy.

Power-sharing, Transitional Governments and the Role of Mediation

Katia Papagianni — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Power-sharing transitional governments are common components of peacemaking and peacebuilding efforts. They guarantee the participation of representatives of significant groups in political decisionmaking and reduce the danger that one group will become dominant. Power sharing among former enemies is difficult to manage and potentially conflict provoking. This paper from the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue argues that the international community therefore has an important role to play in assisting power-sharing governments to manage their country�s political transition. It draws on examples from Burundi, Iraq, Cambodia, Nepal and Liberia.

Institutions and Economic Performance: Implications for African Development

John M. Luiz — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How are sub-Saharan Africa�s (SSA) institutions helping or hindering economic development? This paper from the Journal of International Development explores current theories on how institutions impact economic growth in SSA. �Good� institutions could be the key to increasing the stagnant economic growth in this region. Any attempt to build �good� institutions must consider the existing impediments of poor political institutions, weak social capital and weak state capacity.

Reconciliation as a Peace-Building Process: Scope and Limits

Valerie Rosoux — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How is reconciliation understood? What is its role in peacebuilding? This chapter from the SAGE Handbook of Conflict Resolution surveys the study of reconciliation and analyses the Franco-German and South African cases. While not universally applicable models, these two examples hold lessons for both the scope and limitations of reconciliation. Reconciliation has too many ambiguities and shortcomings to serve as the key concept in peacemaking and stabilisation.

Assessing Women's Political Party Programs: Best Practices and Recommendations

National Democratic Institute for International Affairs — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

How can policymakers increase women's political participation in developing countries? The National Democratic Institute (NDI) explores this issue by analysing the progress of its women�s political participation programmes in Morocco, Indonesia, Serbia, and Nepal. While there is a definite increase in women�s participation, there has not been a corresponding increase in the number of female political leaders. Future programming must focus on preparing women to take on these leadership roles.

Promising Approaches to Address the Needs of Poor Female Farmers

Agnes Quisumbing and Lauren Pandolfelli — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

What are the key strategies for closing the gender gap in agricultural production? This paper from the International Food Policy Research Institute reviews attempts to increase poor female farmers� access to, and control of, productive resources in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Consideration of the literature of the past decade indicates that while promising new approaches to meeting the needs of female farmers are emerging, few have been rigorously evaluated. Future interventions need to consider, among other factors: interactions among resource inputs; the trade-offs between practical and strategic gender needs; and the culture and context specificity of gender roles.

Identity and Peace: Reconfiguring Conflict Resolution in Africa

Gerard Hagg and Peter Kagwanja — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

What kind of conflict resolution approaches can effectively address intra-state wars based on identity? Liberal peace models were designed to deal with inter-state conflicts, and when applied to inter-ethnic conflicts bring limited success and often disastrous results. This article from the African Journal on Conflict Resolution argues that identities should be seen as key assets in building sustainable peace, justice and reconciliation. Regional peace and security mechanisms and traditional justice approaches should be used and international justice mechanisms approached with caution.

Oil, Arms Proliferation and Conflict in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

Victor Ojakorotu, Ufo Okeke-Uzodike — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT

What fuels the present-day oil violence in the Niger Delta? This paper from the African Journal on Conflict Resolution analyses the main sources of conflict, in particular a thriving small arms trade. Weapons smuggled through Guinea-Bissau, Gabon and Cameroon continue to supply ethnic militias. While addressing arms trafficking through border control can reduce the escalation of conflict, a key issue is inequity in Nigerian federalism. Adequate representation of minority interests needs to be addressed as an integral part of the project to create a true democracy, good governance, an enhanced position for ethnic minorities and transparent fiscal control.

Exhuming Trends in Ethnic Conflict and Cooperation in Africa: Some Selected States

Jude Cocodia — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Why are certain parts of Africa characterised by ethnic conflict while other parts Why are certain parts of Africa characterised by ethnic conflict while other parts remain relatively calm? This paper from the African Journal on Conflict Resolution, argues that equity, justice, literacy levels and external threats are key factors which determine the likelihood of conflict. Case studies of both conflict and cooperation situations are examined - from Tanzania, Botswana, South Africa, Uganda and Côte d'Ivoire.

Violent Conflicts and their Termination

Susanne Buckley-Zistel — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

How can the termination of a conflict lead to a more sustainable peace? This book chapter, published by Palgrave/Macmillan, examines how different methods of violent conflict termination relate to prospects for long-term social change. Settlement, resolution and transformation differ significantly with regard to their understanding of the causes and nature of violent conflict. At the same time, the three different methods each involve assumptions about external conflict resolution, the effect on participants and wider impacts.

Following the Money: Do Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys Matter?

Geir Sundet — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Expenditure tracking, or �follow the money�, has become a byword in development circles for interventions that look into whether the money gets to where it is supposed to be going. The best known �follow the money� initiative is the Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) methodology that was developed in Uganda in the 1990s. The Uganda PETS found that 80% of the funds intended for primary schools were diverted on the way. This large �leakage� was subsequently cut to only 20%, an improvement that was attributed to a public information campaign that was initiated after the publication of the first PETS. This U4 Issues Paper reviews the evidence concerning the efficacy of expenditure tracking, recommending closer attention to the political context.

Water and Conflict: Making Water Delivery Conflict-Sensitive in Uganda

CECORE, REDROC, Saferworld, and YODEO — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

How can conflict-sensitive approaches (CSA) enhance development? This report from Saferworld documents how two water development projects in Uganda became more conflict-sensitive and, as a result, benefited recipient communities. CSA can deepen beneficiary participation and community ownership of development projects. More practical work is needed on implementing CSA within different sectors, and on understanding how best to adapt conflict-sensitive development to different levels and types of conflict.

Civil Society and Reconciliation in Southern Africa

Christopher J. Colvin — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

How has the concept of reconciliation been understood in Southern Africa? How have government policy and civil society initiatives supported reconciliation? This article from Development in Practice presents findings from the Southern African Reconciliation Project (SARP). This collaborative investigation into reconciliation activities involved five NGOs in Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Sustainable and effective reconciliation initiatives require the strengths of both formal and informal processes.